Comparing Obama & Clinton on Civil Liberties

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March 14, 2008

Comparing Obama & Clinton on Civil Liberties

Mona, formerly of Unqualified Offerings and now blogging at The Art of the Possible, makes a little hay over the "Obama and Clinton are practically the same anyhow" bit of CW floating around:

"This is not so. On restoring decency, respect for the rule of law, and basic civil liberties such as warrants when spying on Americans, and explicit rejection of torture, Obama is far, far ahead of anything HRC has been willing to state."

And she provides a few reasons.

The Art of the Possible is a newish blog with a civil liberties/human rights focus:

"We bring together liberal and libertarian writers who agree on certain politically and morally enlightened essentials. Their discussions here serve to delineate the reasons why basic human rights must always be defended. Their disagreements, by contrast, will illustrate why forming new alliances is hard, and perhaps serve as a reminder as to why new alliances are so rare."

Mona comes to the site from the libertarian side of the fence. Having followed her during her time over at UO, and knowing that her libertarianism comes from somewhere besides the "sounds hipper and edgier than plain-old-Republican" wing of the tendency, I think it means something when she makes a distinction between a pair of Democrats. I guess we'll see how meaningful that distinction is to everyone else with a Nolan chart on the wall come November.

(Link)