Democratic Presidential Primary

Democrats are down to 3 candidates to become their 2016 Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley.   Any 3 of them would be better than any of the candidates that the Republicans are fielding.  As for which of the three I will vote for in the Presidential primary, I'm honestly still a bit conflicted.

Hillary Clinton seems to be the most qualified of any of the candidates (from either party) to become the next President of the United States.  She's highly educated, she has spent 8 years in the White House already (she know first hand the pressures of that office), she spent 8 years as a United States Senator, and she spent 5 years as the United States Secretary of State.  On the downside, her favorability ratings are fairly low and her ties to Wall Street are a bit concerning.  The demonization she has faced from the right over the years has been non-stop, whether criticisms of her are true or not (mostly not), they have taken a toll.

I've been a huge Bernie Sanders fan for years, I agree with him on most of the issues and I do think that we need a revolution to shake things up and get us back on the right path and that Bernie is probably the best candidate to do that.  Bernie has been campaigning for single payer healthcare, campaign finance reform, climate change legislation, sentencing reform, voting rights, drug legalization, affordable college, saving Social Security, and many other issues that I feel very strongly about.  He's also railed against income inequality, Citizens United, unfair trade deals, and the Oligarchs.  Those are all issues that today's Democrats value, Hillary Clinton seems by many to still be stuck in the 1990's.  Times change.  I could see some disaffected anti-establishment Republican voters supporting Sanders too once they hear his message and are faced with having Donald Trump as their candidate.  On the downside, there may be some concerns over how he'd handle the military and foreign policy in what has become some very dangerous times.  You also have to know that many Republicans would love to bludgeon him with the "Socialist" label.  Lastly, you have to ask how he would get any of his legislation passed in a time of such extreme partisan gridlock.

Martin O'Malley honestly would probably make the best Democratic candidate.  He's got legislative experience as Mayor of Baltimore and as Governor of Maryland.  He has a track record of success.  He passed same sex marriage legislation, gun control legislation, eliminated the death penalty and reduced crime in his time as Governor of Maryland.  He hasn't excited anyone though and he's not really someone who people would be racing out to the polling stations to vote for and that's probably too bad because he's a worthy candidate.

In summary, I will be voting for whichever of these 3 candidates is left standing come November.