Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Joan, I want to thank you for your praise of Hillary Clinton's speech, and I'm probably to the Barack supporters what the PUMAs are to the Hillary supporters. I would add to what you've written here that those who have criticized the speech have looked at it as if a speech were a checklist. The speech's growing chorus of critics enumerate all the points she could have made on behalf of Obama but didn't. However, one of the great rhetorical flaws of Democratic speech making in the past is that too often the speeches were written as if they were laundry lists. Effective rhetoric should be focused on a single point, a theme, an argument's controlling idea. Indeed the greatness of Hillary's speech last night was its thematic unity. Rather than listing umteen different reasons why her supporters should work for Obama's election, she developed fully the single most important reason--that if you care about the invisible Americans who inspired my campaign, you will work to elect our party's nominee. And she argued that point fully and powerfully. That's exactly what she needed to say and no more.
I can understand Hillary Clinton's tepid support up to this point. It's excusable for her to brood for two months when you come as close as she did to a nomination she wanted all her life and get that much support. She's only human (contrary to what others may think). Also, this was just a speech. If she stumps for Barack in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and helps him with older women and white working class voters, fine. Then she has actually done something. We'll See. I owuld submit that its her husband Bill who needs to step up. Damning with faint praise is the BEST thing you can say about his attitude towards Obama, and he is needed in this race, particularly in the South. And spare me the "last two term winner" stuff. No Ross Perot in 1992, no Bill as President. Like Obama, he ran a great campaign but also got lucky. Bill needs to get on board. And I don't think he can. He sabotaged his wife's campaign too. I think he has lost it.
Hillary had spoken as well during the primaries as she did last night, I might have been more inclined to vote for her. I have never really enjoyed her speeches until last night and it will indeed be the speech to trump all speeches this campaign season.
That being said, the message is correct. Nobody can afford to throw away a vote in this election. And a vote for McCain is tantamount to a criminal action, IMHO. Democrats must ALL be democrats and vote for the party candidate this year. And the candidate must run the smartest, fiercest campaign possible from here until election day.
As the primary unfolded, watching what happened to Clinton was the greatest lesson for me.
She had to "vote for" the war given her position both as the first woman candidate, and as a sitting senator from the state of NY given the information Bush "provided" and later was found to have manipulated.
It was Obama's opening, and he took it--effectively biting the hand that fed him, and appealing to a new, still idealistic generation. That connected his wheels to the road, and once the consensus formed there was no stopping it even given the skills of the Clintons.
Every Tom, Dick, and Harriet, has complaints about the media, but this was egregious. The talking heads were both insidious and deceptive, playing to a crowd that was disillusioned for reasons that had nothing to do with politics, but with her husband's personal problems--so yeah, he finds it hard to accept her defeat because it was his defeat too.
No amount of reason and no sense of gratitude was going to reach the hotheads among Obama's early constituency. After all, they carried the dreams that had once belonged to the Clintons alone on the national level. It was a pitiful thing to watch, remorseless, like an animal released into the wild who doesn't know how to hunt, so they too attacked the hand that fed them--whether they knew it or not.
Will they be disillusioned too? The way their parents were when their "war" raged on and the right took over due to their own defection? Will they be as naive and self-righteous? It is after all a nation that refuses to take responsibility for itself. Will they actually manage to pull this election off now that it has begun, and the demons that lurk in the national consciousness are also released from their pens?
And if they lose will they sit back with their hands folded and say "I told you so," while yet another generation of loyal Republicans walk off with the prize? They now are the ones who have something to prove, and they don't have much time left.
It's often said that people on Salon who say they were for Hillary but don't support Obama are really Republicans.
Now I'm starting to suspect a number of supposed Obama supporters, those who with each post find new ways to insult and demean women with phrases like "put on your big girl panties," are the ones who are really working for McCain.
Before lecturing me regarding my sentiments about Obama, please take the time to read my last letter about Clinton's speech and how her words touched me.
If her speech didn't touch you, you're definitely entitled to your opinion. But if your real goal is to have the Democrats take back the White House, I beg you not to squander the sincere efforts being made toward party unity by people of good will from both camps.
That Salon assign someone to go dig up the thousands of hysterical "MY GOD SHE'S DESTROYING THE PARTY" posts from the primaries and reprint them all on one new thread.
Hillary Clinton did an outstanding job in her speech to the convention last night. It was a powerful and moving speech, highlighting her many accomplishments and forging a tone of unity for the party.
I have enormous respect for something that took a great deal of personal courage-she stood before her party after one of the most bruising primaries in memory and forcefully stated the need for unity. That took a lot of integrity for Clinton to push aside the emotional turmoil and infighting to stand up for the greater good of the party.
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"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
