Tomorrow night, 24 states, including California and New York, will hold what is effectively a national primary and choose the next president of the United States.
I will be voting in the Democratic primary. My choice is Hillary Clinton.
For me, the choice is clear. When Hillary first ran for the U.S. Senate in 2000, I was on her winning team and did a campaign commercial for her that won a national competition. I supported her re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2006 which she won easily.
I am supporting her now.
When I ran for mayor of New York City in 1977, one of my most important endorsements came from the New York Post. My opponent, Mario Cuomo, later governor of New York, was endorsed by The New York times. I bragged after the election, when I had won, that I did not get my job through The New York Times.
In the current Democratic primary, the New York Post has endorsed Barack Obama. The comments cited in their endorsement of Obama are the very reasons I am voting for Hillary.
On Jan. 31, 2008, the New York Post editorial stated, "Now, Obama is not without flaws. For all his charisma and his eloquence, the rookie senator sorely lacks seasoning. And on national security, his worldview is beyond naïve — blithely unaware that America must defend itself against those sworn to destroy the nation. Meanwhile, Obama’s all-things-to-all-people approach to complex domestic issues also arouses scant confidence. ‘Change!’ for the sake of change does not a credible campaign platform make."
The New York Times editorial of Jan. 25, 2008, in support of Hillary stated, "It is unfair, especially after seven years of Mr. Bush’s inept leadership, but any Democrat will face tougher questioning about his or her fitness to be commander in chief.
"Mrs. Clinton has more than cleared that bar, using her years in the Senate well to immerse herself in national security issues, and has won the respect of world leaders and many in the American military. She would be a strong commander in chief . . . Her ideas, her comeback in New Hampshire and strong showing in Nevada, her new openness to explaining herself and not just her programs, and her abiding, powerful intellect show she is fully capable of doing just that. She is the best choice for the Democratic Party as it tries to regain the White House."
I have no doubt that Hillary's number one domestic priority will be achieving universal mandatory healthcare for all Americans. I believe she will achieve her goal.
Even though I won’t be voting in the Republican primary, I — like all Americans — have an interest in whom the Republican candidate should be, since he might win. I believe the best of the Republican candidates is John McCain. He is a person of integrity and a bona fide war hero. I hope the Republicans select him as their candidate.
The primary election campaigning up until recently, quite frankly, has been boring. But that is no longer the case.
Within the last several weeks and, as a result of the recent debates, the campaigning in both parties has become exciting, especially now that a major event is about to take place — Super Tuesday. A number of states, California in particular, are hotly contested, with the outcome uncertain. Tomorrow night is one night you want to be in viewing distance of a television set.
There is no greater right and obligation of citizenship than that to be exercised tomorrow — the right to vote. Those who stay home and choose not to exercise that right are fools.
Flip-flopping is not be encouraged. Yet, on occasion, it surely makes sense to change one’s mind, not only in personal matters, but also in public matters.
When I was mayor, I declined to provide the New York Giants, who in 1987 won the Super Bowl, with a ticker-tape parade from Bowling Green at the tip of Manhattan up Broadway to City Hall. My reason was that they were no longer a New York sports team, having left New York where they played their home games at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx for the Meadowlands in New Jersey which provided them with a new stadium they could call their very own.
So, this year, when asked before the recent game with the New England Patriots should the current mayor in the event of a Giants’ victory, provide a ticker-tape parade, I replied no. I said to an inquiring New York Times reporter, Clyde Haberman, "I have never recognized the claim of the Giants to the prefix "New York." Our parades are reserved for the real thing, which they are not."
The Giants won in what everyone is calling a spectacular game and which Mike Lupica of the Daily News described as "the best Super Bowl of them all." So, what am I to do? Continue to play the grinch? Absolutely not.
The New York Giants — now entitled to the prefix "New York" because of the heart they showed when the ending seemed clear and not in their favor, turned the game around and achieved their unexpected enormous victory. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, in advance of the game, according to Clyde Haberman, said, "As far as I’m concerned, they’re the Jersey Giants."
He is dead wrong. New Yorkers are winners. The Giants have earned the right to call themselves The New York Giants. Let the parade begin.
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