Letters to the Editor
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Person Aced "America's Problem"
Would you consider the VEEP position? Seriously! Cabinet post? Something? There was so much sense and sanity in that one post my head almost (I said almost, ya'll) exploded. Wow! Thank you!
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@debaser
Yes, you're right. It does stink. And it will yield Clinton at best a Pyhrric victory.
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Thanks, Fester
I realized that no amount of rationality and wonkiness would get thru to such angry people (on both sides). People have more in common than not, including blacks and whites, so I thought maybe sharing some personal experience would help put all this anger in context.
Unfortunatley, *sniff*, my granny died two weeks after her b-day. (So everything she and my mom said that last day I went over is burned on my brain. It's only been a couple of weeks since her death.) That actually help me put some things in perspective.
Now I'm crying on my keyboard. But thanks for the good thoughts. I was thinking of starting a container garden on my tiny back porch in her honor.
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@AJCalhoun
With pleasure.
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@TRenee starting a container garden
You should. My grandfather was big into Organic gardening back in the '70s when it was kooky and not a multi-billion dollar argi-business. Knowing how to grow things might come in handy.
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Clinton and the Black Vote
Forget all the reasons you gave for her losing the black vote. It was primarily due to the insulting way her husband talked about Obama's win in South Carolina implying that it was only due to him being black by stating that even Jesse Jackson won there. If she can't control her husband, how will she control the country?
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TRenee I'm sorry about your grandmother
But it's nice to hear how some people don't get milder or more cowardly with age. My great grandmother lived to be a hundred, and ironically, I was helping to take care of her during her last two months and the Clinton impeachment hearings were going on. She loved to follow the news, and read the newspaper religously every day, but at that point she couldn't remember anything that had happened the day before, so every morning I would try to explain everything to her all over again, and she would ask questions like "why are they so mad at him?" "What's he done?" She had the kind of live and let live personality. One day, to be mischievious I told her with no in depth of details but more provocatively about the young intern and Ken Starr's investigation, and making it look as bad for him as I could, to goad her, I said, "so what do you think of that, grandma?"
She tilted her head to one side, thought about it for a while, this prim and proper lady who wore high heeled shoes every day of her life and perfume and lipstick. She then replied, "nobody's perfect."
It made me laugh.
Oh, the good old days when all the people on these boards could support the same candidate in good conscience. I really want to vote for Barack Obama in November. I really hope that he is the candidate. Nobody's perfect, but I'm really going to struggle to vote for anyone but Senator Obama this year. I don't mean that as an insult to the Clintons, it's just the way I feel at this point.
And thank you for your insightful post about your family.
P.S. Interesting thoughts Person, and you're probably right. I was just surprised by that coming when it did.
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TRenee I enjoy your posts too and am also sorry about your grandmother
She sounds like she was a really cool woman. Agree with others you have some of the most thoughtful posts on here.
There are many others who I often mean to compliment but forget, but since it's apparent you somehow thought someone was referring to you as a troll I have to speak up and say definitely you are not one of those.
Anytime you attempt to use logic and reason on here, whether you're black or white, certain people on here always jump on you. Just ignore it.
Also some of the best posts on here are often by the former Kucinich or Edwards or Richardson supporters who post. Also I really enjoy the posts where people remind some of the Clinton supporters who insist on only viewing Barack's support as black, that many of them who are white and outstide of Obama's so-called demographic support him too.
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comments provide insight
The comments posted here in response to the article provide great perspective.
Upon reflection, I believe that Clinton had no reason not to expect the black vote to swing her way. Obama was an outlier who the Clinton camp never saw coming. First mistake.
He had good strategy, good message, good positioning, good visuals, decent street cred, great cv, great story, etcetera...and he had the chutzpah to take on the Clinton machine. No easy task to be sure.
Clinton entered with many positives, but also a number of negatives, including that nasty vote on Iraq. She refused to take the contrite road on that and dug in her heels to her detriment, not only with black, but with virtually all voters. Second mistake.
Then she employed her quasi-somnolent stroll across the Super Tuesday Finish Line Strategy, the results of which shook her out of her slumber. Third Mistake.
Many viewed her strategy at that time as one not showing appropriate respect to the opponents in the room, including Obama.
She did start out with a favorable measure of support in the black community, especially in January and February, but that began to erode after Obama's showing in Iowa and was exacerbated by a series of strategic blunders by her campaign, such as those set forth above and includng the Clinton campaign's inability to measure Obama's broadening appeal to the AA community. In essence, they did not count very well. Fourth mistake.
Clinton used the old play book and went after the soccer moms initially and then the so-called Reagan democrats.
Finally, she made some errors around authenticity (failing to keep it real) that did not resonate well with many black voters.
I don't know if the results would have been any different had her strategy been more finely tuned, so I am not in a position to judge her or the outcome. I do know that the party must figure out how to mend the clear breach that now exists, and that it will not be easy.