Before 2002 and the lead-up to the Iraq war, I had an unmistakably strong admiration for Hillary Clinton and believed that she would be our first female president. Having worked in one of the poorest inner city communities in our nation for 10 years, I always looked up to her as a champion of those families, especially because of her dedication to making health care available to everyone equally. Her going to China and speaking up for women's rights was awesome, and I loved her for that. I thought the way she handled Bill's fidelity problems was just right considering the extremely difficult situation she was in.

Then came the summer and fall of 2002. By October of that year, I was so outraged at the Bush administration for so obviously using 9/11 to sound the drums for an unrelated war, that I became very aware of what if anything Democrats were doing to slow him down. It was an issue I was very passionate about. I distinctly remember listening in disbelief on NPR during the fateful Senate deliberations. When Senator Byrd spoke, reminding the Senate that he was the only one in the room who had an opportunity to vote on the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, and that he has carried the regret of that vote ever since, he made a truly heroic effort to snap his fellow Senators out of their fear of political backlash.

I had already known that by that point Hillary Clinton had signaled that she would not oppose Bush's movement toward war with Iraq, but I still remember feeling so deflated after she spoke. She was someone who was supposed to be a hero to me, and she really let me down.

Fast forward to 2007/08.

Despite my still strong feelings about how our government allowed us to get into the Iraq war, I found myself backing Edwards for the democratic nomination for 2 reasons:

1) His message was relatively simple, seemed genuine, and was one I wholly support: addressing poverty and injustice at home.

2) He had publicly apologized for his failure in judgment in the fall of 2002--My gut feeling is that he genuinely felt remorse and I believed he would act responsibly with other people's lives in his hands as CIC.

Even before he dropped out, I began the process of considering whom to support between Obama and Clinton because it became obvious that Edwards would be a long shot candidate. Incidentally, I did vote for Edwards (early/absentee) on Super Tuesday.

For me, the single strongest reason that I became an Obama supporter and contributor is my disappointment at Clinton for not ever publicly acknowledging her mistakes in the fall of 2002. It made me not trust her as much. It made me wonder if she had become just another politician--more worried about her image than about the causes she supports. I believe I am not alone in feeling alienated by her position SINCE October 2002 ABOUT her mistake.

I am not suggesting that Obama is my ideal candidate. He probably wouldn't even have been my second choice out of the entire field. But he's a good enough compromise for me, and I even though he hasn't been tested by the national spotlight for nearly as long as the Clintons, I do think he has demonstrated good judgment in general, and I believe he is genuine.

I am not expecting to change anyone's candidate preference with this diary, but what I would like to request of anyone reading this, is that before posting a comment generalizing Obama supporters as anti-feminist, or misogynist, or Hillary-hating, or some other bad thing, please think of me and know that you will hurt me by calling me those things.