Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
On Super Tuesday, for the first time in my life, I will walk into the voting booth without knowing who to vote for. I blame John Edwards.
The letters thread is now closed.
  • A vote for Obama is a vote for McCain.

    "einnocent" your claptrap about a vote for Hillary being a vote for the right is idiotic. You must be working for the GOP.

    If I can wake up your brain, Mrs.Clinton was attacked by the right and continues to be for 16 years. it's hardly an endorsement.

    The right on the other hand and it's corporate presses have willfully given the Chicago Rezzo dude with the blank resume and claims of doing things he didn't in the Illinois Senate a free pass. NOthing at all like the pass they're giving Barrack Obama - and no, I don't think it's becuase they intend to vote for him.

    With Hillary out of the way Obama will be finished within 2 weeks.

    And the right knows it.

  • So glad to hear that I'm not the only one!

    I'm underwhelmed with both candidates, but the enthusiasm that OTHER PEOPLE have exhibited towards Obama excites me. Such ebullience simply doesn't exist for Hillary.

  • @nick

    I don't see Sen. Obama bringing the country together any more than Sen. Clinton.

    Correct. The right will attack any Democrat mercilessly. If anyone here isn't convinced of that I have to think they've been dead for the past 22 years. They will make ANY Democrat "polarizing".

    So the real question is, who has shown they can survive it? Who will they have fresh material on to smear? Who will hit the ground running ready for whatever they throw out?

    We all know the answer to these questions so the real question is are you tired of the GOP or do you want another 8 years of them.

  • Voe For Your Principles

    Me? I would never vote for Hillary Clinton since she voted for the Iraq War Resolution and the Patriot Act.

    The illegal Iraq War and the assault on our remaining liberties are for me a deal breaker. A one, two punch to the truth and freedom.

  • @"Voe For Your Principles"

    I wonder if these are the same folks the GOP hired to tell us to vote for Nader in 2000.

    Incidentally I am voting my principles - and for HRC.

  • Reason can be fun

    Let’s start with some precious gems from this article:

    “If Hillary's success is less exceptional, does she deserve my vote as much as Barack?”

    “But on Tuesday, I have a feeling that for the first time in my life, I'm going to keep my vote to myself.”

    “I wouldn't have to tap one under-represented population on the shoulder and say, "I pick you to advance first"”

    “I think, every day, of what it would feel like to vote for Barack Obama. I can feel the pull of Obama-mania”

    “How could I ever tell those women that I voted for Barack Obama? What do I tell my aunt, my mother”

    “What if I have a daughter someday and she asks me about why we've never had a woman president? Do I tell her that we once came close, but that Mommy was really digging Obama that day?”

    “There is shame in voting for Hillary Clinton, make no mistake -- pulling a lever for someone who voted for Iraq and proposed anti-flag-burning legislation provokes its own brand of self-loathing.”

    “But here is the honest part: Hillary Clinton is a woman. And so am I. And my president doesn't have to look like me”

    "Hillary would not be a purely intellectual choice, and certainly not a politically enthusiastic one, but an emotional one,"

    "And so I'll spend the next two days waging this internal battle. …tugging in their bellies and their brains. …All I can say with assuredness is this: Whatever move I make, I bet it's going to hurt."

    ----------------

    Did you hear the surging music? Did you feel the Byronic ennui and weltshcmertz?

    Every now and then we are treated to the personal musings of one of Salon’s cub reporters as they grapple with life’s tough decisions. Today we’re graced with Rebecca Traister’s precious and self- reflexive journey to the heart of political angsteville. As I was reading this letter, the ‘me’s and ‘I’s tumbled of the page and I couldn’t help but see this cinematically:

    INT.-DAY-BEDROOM

    Rebecca, dressed in her best no nonsense, ‘I’m in charge’ work outfit lays on the floor of her bedroom looking tortuously at her tear soaked Diary. She glances at the poster of Obama on one wall and then spins her head with cheetah like reflexes to fixate on the cardboard cutout of Hillary on the other side of the room. The camera starts to circle the room as the dizzying image goes in and out of focus (giving us the sense that she is truly whirling in an eddy of despair). Rebecca looks up toward a god that will not answer her prayers and tears at her matted hair screaming, “Please take this bitter cup from me”!

    Seriously though, when I first read this editorial I thought that it was a letter to Cary Tennis that has mistakenly made it on to the political desk.

    But all perfidy aside Rebecca, what is the big deal? I’m sure you don’t want my advice but I’m going to give it to you anyway. Cut the crap about the tortuous “do I vote for the capable, experienced, yet flawed ‘woman’- or- the charismatic young, flawed ‘African American’. Don’t worry, your vote isn’t going to permanently set back or advance either group.

    Instead, look at the issues (you wont find them articulated very well in Salon but you can find them on the web easily). Then write down the things that matter to you the most. For me it was: Iraq, health care, the economy, lobbyists, reproductive rights and last, but not least, how snug the candidate is with the entrenched power structure and corporate interest running Washington.

    I chose Obama and I see no point in making it a secret. There was no “tugging in my belly and brain” or guilty conscience involved. It was just a good old fashioned rational decision based on data, intuition and predictions based on past experience. There was also the desire to see Obama pick Edwards as his running mate. Something I see happening if he gets the nomination.

    Using reason is fun—you should try it!