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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
Hillary is dead politically.
Why does it not surprise me that Obama's young punk squad was trying to shout down another candidate at a major Democratic dinner? No wonder these thugish tactics work at caucuses.
And now she must reap the whirlwind. Neocon Bush/Cheney enabler Clinton can expect no mercy for her backing of the Iraq invasion and occupation and the infamously misnamed Patriot Act. I voted for Bill Clinton in '92 and '96, expecting him to pursue a Democratic agenda, then watched in dismay as he promoted the WTO and NAFTA at the expense of the American people. Hillary Clinton now has established an equally bad or worse reputation as a DINO, Democrat-In-Name-Only. We need leaders who will openly repudiate the immoral and destructive policies of Bush/Cheney. Barack Obama seems to be doing that.
Hillary's speech was actually much better than Obama's - it looks to me like you didn't listen to the whole thing. Much of it, like Obama's, was "stump speech" material - but not all of it. Parts of it were uplifting and different from her stump speech. Obama's was all stump speech, taking the low road against Hillary. There is such an anti-Hillary sentiment among liberals that I think it affects our ability to see clearly and judge without prejudice. Please don't add to the problems we see on MSNBC, Dailykos, TPM, etc. Let's at least try to evaluate our candidates fairly. Talk about real differences - don't make things up.
I drove for two hours yesterday to Bangor with my sister and daughter to see Barack speak in Maine. I figured it would be interesting to see a candidate speak, when Maine is typically forgotten. We made the mistake of getting there about an hour before the doors opened to the Bangor Auditorium, as the population of the city had increased by a third for his speech. We waited in the longest line I had ever seen in my life for almost two hours. We met some wonderful people, many younger and surprisingly many quite a bit older.
After all of that waiting, we were only a few hundred feet from the auditorium when we were told that the main room had filled to capacity as well as the overflow room. Just when we were ready to turn back, we were told that Barack would speak to us outside, and would do so FIRST.
So imagine a scene like the stump speeches only read about in books, people jostling on snowbanks, climbing fences, trees, even each other in the calm cold that was Maine yesterday to hear and see Barack, for only a few minutes. And did he deliver. There was excitement, there was hope, and there were specifics. Talk of new ways to use our old industrial centers, dead and forgotten by the establishment. Talk of help with college tuition. Talk of thinking about our children and grandchildren first.
He then spent time talking to and shaking hands with the crowd before going in. I could not believe this was happening. No crowd control, no checking of bags, Barack in a potentially dangerous setting with no way for Secret Service to cover him. And he did it without hesitation.
Anyone who will do this in a state with a population likely to vote for Hillary, a tiny, white, poor, lost in the back woods near Canada population, and for those foolish enough to show up "late", is someone who clearly gives a damn. He was comfortable with a chaotic situation, worked it to his advantage on the fly, and did it with grace and aplomb.
Hillary speaks of worries about Barack being a likable guy, same as George Bush. She's right, and also dead wrong. Likable they both can be, yes. But George Bush is the man who drinks you under the table, then drives you all home and thusly off a cliff. Barack is the guy you follow into battle, ready to do what needs to be done to save a country in danger.
This life-long Independent is ready to sign on to the Democratic party, participate in today's caucus, and follow this leader all the way to November and beyond. I exhort everyone else here to consider the same.
@MusicRowDem: Yeah, how dare those young people express their joy in seeing their candidate win! I mean, all of those 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 and 60 year old whippersnappers getting excited as the results came in and they were doing better than expected.
Why, them and their rock and roll music! Those crazy punks with their internet tubes and cell phones. Why, in my day, we were told what candidates to vote for, and we *liked* it that way! We certainly didn't try to shake up the status quo by marching for things like "civil rights" or "stop the war" or that "New Deal" fangled nonsense!
Heh! Young punks of all ages actually thinking that they can change the world by financing their own candidate instead of just taking the lobbyist picks and favorites. Poppycock, I tell you!
HRC's problems are fairly easy to define at this time and they're not going away, now or in the general election. First, many Dems, like myself, voted for Bill twice and felt burned by the lack of progress on what we see as democratic platform issues.
Bill was a moderate president, period. No major movement in either direction overall. That's not say that he (or Hillary) might not have wanted to do more, that's to say that it didn't happen. Personally, I think that Bill's weaknesses as a person contributed mightily to his inability to rally the country behind important issues. Even GWB has done better at this and he has been a failure as a leader. Now why should we expect Hillary to deliver much better than her far-more-popular husband?
Secondly, Hillary is despised by a core constituency on the right that will not go away. Obama simply doesn't inspire that level of contempt. This is not becuase of Hillary's stances on issues but based on her long record of rancor with the GOP. Many democrats, like myself, simply don't relish another 4 years of bitterness and name-calling.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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