So I have been dismayed and disappointed in the recent clashes between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  I was angered that someone in the Hillary  camp attempted to bring up the past drug use by Barack Obama as a reason not to vote for him and implying that it would make him unelectable.  It was surprising to me in view of the controversy in the past about Bill Clinton’s one time use of marijuana.  Barack Obama had even talked about his  history in his book so it was no secret and he talked about his life changes. 

Shortly after, people in Obama’s camp accused Hillary of denigrating the accomplishments of Martin Luther King when she talked about Lyndon Johnson passing the civil rights bill. I think it was clear that that was not her intention, and that they were looking for a reason to jump on Hillary Clinton. 

These kind of “squabbles” are what causes many young people and other voters to become apathetic. At least three people told me that they thought that this  race was going to be different and that they were going to participate this year, but that they were now having doubts based on the above two incidents.  They said they were feeling apathetic.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are both highly intelligent qualified people. They  don’t need to use personal attacks to win voters. These attacks will only reduce participation, which can only hurt the democracy that this  country stands for.

I was glad to hear and see Clinton and Obama both decide to go back  to the issues and stop the personal attacks.  People need to vote  for the person they think will be the best candidate based on their stands on issues and not based on rumors, assumptions and slander.