Letters to the Editor
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I support Hillary Clinton
I support Hillary because of her experience, her views on the issues, and to see the look on the face of all those Republicans when "That Man" is back in the White House.
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If she's the candidate, I'll support her...as she loses.
The Republican Party and the rabid right want Clinton as the candidate. They've got drawers full of attack ads they've been preparing for the last few years, including words like "lesbian" and "baby murderer" and "supporter of an adulterer." There's one guy using a pseudonym here, kind of like an insect name, who is just slobbering over the possibility of attacking a Clinton again.
One of her greatest problems is her inability to address her problems. Her turnabout and sellout to Big Pharma and Big Medicine, as documented in Sicko, is a concern. But she dodges and ducks any such questions.
In fact, if Al Gore were to run again, he would leave all the other candidates in the dust. If he doesn't, we can look forward to an unprecedented third term of George Bush in the White House. Of course it's against the law. When did that ever matter to Bush?
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Clinton-Gore '96 In '08!
Screw Hillary...Bill for prez in '08! Bush already gutted the Constitution--why not?
(I'm about 50% kidding)
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A Hard Laugh
In the political feeding frenzy, it's a sign of intelligence and confidence for a candidate to accept their true assets, rather than reject, or act coy about them.
The Clintons' don't "dumb down" the audience in the usual way, and it's good to see an appreciation for that. This is the first I've heard of the "Husband's for Hillary," rubric, and have to admit I'm impressed. It's a laugh, and if you've been there, it's a hard laugh.
Mr. Scherer doesn't fully understand what he is seeing, and hearing, but he gets close, and given the coverage of Hillary seen so far, it's a breath of fresh air. (Hardly a hint of the sarcasm that has dominated liberal blogs and pundits so far.)
Next is more of what women of her generation have to say about her--not professional women in the media whose hands are tied, or those who eschew recognition of themselves in anybody else--but women standing on their own two feet, who accept that about themselves whether a man is present or not, and are done playing victim.
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I support Hillary too
I support Hillary because of all the work she has done on behalf of children in the areas of health and education (it's a very long list), as well as her work on behalf of women all over the world (Vital Voices) and here at home. I live in NY and know, firsthand, how hard Hillary fought to salvage all that money for HIV/AIDS victims in my state. She has also made a huge difference in the lives of those who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath of 9/11 and who became very ill as a result - she helped to procure millions of dollars in federal funding for these people (sorry Rudy, but Hillary's a 9/11 hero far more than you are).
Hillary has also put forth an Economic Reform Plan and a Government Reform Plan and if she is elected, I believe she will turn around most of the damage that has been inflicted on our country by Bush and his administration.
A Clinton/Obama ticket would be great. And the rightwing smear machine is irrelevant. Hillary knows how to survive it and throw a few solid blows herself.
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I like Hillary...
but not for President. For the past 8 years, this country has suffered because it elected a president based on family ties. People allowed themselves to be spun to, they swallowed the fiction of George Bush, Jr, electing a guy looking for a job that would make him his dad's equal. We've paid the price for it, a lot of parents and loved ones who are now survivors of dead soldiers have paid a price for it.
Now we are presented with another fairy tale. Bill and Hillary are out to woo us into nostalgia: "remember the good old days of the Clinton White House? Weren't things grand? We can reexperience the era by electing the wife to the most powerful political job on the planet. Like Dubya, she has absorbed the required experience by proximity. Bill will act more like a consiglieri, a presidential coach--he'll tell her everything she needs to know."
This is folly--mass hysteria--that a nation so advanced would again, this time on the left, convince itself that these skills run in the family. After Hillary, do we recruit the children of Clinton or Bush? Chelsea, Jenna, or Barbara. Have we turned this country into a kingdom for which we can only entertain royals for leadership?
Bush the father and Clinton the husband share an important trait in common: both of them put in long years in government before they took office. And it wasn't easy for either of him. We can't clone them, nor reproduce the time of their tenure in office. And any psychiatrist would tell you that these skills are transferable and that it's downright stupid to expect a duplicate presidency.
Hillary has just done her first incredibly stupid thing by using her husband to mesmerize potential supporters. Not even Dubya trotted out his dad to shore him up. It reveals a tragic, shocking weakness and self-doubt to use Bill in this way and proves that she is not qualified for this job.
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I'm in Iowa...
...and it amazes me to no end the way the national press has all but elected Clinton/Obama as the Democratic ticket at this early stage. #1: John Edwards is leading in both Iowa and New Hampshire (and has been leading consistently for quite some time). #2: Other candidates, including possibly Gore???, have not yet thrown their hats in the ring.
This is an exciting election, no doubt, but I hope that the press doesn't ruin it for those of us in the majority who are supporting candidates other than those they've decided would make the best story.
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An outsiders perspective
I'm an Australian and here on the North Coast of NSW we are celebrating July 4th, Independence from American Day. It's more of a hope than a reality - as in the last few years we have seen the signing of a Free Trade Agreement with the US that many Australians were opposed to, and Australian participation in the Iraq war that millions upon millions of Australians came out to protest against in unprecedented numbers. Still, of course, our Prime Minister kowtowed to your President and we're there.
I remember when Bill was president - people liked America. I don't have stats for that, but I remember the feeling in the air. And not just here in Australia. Elsewhere I lived during his presidency - in India and the UK, and travelling in Europe, I and my friends, my 'demographic' really, felt good about the USA and friendly towards it. My husband worked in an American firm in London and even though we found 'you' strange in some ways - incredibly hardworking and serious about doing so, amazingly obsessed with shopping - it was overall a good fit. There was a tonne of respect.
Fast forward - no one I know speaks of America with anything but contempt bordering on fear. I was in New Orleans on business a few months before Katrina and I was dumbstruck and frightened by the poverty I saw there. Yet when I tried to tell my American colleagues about it - that yes in fact it WAS on a par with what I had seen in India and other parts of the third world - they didn't want to hear it. Well, who would?
America these days has an image of an Imperialist, out of control, barely legal state. It was scary enough when Bush stole the election, but things have spiralled so badly down from there.
I KNOW none of this is the fault of anyone I know. I KNOW all of this horrifies fellow Salon readers much more than it does me, becuase you LIVE there.
What I have to say though is this: if Hillary Clinton were to win the Presidency I think internationally it would win America an enormous second chance. Unlike any other incumbent, who would have so much repair work to do before they could even start going forward, she would be given a free pass on a lot of things, both because so many of us around the world already 'know' her, and because of Bill.
If the 'Rest of World' as we're so nicely named in US marketing terms matters a jot, then Hillary for President is the one to go for.