Diversity stand among Presidential Candidates

Clintons were here in Des Moines yesterday-this is the first time Bill Clinton appeared with Sen. Hillary to endorse her candidature. The rally was nothing short of a glamourous campaign - may be because of the beautiful summer evening here in Iowa. Vilsak's wife Christie had all praise for Hillary and she also made a silly remark that Hillary is going to stand-up for the people - be it against terrorists or republicans . Well .. i guess that's the way the campaigns are . I was there to see Clintons - particularly curious what all they touch upon among a variety of issues.

Introductory speakers emphasised 'women' factor in Hillary . While concluding his talk , Bill acknowledged a supporter carrying a 'Men for Hillary' poster as if to keep the men folks happy. I noticed that the term diversity was not even mentioned but some parts like 'women' were talked on. Hillary made me feel that she has a 'feel' of some important issues and some independent stand on them.

I listened to Barak Obama when he was in downtown a month ago and the style of the campaign was way different from Hillary's . Not only the fireworks at the end; people turnouts and heavy weight introductory speakers were all missing in Obama's rally. However, he delivered an intimate talk and often talked about issues in details. I guess Hillary still impresses the caucus goers in Iowa and i don't see that changing in next three months for Obama or Edwards. I would like to be proven wrong.

I was just curious to understand how candidates are dealing with the various diversity aspects : like minorities - includes, black, Asian, Hispanic, women, disabled, people with different sex orientation, immigrants . I plan to track their views going forward as

I don't think diversity is a top item in the campaign and i guess it will never be . There are other items like war, health, energy and employment. However the candidate's stand on same sex marriage, affirmative action, issues of disabled and perhaps immigration are seems to impact the campaign and the general perception of the candidate . Today I was surprised to see a news on Sen John McCain's firing half of his staff as he could not raise funds for the campaigns as expected. Report says he got into trouble with supporting the immigration bill but i feel he was already in trouble with his skeptic view on affirmative action program and same sex marriages. Supporting immigration policy need not be viewed as a diversity issue but other two are .

Democrats in general are supportive of the diversity related issues at least in records . Clinton, Edwards and Obama all strongly supports affirmative action and embryonic stem cell research.
Clinton vetoed the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and voted for adding sexual orientation to definition of hate-crimes. She favors the sexual orientation protected by law and don't think its a 'lifestyle' people chooses so supports domestic partnership supports for gay. She strongly thinks abortion is a women's right. Finally she encourages businesses to hire more women and minorities. So i guess she has lot in record to show that she is a pro-diversity .

Edwards and Obama also have the same stand on the issues and the only exception is Obama- he opposes Gay marriages saying America is not ready for it.

When you look at republican side, Guliani appears to be very diversity friendly like the front runner democrats. I guess he is already going through the trouble of being a liberal republican. Mitt Romney opposes stem cell research and gay marriages but strongly recommends diversity at work. Sexual orientation protected by law is a clear no . Fred Thompson has similar views like Romney but McCain looks slightly confused on the the diversity related stands. He would leave the same sex marriage to the states and he is OK with affirmative action for specific programs but not a quota.

I think it would be interesting to research on why the candidates have that particular stand on an issue. Diversity topics are often misunderstood and interpreted conveniently so it might be a worth an investigation.