Is Senator Barack Obama wiser than Senator Hillary Clinton?

In Clinton's campaign ad she raises the question of national security. Obama launches a counter-ad addressing judgement concerns. He alleges that he excercises judgement better than Clinton since he was the one that protested the Iraq war when she had voted to go to war. He says continuously that Clinton was involved in our country's current crisis by casting a vote in a 50/50 chance of getting it right. He also has admitted to smoking crack in the past. Does this mean that he makes better judgement calls than her? If we are going to weigh out someone's wisdom, then we need to think about ALL the facts, not just the conveniences. What do you think? Is having a past of smoking cocaine or having a past of voting the wrong way, on one issue, more of a sign of poor judgement?

Public Comments

1. How come Obamabots never answer policy questions? What is his current, ever changing stance on Iraq? I'm voting for McCain. I voted for Ron Paul. I know were they stand More than just Change drivel
2. They are both horrible! I don't vote for socialists! Nothing wise about either one.
3. No Senator Obama is not wiser than Senator Clinton but he is a lot Wilier. He has a mission that is not USA-centric but follows the teachings of his Church and is Africa-centric. It is not okay to discriminate against anyone based on color or creed. This is central to the freedoms enjoyed by the people of the United States. Senator Obama's rabidly AfroCentric Church and Pastor cause grave concern for thinking voters. Obama's Church By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, January 15, 2008 4:20 PM PT Election 2008: Since we first drew attention to Barack Obama's Afrocentric church a full 12 months ago, other media have weighed in. And additional disturbing information has come to light. At the core of the Democratic front-runner's faith — whether lapsed Muslim, new Christian or some mixture of the two — is African nativism, which raises political issues of its own. In 1991, when Obama joined the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, he pledged allegiance to something called the Black Value System, which is a code of non-Biblical ethics written by blacks, for blacks. It encourages blacks to group together and separate from the larger American society by pooling their money, patronizing black-only businesses and backing black leaders. Such racial separatism is strangely at odds with the media's portrayal of Obama as a uniter who reaches across races. The code also warns blacks to avoid the white "entrapment of black middle-classness," suggesting that settling for that kind of "competitive" success will rob blacks of their African identity and keep them "captive" to white culture. In short, Obama's "unashamedly black" church preaches the politics of black nationalism. And its dashiki-wearing preacher — who married Obama and his wife and now acts as his personal spiritual adviser — is militantly Afrocentric. "We are an African people," the Rev. Jeremiah Wright reminds his flock, "and remain true to our native land, the mother continent." Wright once traveled to Libya with black supremacist Louis Farrakhan to meet with terrorist leader Muammar Qaddafi. Last year at a Chicago gala, Wright honored his old pal Farrakhan, who's fond of calling whites "blue-eyed devils," for lifetime achievement. It comes as little surprise then that Wright would think Israel a "racist" occupier of Palestinians, while describing the 9/11 attacks as a "wake-up call" to "white America" for ignoring the concerns of "people of color." Wright makes the Rev. Jesse Jackson look almost moderate and patriotic. Yet this is whom Obama picked to baptize his daughters, plus to act as his "sounding board" during his presidential run. The candidate already has heeded his church's "nonnegotiable commitment to Africa," spending an inordinate amount of his campaign time on the Kenyan crisis, for one. Obama has close family ties to Kenya, and even founded a school in his ancestral village — the Senator Obama School. In the bloody conflict there, which already has claimed some 700 lives, Obama appears to have sided with opposition leader Raila Odinga, head of the same Luo tribe to which Obama's late Muslim father belonged. Obama's older brother still lives there. Abongo "Roy" Obama is a Luo activist and a militant Muslim who argues that the black man must "liberate himself from the poisoning influences of European culture." He urges his younger brother to embrace his African heritage. Beyond family politics, these ties have potential foreign policy, even national security, implications. Odinga is a Marxist who reportedly has made a pact with a hard-line Islamic group in Kenya to establish Shariah courts throughout the country. He has also vowed to ban booze and pork and impose Muslim dress codes on women — moves favored by Obama's brother. With al-Qaida strengthening its beachheads in Africa — from Algeria to Sudan to Somalia — the last thing the West needs is for pro-Western Kenya to fall into the hands of Islamic extremists. Yet Obama interrupted his New Hampshire campaigning to speak by phone with Odinga, who claims to be his