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• Friday, May 9, 2008 05:55 AM

  Explain this to me:

  They're not racists at heart. They have black friends, Chelsea would be allowed to date one, etc. etc. etc. Fine.

  But either they're too stupid to realize that they're using racist language, or they're deliberately trying to use racist language to get their supporters to vote against Barack Obama. And if that works, there's absolutely no reason to believe that those racist voters won't continue the pattern by voting for John McCain.

  I don't believe the Clintons are stupid. But that they're willing to use the racism of thousands in pursuit of personal political power means that it doesn't matter if they're racist at heart.

  They're racist in action. And that's unforgivable. It only makes it worse if they've fought against racism in the past, because that means that they really should - and do! - know better.

  I don't like to write about this topic, because invariably some Hillary supporters scream about Obama playing the race card. But Obama didn't start this identity politics BS, and Hillary has been playing both the gender and race cards to the hilt. The real issue to me is Hillary's policies: her support for the Iraq war, the PATRIOT Act, the bankruptcy bill, the Iran "terrorist" vote...on all of those critical votes she stood with George W. Bush, with the Republican Party, and against the Democrats - not to mention the interests and well-being of the American people. But I've never been able to get a Hillary supporter to respond to those points yet, apart from claiming that those were all well-meaning votes.

  Well-meaning?!? I still can't get over that.

  We don't need someone who makes terrible votes and excuses themselves by saying they meant well. We need someone who will make the right policy choices on Day One.

  —Peter Maranci Read Peter Maranci's other letters
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