Letters to the Editor
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Joan, Say Whaaaa...??!!?
Joan: "I've talked about Clinton's need, in the closing days of the campaign, to improve her tone; clearly Obama too needs to work not to alienate Clinton supporters. He's done a great job being gracious all week, from his victory speech in North Carolina Tuesday night to his remarks to CNN's Wolf Blitzer that she'd be on "anybody's short list" for vice president. But Obama should be careful to make sure surrogates like Kennedy don't squander the good will he's trying to build. I'm not sure Clinton merits or wants the VP slot, but she at least deserves more respect than Kennedy showed while both campaigns figure out what comes next. It would be a shame if McCain's campaign did a better job feigning respect than Obama's did actually showing it...."
He's done a great job," in that respect, period. He certainly hasn't grovelled in the murk of "As far as I know, [he's not muslim/he's a Christian]," "[he's inexperiencd] and John McCain and I are ready" from Day One with a dollop of "hardworking americans" are "white people" who support me [and, therefore, everyone else supporting Obama are lazy fops] while letting one of her main Texas hispanic surrogates, Adelfa Callejos, publicly blurt out that "hispanics wouldn't support" a black candidate while issuing only a halting condemnation and, before that, have Bill Shaheen, Charley Rangel, Bob Johnson and Mark Penn all but call Obama a drug pushing pimp and I'd posit that the pig pen is pretty much fully occupied. With all that, I have to say that the gracefulness Obama's shown toward the firm of Clinton, Ferraro and Callejos, aside from reflecting on the man's inherent decency, is pretty much undeserved.
Kennedy spoke from the heart, after witnessing all of the above and more. As for Obama? Again, he doesn't owe her a damn wit more than how he's comported himself, so far, on the campaign trail.
Ps: As for the idea that the demographic which has been most loyal to Clinton, older, white, female Progressives, deserting the Party or Sitting This One Out? I don't buy it...the S.Ct hangs in the balance and with it abortion rights, gender equality, issues of sexuality and rolling back the War and the Power of the Presidency. Those are issues that that demographic cannot afford to take a powder on. Again, considering Obama's on-going conduct toward Clinton, if they did they'd be, in the immortal words of my Nana, "cutting off their nose to 'spike' their face" While sort of verbally maladroit, you pretty much always got the picture with gramma.