cousin. He did not speak with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki. Would Obama put African tribal or family interests ahead of U.S. interests? It's a valid question, and one voters deserve to have debated regardless of the racial and religious sensitivities. Thanks to a media blackout of these issues, the electorate has yet to benefit from a thorough vetting of Obama. We have to wonder how much of the national agenda Africa would consume under an Obama administration. Of the six "world threats" Obama lists in stump speeches, at least half of them concern that chronically troubled Third World continent. Yes, some of his African priorities are noble, such as fighting AIDS and genocide. But how much U.S. aid, resources and presidential time would he devote to them? How much is enough? If Bill Clinton was America's "first black president," would Barack Hussein Obama be our first president for Africa? Then there is the issue of his Muslim past. Obama, 47, was raised by two Muslim fathers and attended Islamic classes in Indonesia. He denies being Muslim, however, and says he "embraced Christ" while answering the altar call 20 years ago at Trinity. (Contrary to anonymous e-mail rumors circulating, Obama never took the oath of office on the Quran. He used a Bible, and Vice President Dick Cheney swore him in during his Senate ceremony.) This merely raises another concern, beyond that of the controversial church he chose to baptize him. If Obama were ever Muslim, even as a youth, he would now be viewed as an apostate, which in radical Islam is punishable by death. As Mideast expert Daniel Pipes has noted, a President Obama could be the target of a fatwah. Still, his Muslim heritage is not the signal issue before the electorate. It's his Afrocentric church, which preaches black socialism and black nativism, and his family ties to an African tribe that's fanning the flames of Marxism and militant Islam in a country once considered strongly democratic and a friend of the U.S. "I believe in the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change," Obama has asserted. He also says his faith has led him to question "the idolatry of the free market." If a President Obama's foreign and domestic policies are anything like the Afrocentric doctrine he's pledged to uphold, Americans will pay a hefty price, including those among the growing black middle class.
4. Yes hes way smarter. In fact most of those chosen presidents had a past of useing drugs. Look at Bill, he was useing drugs at the time of being president. Obma at least was in High School. The others were not even young when they did drugs. Its all about race, you cut off your nose to spite your face.
5. Obama is the one with poor judgment. The man is unoriginal, racist, and unpatriotic
6. I think Obama is wiser on most things and will make us a good president,we have been there with the Clinton's and got no were,we are still waiting on the health care thing that they promised when Bill ran 100 days we see health care package.Lie after lie and she is pulling the same thing.
7. Right now they are in the middle of campaigning where speeches and 'sound bites' are coming from both sides. I have no doubt that Senators Clinton and Obama are both very intelligent people. I know of no one that has not looked back and felt that at one time they made the wrong choice. The secret is knowing this and not acting like you have never made a mistake in your life........................
8. "Yes hes way smarter" "Much smarter" But i would have to say Hillary. Wisdom comes with age I myself know how much less wise I was 10 years ago.
9. I'm a Republican. However, I think Hilary Clinton is wiser than Barrack Obama. He just started getting involved into politics a few years ago. Hilary Clinton, (being the former Bill Clinton's wife) knows more about politics and is more experienced. But I would pick McCain over anyone, any day.
10. One question proves this: Who originally supported the war in Iraq-right! This does prove the judgement factor and why Obama can beat McCain.
11. Oe of the three wise men was black, but it wasn't obama
12. Having smoked cocaine and deciding to do something better with his life is a sign of good judgement. It's a sign of learning from your mistakes. If Hillary had acknowledged early on that her vote was a mistake, then she could argue that she learned from her past experiences. Not admitting she was wrong simply supported the argument that she lacks judgement. Someone with good judgement will use the experiences of their past and their observations of other people's failures to help them make better decisions. It is clear that Hillary can't even use her own experiences to guide her in making better decisions. One more thing..just because I saw someone else's response. It is naive to think that wisedom comes purely with age and experience. I know a lot of old men AND woman who clearly are not wise and haven't gained any wisedom in the past 15 years. Even the truly wise know that. Wisdom is the simplification of acquired knowledge and knowing what to do with it.
13. Obama is smarter by far and therefor, he is wiser. He stood alone against the war and that was wise to most people.