Letters to the Editor
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Published Letters: 149 Editor's Choice: 4
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Right on the money
[Read the article: How Hillary Clinton botched the black vote]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This excellent analysis addresses questions that have puzzled me from January on: why is the media incessantly focussed on the reactions of blue collar white voters when the difference in the contest is clearly that Sen. Obama wins the black blue collar vote in overwhelming numbers.
Unlike their white counterparts, black working class voters are not prepared to vote against their own economic interests. Sen. Clinton's history of actions in favor of Wall Street corporate interests is well documented as is her multi-millionaire life style. Her vote in favor of the war in Iraq was another nail in the coffin with black voters, who overwhelmingly oppose that nonsensical conflict.
Schaller is correct to investigate why Clinton failed to contend with Sen. Obama for the black vote. At the margin she could easily have won 20 percent or more of the black vote in most states had she reined in her husband and her own impulses to stir up bigotry among white voters.
I know many black voters of varying economic backgrounds who were prepared to support Clinton last December. Like many of the black super delegates, we were ready to back Clinton based on history and a disinclination to back a newcomer with a flimsy chance to take the big prize.
Clinton's clumsy approach, her tone-deafness about black interests and sensitivities, and her calculated decision to paint Obama as unqualified add up to a major misstep in a campaign filled with mind-boggling mistakes. The current whispering campaign about 'electibility' is accurately read as a racist argument of the lowest order, one that is insulting to black and white voters alike.
If Clinton had chosen to take the principled high road in this campaign rather than heaving the kitchen sink at Obama, she might be coasting to the nomination this month rather than looking for a face-saving way out of the contest.
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Follow the money
[Read the article: Night lands Clinton closer to oblivion]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The biggest news of the morning is the fact that Sen. Clinton lent her campaign another 6.1 million dollars in April. That is on top of the 5 mil she lent the previous month.
After Obama's blowout win in North Carolina and the wire-thin Clinton "victory" in Indiana, her momentum is dead. No donors will throw good money after a bad campaign now. This is the effective end of the trail for Sen. Clinton. The remaining question is how she ends it. A bad ending flavored with negativity and venom would consign her to the trash heap of history. A graceful last act in which core issues are raised and Democratic party values are upheld would unite the party and launch Sen. Obama's campaign toward victory in the fall. If Sen. Clinton choses to go out this way she will be hailed as a true champion, one of the most important political leaders in our history.
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Donna Brazile is brilliant
[Read the article: The Brazile-Begala smackdown]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]She won my deep admiration last night with her empassioned, informed, and righteous put-down of the arrogant, ignorant, and ill-mannered Paul Begala. If Sen. Clinton had had the smart and practical Brazile as her campaign chief we might be getting ready to nominate a woman for president of the United States. Begals's lampooning of Obama's supporters as "egg-heads and African Americans" points to exactly where the Clinton campaign went disasterously wrong this year. If she had worked hard to win the votes of blacks, young people, and the college-educated Sen. Clinton would have won the race.
Rather than pathetically lending her campaign another 6.4 million dollars, Clinton needs to listen to the super delegates like Brazile who have the interests of the party in their minds and hearts. It is time for Hillary Clinton to go home to Chappaqua.
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Lots of good choices
[Read the article: Obama Veepstakes]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Clark and Webb would be excellent choices: Military credentials and the balls to chop the legs off the GOP attack dogs.
Gov. Kaine of Virginia would bring executive experience, Southern white man cred, and a genuine friendship with Obama.
Rendell would help with Hillary supporters, PA and Florida voters, older and blue collar voters. Plus he knows how to go on the attack when needed. Likewise for Strickland of Ohio.
Gov. Sebelius would be intriguing, but an Obama/Sebelius ticket would be too radical for many and would lose in November as a consequence.
Absolutely no way: Powell, Bayh, any Clinton.
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Yes, the pattern is clear
[Read the article: "There's a pattern emerging here"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sen. Clinton has displayed lousy judgment throughout this campaign and the pattern continues in this asinine interview. To speak in an ignorant and divisive way about race on the day after she lost overwhelmingly in North Carolina, brings to mind Bill Clinton's boneheaded dismissal of Obama's win in South Carolina as Jesse Jackson redux.
If this is the kind of desperate, illogical, and borderline racist argument she is making to the super delegates they should feel abused and insulted. Her days on the campaign trail are indeed numbered.