Letters to the Editor
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Let's not forget the real candidate of 1968
Let's not forget it was Robert Kenneedy Democrats "star" in 1968. Had he not been assainated he would have been the nominee and president. Instead we ended up with second best. Obama is very our Robert Kennedy, Hillary is our second best.
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Carol
I liked what you said about Clinton, because I can't figure her out, either. The best I've been able to come up with is a kind of Nixonian inner battle between her brilliant side and her hurt side. The startling thing about Nixon was that he really was tortured by the ways in which he was not JFK, and when the great books about him finally got written it turned out that this giant wound was the essence of him. I am dying to read a great biography of Clinton, and I'm guessing that the marriage that is off limits in this campaign but very real to her has set off a kind of storm inside her to be victorious at any cost to keep proving her worth to him. Wasn't this the pattern in her relationship to her father? In any case, I agree: we don't know Clinton. And I think the part we don't see is a lot more interesting than the part we do see. I'm not so sure the part we don't see is presidential, though. I sort of think the part we don't see humanizes her, but doesn't necessarily elevate her.
Joan's long answer to me makes it much easier to understand what is behind the worried scrutiny of Obama. Worry, basically. I don't think she thinks he is too precious or too elite. Her mind is sort of running on parallel tracks - she likes him, but at the very instant she is liking him she is hearing him or watching him through the general public's eyes and ears. And she is saying, I don't know how well this is going to work.
I think it is going to work, but I understand why she weighs the negatives so heavily. She's guessing at the weight the negatives will have, not across us but across the electorate as a whole.
I'm going to answer her reply later, after I have time to think more about what she said. I think he will win, and I don't think his negatives will hurt him in the way or scale she thinks they will. But I want to think about why I think this before I write.
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@EricBerry
Please see my recent post to Joan and get over the idea that WV and KY are the problem.
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@jebdlm
If you can explain that as anything other than race-baiting, I'll vote for Obama.
Just to clarify for those who may be reading this but not familiar - Jesse Jackson Jr was asked whether he thought Sen. Clinton's now famous "welling-up" in NH was faked. First of all, he said he didn't think they were fake. What he did say was:
...there were tears that melted the Granite State. And those are tears that Mrs. Clinton cried on that day, clearly moved voters. She somehow connected with those voters.
But those tears also have to be analyzed. They have to be looked at very, very carefully in light of Katrina, in light of other things that Mrs. Clinton did not cry for, particularly as we head to South Carolina where 45% of African-Americans who participate in the Democratic contest, and they see real hope in Barack Obama.
I did not realize Jesse Jackson Jr held the position of Campaign Co-Chair in the campaign. It's not well publicized and I've never seen him on CNN or anything, so I stand corrected.
That said, the point of what Congressman Jackson was saying is that Senator Clinton sheds tears for herself not at real tragedies. So yeah, its definitely discussing a concern among black people that the establishment doesn't care about them. On the other hand, I don't think that it is illegitimate to bring up in the same way saying Barack Obama's health plan left 15MM people uninsured simply because he doesn't mandate coverage for people that may not need it or be able to afford it. That is misrepresenting of his policy and it was done repeatedly by the candidate herself.
I'd prefer Jackson had not said that but it still seems petty to hold that against Sen. Obama.
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Obama did reach out
Obama did reach out and he did have appearances and people on the ground in both WV & Kentucky. He won most of the white vote across this nation. Stop promoting Hillary's spin. Obama is brining in new voters at a record rate and will continue to so so in the general. He has spent a lot of time in both SD and MT in the last few weeks. He is being very strategic by visiting general electon states.
As far as Hillary, I not sure what is going on with her. She seems to really have gone over the edge with her lates argument and his hurting the Democrats. Hopefully she will reconcile her and move on. She can still do great things in the Senate.
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rufus
No, no, no. The racism isn't the black guy's fault. Unfortunately, it's just his problem to solve. And he will, because he's done everything else he ever had to do, so he can do this.
I heart rufus.
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Phylmom
The problem is age, I think. West Virginia has the second oldest population in the country. Florida has the oldest. In PA, Obama won the white rural vote under 65, Clinton over 65. The older voter isn't getting Obama. The reasons for not getting him are partly race, partly resistance to new ideas and new names, partly who knows what. But age is a problem in these states.
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@october271986
Clinton fired people for less. Considerably less. Obama implicitly endorsed Jackson's words when he not only kept him on his campaign but did not even publicly censure him. Well, at least not so I noticed - and I was watching.
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@HealThisNation
You forgot a very important reason that older voter's aren't supporting Obama - He isn't experienced. Older voter's are far less likely to believe that good public speaking skills are a substitute for practical experience. They've seen too many rainmaker's.