Archive for April, 2008

This post is directed to my fellow Democrats who are supporters of Hillary. It is meant to be taken with the utmost respect that we no doubt have for one another. Not even a year ago we were all giddy with excitement over the prospect of literally walking away with the White House this year because no one, not one person, is as universally disliked as President George W. Bush. Well, with the possible exception of Dick Cheney. But whether you want to compare failure between of the two of them is a moot point; they embodied the Republican Party and that meant that any Democrat who could draw breath would win in 2008.

Now here we are, a mere month and change away from the Democratic National Convention, and we still have two candidates for the Democratic ticket. And we’re destroying one another with words and invective over who should be that candidate. But it’s more to the point to say that it’s beginning to appear that one candidate is willing to sacrifice the 2008 White House if they don’t get the nomination. Now before I go on, stop and ask yourself who I could be referring to. And be honest. My previous posts aside, I’ve alluded to no particular candidate right now, only that they should probably accept reality and bow out gracefully.

My friends, Hillary Clinton is running a scorched earth candidacy. There is no other explanation.

Her campaign is now spouting off about how they are ahead in the popular vote when they clearly are not.

“I’m very proud that as of today, I have received more votes by the people who have voted than anyone else,” Clinton said Wednesday, one day after her decisive win in Pennsylvania.

Not so fast, says Obama’s campaign. Clinton’s count includes her wins in Michigan and Florida, but the Democratic presidential candidates agreed not to campaign in those states because they violated party rules by scheduling their contests too early.

Obama didn’t even have his name on the Michigan ballot, so he received no votes from that contest.

“We think that, in the end, if we end up having won twice as many states and having the most votes, then we should be the nominee,” Obama said.

If Michigan and Florida are counted, Clinton is ahead by 100,000 votes — 15.1 million to Obama’s 15 million. Without those states, Obama has a 500,000 vote lead, 14.4 million to 13.9 million.

People, seriously, please end this. Only under the most perfect of circumstances will Hillary come out on top of the vote that matters: delegates. Obama is going to win and there’s next to nothing that will change that. What frightens me more are the Hillary supporters — Democrats — who state they’d rather vote for McCain when Obama faces him in November. Have you lost your fucking minds? If a meteor hit Obama and Clinton goes on to the general election, I’m not going to let my animosity towards her sway my vote to the idiot column and it baffles me why any left-minded person would even consider that.

Oh, another thing: Can we please put a moratorium on this “racist/sexist” bullshit? I’m not supporting Obama because I’m afraid of being called racist. I’m not supporting Hillary, but that isn’t because I’m secretly misogynistic. I’m supporting Obama because he represents a true change in approach. Hillary does not. McCain does not. They both represent all that is currently wrong with the Washington game in my eyes. Barack seems to carry with him a genuine want of American unity. Hillary, whether you like it not, carries with her a rather extensive itemized list of polarizing issues.

It is as though Hillary is running one of two courses:

1. She is honestly of the belief that she will win this endorsement by act of God in which case she’s not participating in reality, or,
2. She is betting on the superdelegates going against the will of the American people who have, officially, made it clear they want Obama over Clinton and is no better than Bush having the Supreme Court vote him into office, or,
3. She knows full well that Obama is going to win and is staying in the race to thoroughly beat him up and team him apart so that John McCain can win and she can run in 2012.

The question that many of you should be asking yourselves: Is all this really worth it?

Sorry I’ve taken so long to post. My mind has been caught up in watching the Democratic Primary from the sidelines but desperately trying to ignore the ugliness of it all. I’m finding myself listening to NPR more so that I can avoid the Shock Radio circuit. I mean, really, when two Democratic candidates share as much in common as Obama and Clinton, there’s no other way such a close contest can go except personal attacks. But my bottom line is this: I like Obama, I think he stands a much better chance against McCain than Clinton does, and if Clinton gets the nomination over what appears to be the will of the people who make up the party then the Democratic Party is in much more trouble than was perceived. But then again, perhaps a good shake-up is just what the doctor ordered.

When you look back at the 2008 election season, at least for the Democrats, you can’t help but get the feeling that our time could’ve been spent more wisely in having these candidates debate the issues and not having to answer bullshit questions over and over again. I don’t care that Obama’s ex-preacher is an angry black man because there is absolutely no indication that Obama is one. I don’t care that Hillary lied about her now infamous landing in Bosnia to make her look more “battle-hardened”. (A politician would lie about such things? The hell you say!) What I do care about are how both of these candidates are planning to solve our economic problems, the mortgage crisis, the war in Iraq, our infrastructure problems, our disaster management issues, etc. In short, we need to talk about the things that matter to people.

I think that’s why I’ve taken a back seat to the whole thing. No one seems to want to talk about the problems; they’d rather to argue about the clothes on the cast of characters.