Letters to the Editor
-
Now is the time.....
...for the Democratic party to rise above pettiness and consider the crying needs of the country. For me, Hillary has become an emblem of the self-destructive, infighting, ineffectual side of the Democratic party: the ones who can't bring themselves to be progressive, the Republican enablers; the ones who elect politicians, wonks, and ideologues instead of public servants. This is why I feel Obama is our unmissable chance-- a well-spoken, clear-headed, unapologetic progressive could provide the leadership to get the party over itself and back to serving the common good.
If any press is good press, then the Obama/Clinton donnybrook is good. Right? (Biting my nails here.)
-
Still Annointing Obama
With all the talk, most of the media and the Obama supporters think he has won the nomination. They actually think it was over in Iowa. The Hillary supporters are portrayed as old women, racists, unintelligent. Pundits are asking if Obama should go negative. Are people blind? He has been negative from the beginning. This seems to be an exercise in keeping the media employed. But Hillary supporters know that Obama is an unknown no matter what his supporters say. He is still being protected and any small inference that he has problems is swiftly swept under the rug. But the real fact is that Hillary supporters are very strong, just like their candidate, and really believe that because of what we do know about Obama he is not qualified or electable. We know McCain, and feel that a democratic majority in congress can contain him. You will find an exodus by Hillary supporters voting for McCain--you may not believe it, but it is a fact. Of course, there will be hard feelings on all sides, but what we do know is that the probability of Hillary running from the beginning was a given. The democratic party members who wanted to stop her ran a black man (the sure way to divide the party)and got what they wanted. It is not the fault of Hillary Clinton that the party is divided but the party itself. They then disenfranchised the voters of Michigan and Florida. The party has not been loyal to great numbers of the party members, and if those members feel a divide from their party, there is only the party to blame for the division. Obama was touted as the great uniter. He will never be able to bring the party together. It is not as though the race were not close in the voice of the people, especially if Floidians are counted, so the remaining super delegates should weigh their decisions carefully.
-
The only way to win some games is not to play
Obama is talking issues and taking the high road in his campaign. Result: the media is boosting Clinton/McCain, while Obama has to do his own boosting.
Result: Obama is bringing in tens of thousands of people who have become disgusted with the way elections work in this country. And that's only the ones who show up at his events. Not to mention that his background in community organizing is showing in the effectiveness of the organizations he's set up in every state whose byproducts -- contact lists, etc. -- he has bequeathed to the local party organizations. Bill Clinton's rapid-response team was very effective compared to the Dukakis ignore-it-and-it'll-go-away approach, but Obama's is faster and more professional. And so far, i.e., against a fellow Democrat, it's been less pointed as well, but don't count on that remaining the case after the nomination.
What, you're upset because he hasn't peaked yet?
You play the media's game, you become President if they want you to. Which, if you're a Democrat, they obviously don't.
You think Hillary's willingness to go negative would help her against McCain, whom the media have already been fluffing for months? Pfuuh.
-
Some are, some aren't
Are people blind? He has been negative from the beginning.
Some people apparently are blind, but given that statement, and noting the absence of even a single example, perhaps it's not so much the Obama folks.
-
1968 all over again
I'm old enough to remember the 1968 election--a youthful, anti-war candidate, a woman on the ticket, and fighting, literally, on the Democratic convention floor. The Republicans' convention flowed smoothly and the country elected their candidate--and the war continued.
I saw this coming a year ago, this repeat of history, but I hoped somebody had learned enough to avoid it.
Today, this war is in a much more dangerous part of the world, America is much weaker and poorer, and things far worse than Watergate have already happenened in the government.
I take my greatest hope from the model of Europe, which, after its arrogant attempt at empire, settled into a lesser but still important role in the world, and managed to keep its democracy.
-
"I'm melting!! I'm melting!!!"
The democratic party members who wanted to stop her ran a black man (the sure way to divide the party)and got what they wanted. It is not the fault of Hillary Clinton that the party is divided but the party itself.
I hadn't absorbed this one the first time around. So, the Democratic Party, of which Bill and Hillary Clinton are in the leadership, has mounted a dark campaign to steal her pony? I don't work for the Obama campaign, so I don't mind going a bit negative here: have you gone off your meds?
They then disenfranchised the voters of Michigan and Florida.
"They?" OK, take a couple of nice deep breaths, and tell me what great shadowy "they" did this "disenfranchising" thing?
The DNC is a "they," I suppose, and like the RNC, sets rules for primaries, which another couple of "they's," the FL and MI legislatures, chose to ignore, thinking they could win a peeing contest with the national party.
You seem to be claiming that the FL, MI, and DNC outcomes were all the work of the same hidden, pony-stealing hand, because The Entire World Is About Hillary.
As a certain dog-licensing official once said, "you're off your chump!"
-
habeus
I, too, vividly recall 1968. I was working on precinct trivia for the Robert Kennedy campaign in the bay area, and was listening to the radio when the news of his murder came over. that gut shot is something many of us never quite got over, coming as it did so soon after we lost Martin. But Obama is not Clean Gene McCarthy, a man of great courage and conscience with no real chance to win. the parallel is with RFK. Please do not leap to the conclusion I think obama is of that caliber. Yet. Robert Kennedy was a hard and ruthless man, whose travels through the poverty stricken south (it's still there) changed his heart and his vision of life. We obviously do not know if Barack can remotely approach what RFK was becoming. But he's the only one with a shot at it. We need to make a leap of faith, not creep cautiously down the middle of the body-strewn road. The time for that tepid approach has long come and gone. It's not barricade time, but it's damned close.