Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Students Blogs -> Expressio Unius

Law Students

: Expressio Unius

Another Strange Endorsement

By wt

We heard about Whoopi's weird endorsement here.

Now British Nobel Laureate Dorris Lessing is apparently coming out in favor of Hillary Clinton, because she's less likely to be assassinated than Obama.

Obama, who is vying to become the first black president in US history, "would certainly not last long, a black man in the position of president. They would murder him," Lessing, 88, told the Dagens Nyheter daily.

Lessing, who won the 2007 Nobel Literature Prize, said it might be better if Obama's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton were to succeed in her bid to become the first woman president of the United States.

"The best thing would be if they (Clinton and Obama) were to run together. Hillary is a very sharp lady. It might be calmer if she were to win, and not Obama," she said.

A couple points.

First, we should NEVER base our votes on which candidate is more likely to be assassinated if they win. That kind of backing down to fear is the epitome of letting terrorists win (an actual concept, by the way, before it was mocked out of existence in the last few years).

Second, the candidates aren't idiots. They know that the Presidency carries risks, and they assume those risks. As hard as it would be on the nation to overcome the death of a President, we would. We wouldn't elect Stephen Douglas in 1860 or Nixon in 1960 just to spare the pain of a presidential assassination.

Full post as published by Expressio Unius on February 10, 2008 (boomark / email).