Letters to the Editor
-
Dear Rebecca,
This comment thread will probably get nasty, but don't let that sway you. I'd ask you, as an Obama supporter, to read transcripts of (or better yet, watch the C-SPAN rebroadcast of) the speeches at today's UCLA rally attended by Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama. Oprah's speech really spoke to your conflict and laid out the argument much better than I ever could, that you should vote for Barack because he is brilliant. You're NOT disloyal to women if you vote for him. And Michelle Obama will make an incredible First Lady. Please try to see some of her speech from today's rally. Thank you!
P.S. Also, please read the endorsement of Kate Michelman (of NARAL).
-
Study up,
take a deep breath, then vote where your heart leads.
-
Yes, We Can
Imagine random people making videos like this for John Kerry. Take a look, it'll make you giddy. And that poster art out there. After months of AGONIZING about what I was going to do, with this I've made up my mind: A collective mind set, people's inspired participation in crafting leaders (as it should be), trumps the supposedly superior tech specs of a candidate to command a passive nation that has lost its imagination for its future. America needs to rebuild myths, and this is a good place to start... on Tuesday. My .02.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yq0tMYPDJQ
-
Me too
That's me. I would be thrilled to see a woman president or an African-American president, but Kucinich fit my values most closely, Dodd heroically threatened to filibuster FISA, and Edwards was the populist I'd hoped to see again in my lifetime. If either Hillary or Obama would stand up against FISA, or promise to fight the corporations, I'd leap into their camp. But they've both been so timid, so middle-of-the-road. And for the first time in my voting life, I'm going to skip the primary, because I really don't give a crap which of them gets it. I just hope to god the rest of the country will choose the one who can beat McCain.
-
You called Edwards an Orc
"It's possible that, in my frustration with him, I might have called [Edwards] an Orc."
It is indeed possible that you might have called Edwards an Orc because, in this world, and not merely some possible world, you actually did call Edwards an Orc. That was in an article commendable for its steadfast focus on the issues--a potentially career sacrificing move, considering the overwhelming media focus on the political horse race.
-
You will vote for Obama, just like the rest.
You will vote for Barack Obama, just like the rest.
For the first time during this entire campaign I am resigned to the fact that Hillary Rodham Clinton will not win the nomination for the Democratic Party, and I am greatly bereaved. I truly feel that she was the best candidate, had the best plans, and was the one who could have triumphed over the Republicans.
I grow increasingly sickened by the free-pass being given her opponent by the Clinton-hating calvary of every pundit great and not. All the Winfreys, Geffens, Kennedys, or Shrivers in the world will never convince me that Sen. Clinton does not far outstrip her rival in intellect, experience, and actual caring.
Although I like Obama and will vote for him in the general election, I can hardly wait until the Republicans get their hands on him. I cannot wait until the day I hear the first wayward Democrat questions his honesty or his motives or accuses him of some horrible crime. Mostly, I cannot wait until the day he loses the election because of what the far-right will do to him, just as they have done to Hillary Clinton. Perhaps then this country might wake up and realize that for far too long we have let our opinions about Hillary Clinton and so much else be shaped and governed not by fact, but by political hyperbole and gross propaganda.
Thank you,
Robert Sandy
-
Mr. Sandy
You do realize you just wished an ill fate on millions of people?
-
I feel your pain, but
Rebecca, nobody's perfect. Not even Obama, contrary to popular belief.
This is the time for all good women to stop listening to naysayers and to those who make us feel it's somehow wrong to vote for a woman candidate because she's a woman.
This IS the time to vote for the best candidate who also happens to be a woman.
Go Rebecca!
Hillary 08
-
Jet set
On a domestic level, I believe either will work their hearts out to get this country back up to snuff. So the tiebreaker for me is the movie that plays before my eyes when I imagine either of these essentially decent and wildly intelligent candidates on the world stage.
My imagination sees Obama working miracles in building back this country's lost respect, one charmed world leader at a time.
And that rocks my vote.
-
Mr. Sandy, chin up!
Why are you speaking in the past tense? Raise your chin. Remember this: The fat lady has not sung yet. It ain't over til it's over, yadda yadda yadda.
Endorsements don't vote. Biased media don't vote. People vote. Tuesday.
Si se puede.
Hillary 08
-
Winning Isn't Everything... It's the Only Thing
Sigh. I sympathize with all your points, and yet, at the end of the day, a vote for Hillary in the primary is a vote for McCain in the general election. It's that simple. So, it doesn't matter whether Hillary is the better candidate (and I waver on whether that is even the case). And it sure as hell doesn't matter whether she's a woman, or whether there's ever another female candidate in my lifetime. What matters is that John Paul Stevens is going to retire after this election, and if John McCain is president, many of the rights we take for granted will become more vulnerable than they already are, the right to choose among many others.
It may be that Obama has little chance of winning in November against McCain. But little is better than none. Think about what's at stake, and vote for Obama.
-
Don't Blame Edwards
Our Republic survives, even through the past seven-plus years of utter incompetence wrapped in narcissicistic evil. So people have continued to choose, and they simply didn't choose Edwards. Admittedly the timing was terrible for him, but the fact remains that roughly half of Democrats are beset by inertia and a very human love of the familiar and the past; the other half are exhausted by listening to the oldies playlist and yearn for "freedom from the known." I am not a Democrat, but I am still me, and that means that although I belong to that other party, I can still think and feel and, most of all, hope. I am also exhausted by the weight of the known being dragged along behind us, and owing to the very fact I am a Republican I am not only exhausted but also greatly ashamed -- not of my party so much as the ideology which has driven it. Were I a Democrat I'd be equally ashamed of the mindless loss of connection with the Real America which has caused two humiliating (to the nation) losses to the Bush oxcart.
Be all that as it may: the Republic endures, and so do our freedoms and our privacies. So vote however you will. It won't be as wrong as if you were to vote for a Republican this time, at any rate. It is simply a choice between the tired-yet-durable known, the image in our collective rear-view mirror, and the New Possibility. Maybe we as a people aren't yet ready to make a clean break with the past and just count three and pray. Maybe we are. Where you (and countless others) are concerned, no one will ever have to know, nor should they if you choose not to share, how you will have voted. And that is one of the things I truly love about this country.
Have at it, Ms. Traister. You are hardly alone. Is this a great country, or what?