I said it before and I’ll say it again-why in God’s name would anyone prefer Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama? We all know why she has the support of Bill, who is doing his best to remind us that we should think twice before putting them back in the White House. When asked what he thought about his wife’s utter annihilation in the South Carolina primary (by a 28 percent margin), Bill smugly retorted: “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice, in ‘84 and ‘88.” Translation: “So what if a bunch of black people voted for Obama, who is black. Jesse Jackson is black and he didn’t win the nomination. Did I mention that Obama is black?” Karl Rove would be proud. If you think all’s fair in politics, ask yourself how you would react if a Republican said this.

The “best” excuse by far, however, belongs to Ann Coulter. Yes, you heard that right, Ann Coulter is now on record as saying that she will not only support, but will also campaign for Hillary-if McCain wins the nomination that is. She insists she isn’t joking.

Coulter’s frustration aside, the likely primary victory of John McCain does give us many reasons to celebrate. Were he to win, we could all go to sleep at night knowing that the next president of the United States would shun torture and tackle global warming. There would be no poisonous xenophobia during the presidential campaign. And I must say that I’m savoring the schadenfreude at watching the apoplectic fits of rage of far right-wingers like Rush Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin. Indeed, McCain’s unpopularity with the Republican base could be a big problem for him in November. That is, unless there was something to unite the Republicans, some common enemy whom they hate even more than McCain. I think you see where I’m going with this.

Make no mistake: there’s no better fuel for the right wing noise machine than a Hillary Clinton nomination. As their Clinton hatred is rekindled, conservatives will quickly forget how angry they are at “Juan” McCain, as CNN’s resident blowhard Glenn Beck likes to call him (because McCain isn’t hostile to immigrants).

Come to think of it, no one seems to like Hillary very much, as Gallup polls consistently show that nearly 50 percent of voters view her unfavorably. Compare this with Obama’s recent unfavorable rating of 32 percent (this is that same 32 percent who still think George W. Bush is a good president).

Conservatives, meanwhile, can’t decide whether they admire or fear Barack Obama. Rod Dreher, a columnist at the Dallas Morning News, recently lamented, “If I were a Republican, I’d be very, very afraid. Oh wait, I am a Republican. Dang. Lord have mercy, I wish that man were a conservative.” They know that a McCain/Obama match up doesn’t bode well for the GOP. When voters compare Obama’s consistent, principled opposition to the deeply unpopular Iraq war with McCain’s notorious pledge to stay there for another hundred years, their choice will be easy. Clinton, on the other hand, can only offer the lame excuse that she voted for the war authorization because she didn’t think Bush would use it. But with any luck, Mitt Romney will somehow win the nomination, in which case you can forget about electability and just support Obama because he’ll be a better president.

You’d be in good company. Prominent party leaders, including Senators Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Patrick Leahy and Missouri’s own Claire McCaskill are lining up for miles to offer Obama their support. Nearly every major newspaper in the country has endorsed Obama, including the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (which are all located in key Super Tuesday states). Even lifelong Republicans like Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of the former president, have been publicly singing his praises.

This kind of broad-based support and national unity will be especially crucial for the next president. Pressing problems like global warming, healthcare and mending our battered Constitution cannot be solved with a fifty percent plus one majority, of the kind we could expect from the divisive, Karl Rove-style politics of the Clintons. They require both cooperation and sacrifice, and only Obama can inspire us to do both. Hearing Obama speak passionately about breaking down the barriers that separate us has made me feel proud to be an American again.

After seven years of Bush, there’s nothing we need more than that.

Bill is a senior in Arts & Sciences. He can be reached via e-mail at william.howard.hoffman.iii@gmail.com.

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