Let the voting begin

Which Democrat should win the White House? On the eve of Iowa, Salon asks some favorite writers, activists and media personalities whose ticket they'll punch and why.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected since it was first published.

Compiled by Erin Renzas

Read more: Democratic Party, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Opinion, John Edwards, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd

Jan. 3, 2008 |

Gloria Steinem, author and activist

I don't think it's just Bush era despair when I say that the Democratic field is the best in my lifetime. Their heads and hearts are connected, their positions are mostly good, and they can be pressured on the ones that aren't. But Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama add something new and crucial: life experience shared with a worldwide majority that has been excluded by sex, or race, or both.

The difference is this: Hillary Clinton knows how Washington works; Kafka-style, she's had it written on her skin. Her two "firsts" in presidential history -- eight years of on-the-job training and no masculinity to prove -- allow her to both understand and change the system. In contrast, Obama is making a virtue of not knowing by running as an outsider. Jimmy Carter won that way, but the country paid a high price. We can't afford it now.

This leaves the question of electability. Clinton has an image problem from right-wing Swift boating, but any non-right-wing candidate will suffer this fate. Her Iraq mistake has been mitigated by her sincere condemning of the war. The notion that she's cold or calculating dissolves in her warm and spontaneous presence.

In other words, she can govern. It's up to us to elect her. So I'm for eight years of President Clinton -- with Obama as ally in the Senate -- and then eight years of President Obama. After all, it will take that long to clean up this mess. Meanwhile, the world will get a bonus: Bill Clinton as Eleanor Roosevelt.

David Talbot, founder and former editor in chief of Salon, author of "Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years."

I support Barack Obama for president. I knew it starting last summer when Obama and Hillary Clinton sparred over whether the next president should talk directly with enemy leaders. Obama said he would, leading Hillary to call him "naive" and "irresponsible." The truth is that a President Hillary Clinton probably would engage in diplomacy with rogue states like Iran, as her foreign policy advisors quickly rushed to explain in the ensuing fracas. But the fact that Hillary, once again, tried to have it both ways, at first playing to Washington's permanent war lobby and then tacking left to appease the peace-hungry Democratic base, brought it all home for me.

After eight years of imperial havoc in Washington, we desperately need a decisive leader who will move boldly to redefine America's role in the world. Obama has the potential to be such a transformative leader. Hillary Clinton, steeped in the ways of calculation and triangulation, does not inspire the same confidence. (Nor does John Edwards -- a man who only found his political courage when he had nothing to lose.) To be frank, there is little that inspires in Hillary Clinton, with her cautious and prosaic style of leadership. We need to be lifted to a higher place, if we hope to restore American democracy. Barack Obama has the capacity -- the poetry in his soul -- to do that.

James Denton, actor, "Desperate Housewives"

Why John Edwards? That's a complicated question. Especially for a Southern Baptist, card-carrying NRA member from the rural South. Like so many Americans, I am simply fed up. Fed up with our government's seeming disregard for the environment and the economically challenged. Fed up with our debilitating dependence on foreign oil. Fed up with the Republican Party (with whom I voted most of my life prior to this administration) preaching that it is the party of the moral high ground when its leadership proves otherwise.

I believe John Edwards. I've sat next to him and heard his passion. I've felt his commitment to those issues that are important to me -- like overhauling the healthcare system that forces many Americans into bankruptcy and hobbles our economy. Making college available to all American students who are willing to work. Changing the way Washington works -- curbing the influence of corporate lobbyists on national policy. And he espouses a theory that is seemingly unheard of -- ending our dependence on foreign oil and protecting the environment at the same time. Concentrating on renewable energy sources with his New Energy Economy Fund -- creating thousands of jobs through a dedication to developing the business of powering our country with renewables like ethanol, biodiesel, wind and solar power. He is the only candidate who flatly refuses the continuation of funding nuclear power or coal-based fuel programs.

None of these ideas are free -- or even cheap. But John Edwards has been honest enough to admit that and offer economical solutions that may be superficially unpopular. I like that he has the guts to ask Americans to sacrifice.

I have heard a recurring call to action from John Edwards in the last two years. A statement that has driven me to do all that I can to help him get elected. A statement that calls all Americans to take control of the direction of this country: "It is time for Americans to be patriotic about something other than war."

Richard Schiff, actor, "The West Wing"

This year, my wife and I encouraged the family to come out to Los Angeles for Christmas. There were a lot of them -- the Kelley clan, my in-laws, converged from Tennessee, Alaska, Western Pennsylvania, from all over. So when they heard I was going away, they wanted to know what was so important. I told them I was going to Iowa to work for Joe Biden, and their reaction was surprising. "Wow, I really love that guy," they said, "but can he get elected?" I said to them, "Don't the voters decide who is electable? If you like him then help him win."

Over Christmas dinner we got to talking about my trip out to Iowa. We talked a lot about Joe Biden and why I am supporting him. I told them I thought Joe Biden was the smartest, that he has led a distinguished career in the Senate, is a friend of labor, has the only plan to deal with Iraq and troubled spots in the world, and has developed important and binding relationships with the leaders of other countries as well as colleagues across the aisle who can help cut through the gridlock in Washington. But most important, that he tells the truth. By the end of dinner, every single family member around the table had committed to not only voting for, but actively working for Joe Biden.

The Schiff-Kelley Christmas in Los Angeles is a lot like caucus night in Iowa. You talk about your vote. And you don't care who has the most money or who gets the endorsement of the New York Times. You care about who is going to start solving our problems from their first day in office and won't need three years to get up to speed.

For us, it's clear there's only one candidate ready to lead from the day he sets foot in office -- and that's Joe Biden.

Gloria Feldt, author

Forget the Republicans; one's scarier than the next. The Democratic lineup is the exact opposite.

Barack Obama is inspiring. My lifelong work for social justice sprang from the civil rights movement; Obama's candidacy affirms that dream. I'll support him enthusiastically if he's the nominee.

John Edwards channels my late father who told me, "Somebody has to look out for the little guy." Edwards skewered Bush's judicial nominees while many Senate Democrats mutely allowed the federal judiciary to become an ideological swamp. I'll support him enthusiastically if he's the nominee.

I could support any of the Democrats running. I will take this unique opportunity to support Hillary Clinton. She's first among equals in overall qualifications. Her candidacy elicits the same goose bumps as Obama's. But a woman candidate is even more revolutionary.

Racism and sexism are always joined at the head. Yet on the winding road to equality, women walk several paces behind men. Thurgood Marshall sat on the Supreme Court decades before Sandra O'Connor, and African-American men held seats in Congress generations before women had the vote.

Clinton's efforts for the little guy and gal have been lifelong and hands-on. No one disputes her brilliance or indefatigable work. Her passionate declaration that "Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights," is balm the world needs right now.

I wouldn't support, say, Phyllis Schlafly, and I don't support Hillary simply because she's a woman, but I sure am glad she is. It's past time for this historic leap toward equality and justice.

Next page: "You could choose the person who, against all odds, advanced the progressive agenda through every means at his disposal"