Letters to the Editor
soisam
Published Letters: 19
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Progressive Bias
[Read the article: Making sense of Super Tuesday]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've stopped listening to progressive radio and reading many left leaning blogs because many progressives have apparently decided that you can't be a progressive unless you support Obama. Can't help noticing that Move-On has given me the finger of late... So I'm sending my money to Hillary Clinton now and after that to every organization I can find that is targeting Republicans instead of cannibalizing their own.
I am especially upset about the charges that the Clintons had "played the race card." It was the Obama camp that rushed to South Carolina with four pages of talking points on race after Hillary Clinton dared to suggest that MLK needed LBJ to pass the voting rights act. (He did.) Further it was Obama who spoke of MLK and Jesse Jackson to Black audiences and told them he needed their help. Seems to me that is playing the race card and it was fair game for Bill Clinton to comment as he did.
I am supporting Clinton because I think she is the most competent person for the job at this time. I like her health care plan best and if Paul Krugman thinks her economic plan is better, that is good enough for me. I hated her war vote as much as anyone but I am absolutely certain that we would not have invaded Iraq had Clinton been President. Finally, I think Clinton can win with a coalition including the Hispanic and the Women's vote. My fear with Obama is that white men will gravitate to McCain and without a woman to vote for their wives will follow.
soisam
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Obama's surge
[Read the article: Obama's surge extends down the Potomac]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]As a Clinton supporter I am forced to agree that Obama may have too much momentum at this point to be stopped. Texas and Ohio will tell the tale, or end it for Clinton. I would point out, however, that caucus voting suppresses the vote (No way, for example, could my parents stand out in the cold for an hour in order to cast their vote for Clinton.) Caucuses favor younger and more affluent voters and those voters in this election favor Obama. Further an open primary in VA leaves in question which candidate VA Democrats actually preferred.
That said, we have two good candidates competing for the nomination. Obama supporters feel their candidate can energize the party by attracting young voters and expanding the traditional base of the party. Clinton supporters worry about experience and think that Clinton has more and is the best choice to make the necessary course corrections after eight years of criminal Republican misrule.
Can we just tone down the rhetoric please? I must agree with Krugman that there have been very few attacks on Obama so far. Joseph C. Wilson's piece is the first I've actually read. The shrill defense of Saint Obama over evil Clinton will not serve our party well in the coming months.
soisam
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Creepy Obama You Tube video
[Read the article: Why do conservatives really find the Obama campaign "scary"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Way up boys, a whimaway, a whimaway, OBAMA, OBAMA....
the lion sleeps tonight, OBAMA, OBAMA! The man's running for President not Savior.
Yes it is a creepy video!
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Obama's grandmother
[Read the article: Moving beyond Obama and race]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]People process experiences unevenly. I have an old school friend who now doesn't think "races" should intermarry, who is a loving grandmother to her bi-racial step-grandchild. I have family members who I've heard say shocking things in their later years that they never, ever would have voiced when they were younger. People pick up feelings from the environment they are raised in and even though they decide they are wrong and hate them and fight their life-time against them they still pop up from time to time. It is not surprising that Obama would have picked up these contradictions from time to time in his grandparents who loved and helped raise him. The people we love are imperfect. Even heroes have their imperfections.
When I look at the experiences of my grandchildren, I have great hope for the future of this country. They are growing up in the multi-racial, multi-cultural world that for most of my life I could only dream of. But I don't think we are there quite yet. I think for the most part people still respond to the pull of the tribe, or the team or the people who seem the most like them and share their same experiences.
The problem with Obama's victories is that they were overwhelmingly in caucus states and the caucus voters tend to be young, well-to-do and well-educated. Look at the difference in the vote between Kansas, a caucus state, and Oklahoma, a primary state, or between the Texas primary and the Texas caucus results. Or look at how close the race was in Missouri with its heavy mix of black and white voters. Obama has yet to make significant inroads with blue collar whites or the so-called "Reagan" democrats. Those people don't turn out for caucuses but they do vote in general elections. Because it looks as if Obama is going to be our candidate, I am very, very worried going into the fall election. My feeling is that the progressive community is being way too optimistic about Obama's chances of winning the Presidency.