Letters to the Editor
-
The Two Hillarys
If Clinton is the nominee, the GOP won't need to "say" she stole the nomination, the facts will bear that out. For the process to make any sense at all, there are really only two reasons for a candidate to stay in the process: If there's still a mathematical way for the candidate to win, or if there are platforms or issues that the candidate wants in the discussion. Hillary's only options here are some kind of hijacking of the process, OR an interest in so damaging Obama (and so well arming McCain) that she gets a do-over in 2012.
Our bigger problem, if she does succeed in somehow twisting the will of the Democratic primary voters, is that the *real* "buyers remorse" that will come into play will be when people find out that Hillary "the Candidate" bears little resemblance to Hillary "the legislator." What her "experience" *does* show us is that she is a vindictive, conniving and divisive leader with longer enemies and friends lists than Nixon -- witness the pathetic attacks on Bill Richardson this past weekend, or the idiotic "actions/experience over words" argument she's been making (and the press, including Salon.com, has been buying!) even though the essence of any campaign, INCLUDING HILLARY'S, is always, and only, about promises and proposals. The "actions" come once a person is actually holding the office and empowered to work within the system to make things happen.
For me, this *isn't* about worrying about a return to her husbands personal excesses in the 1990s ... its about Hillary's own track record when it comes to the rights and needs of the working class. In my book, a decade of shilling for the likes of Sam Walton (Walmart) and several decades of privileged back room corporate lawyering don't make a statesperson capable (or truly interested) in solving the issues of the chasm that now exists between the haves and have-nots in this country. Clinton can *talk* all she wants about health care and the working class ... but she remains, in fact, the single largest recipient of insurance and pharmacutical company graft, and one of the biggest NAFTA supporters in the Senate. All politicians lie, but she takes it to a new level and art.
I began the primary season "knowing" that I'd be working for and voting for *whoever* rose to the top of the field ... and, frankly, I expected it to be Clinton. But while I have been inspired and energized by Obama through the process, I have also become revolted by the desperation, dishonesty and selfishness demonstrated by Clinton ... so much so that I truly don't know how I could ever consider voting for her.