Letters to the Editor
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How Hillary Clinton lost my vote (and my wife's)
I happen to be in what has turned out to be a popular demographic for Obama: white, male, 56, college educated, comfortable, liberal, politically active.
To be honest, I have never liked Hillary Clinton and I voted for Bill Clinton twice enthusiastically. My wife also voted for Bill twice and took a disliking to Hillary the minute she read It Takes a Village (she resented being told how to bring up kids by "experts"). I never read it, I just didn't like her arrogance. But, I liked Bill so no problem.
Before I knew much about Barack Obama I was a Kucinich fan as was my wife and we would have voted for Hillary without enthusiam as we've been loyal Democrats our entire lives.
However, my 92 year old mother kept telling me to check out Obama, she saw something special in him. As I've learned more about Obama, heard him speak at a big rally the night before Super Tuesday in Hartford, read his various platforms on his web site, read his books, and talked with lots of people, online and off, I became enthusiastic about his campaign and the idea that in my lifetime it might actually be possible for a black man to become president. I liked what that said about Obama and I liked what it said about the country. Yes, I liked Gary Kamiya's piece here on voting for Obama partly because he's black. I want someone running this country who has a big world view and isn't afraid of complexity and will talk with the American people like adults. No pandering, political or otherwise. Some may resent the fact that the first politician to get this mix right happens to be black, I happen to love the idea. And I'm a fan of Cory Booker too.
In the early days (a few months ago) If Hillary had gone on to win without a negative campaign she had my vote in November. My wife's too.
Then things got negative. Hillary saw a bit of blood with the Wright issue and started pecking and hasn't stopped since.
Those of you who are enthusiastic Clinton supporters will find it difficult to see this, but to me, the more I see both Hillary and Bill Clinton go after Obama to hurt him in the eyes of their target demographic, the more I like him and the less I like the Clintons. I would imagine black voters feel the same way. I would say the Clintons are hurting themselves more than they are hurting Obama. Why? Because at this point, it will be a lot harder for me to rally behind her should she somehow win the Democratic nomination. My wife will not vote for her. Period. She's mad as hell. And, if she wins it, think about what her process will have to be: she'll have to damage Obama. She can't win on her own positives, she must damage him to get delegates to move.
My guess is Hillary and her "war room" have calculated exactly how much damage they can take on themselves in their "kitchen sink" campaign but as this article points out clearly, she's lost the black vote and she's now going to slowly lose some of my demographic as well.
How on earth will Bill and Hillary Clinton be able to turn around and support Barack Obama if he becomes the nominee?
And they call themselves Democrats?