Early on in the race for 2008, I had decided that among all of the Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton was mine. She is an eloquent speaker, she has amazing composure, her stances on the issues that matter to me are right on target, she devoted a large portion of her life to helping children and families, and she is well versed in the political arena.
I did question her sincerity on ending the war in Iraq a few times and wondered why she just wouldn’t admit that authorizing force there was a mistake to begin with. I did not agree with her that we are now safer than we were but overall we went together very well.
I live in a red state where the Hillary Hating abounds so I was in a minority but found, to my surprise, that there were many others that supported her locally. I followed her debates, kept up on her web site, and spread her messages wherever I could.
Then I was betrayed. Somehow, what I had thought was a crazy little amendment that would never go anywhere, was passed by the Senate. I’m talking about the call to war with Iran that is the Lieberman/Kyl Amendment. There must have been a mistake somewhere, surely our Congresspeople could not seriously think that this was a good idea? I anxiously read the roll call and was stunned. Not only did it pass by an overwhelming majority but Hillary Clinton voted for it and Barack Obama didn’t even bother to vote either way!
Now MSM has not really covered this very well at all. Even in the blogosphere it seems, to me, to be an underrated story. Perhaps because two sections were removed that made it more palatable for Dems to support. It is still a scary piece of legislation that details the “sense of the Senate” regarding Iran. It places Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on our list of “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” which is basically an authorization to attack them. While the toned down version specifically states that we should do what we need to IN IRAQ and is not as aggressive as the first version, putting the Revolutionary Guard on this list would make them official targets in the war on terror. Theoretically, this could allow for attacks against them in Iran, which we are already hearing will be happening.
The worst part about this is the lack of evidence to support these statements and possible invasion of yet another country that was on Bush’s to do list. Iraq and Iran have a lot of interests with each other and that doesn’t necessarily translate into bomb making business. I would have hoped that our legislatures, many of whom now wish that they would have voted differently in 2002, would have taken a closer look at this disastrous amendment and really did the research and demanded more information.
I would encourage you to read Seymour Hersh’s column here for more information regarding Iran.
This is sad that our only two options are Clinton or Obama. Maybe there is a viable third candidate, that the superdelegates can broker a deal with. Clinton has 50% or more negatives. Obama’s negatives are growing the more people get to know him. Both of the democtratic front runners are looking less likely to win against McCain, because of their baggage. If only Edwards would have stayed in or can Al Gore come in to save the day.
I don’t see it as sad at all. Both Hillary and Barack are very strong candidates and either would make an excellent President. I think it’s sad that the only candidate the Republicans can field is a meaner dumber George Bush.
Senator Clinton made a big comeback with a 10 point lead last night and she did that while being overspent on ads. That was accomplished in some part by party-switchers whose aim was to prolong the nominee process between Obama and Clinton. Both went negative. The debate, the other night, was horrible. Clinton attacked Obama’s associatiations with radical terrorists. Obama came back with her ties with the same guy. And the world wrestling federation made fun of Obama’s big ears with their mock wresting match of the candidates in the ring. The superdelegates are holding the power. They are going to override the peoples vote. They have to be scratching their heads and thinking that neither of these candidates has a good chance of defeating McCain, with all their negatives. And there is no way that either one would assume the VP for the other. So that senario is not valid.
I’ve explained here before that while neither candidate is ideal from my viewpoint, Hillary has shown willingness to work with and vote for some of the Bush administration’s (and neocons’) legislation. “I don’t cotton to that!” Obama has done this few times by my count.
Now, to vote for someone because you know less is stupid and I have made stupid mistakes in the past – like voting to get rid of Carter who helped kill the civil service (only Reagan was far worse in many, many ways). But I guess I’m just willing to do it again. I’ll take the chance that the person who professes to care, really does.
But the most important point now is that Hillary cannot win, statistically, without brokering a win at the convention. That serves no one but the Republicans, who now have a proven record of ruining this country, and, unfortunately, her own ego, by all appearances. Honestly, if I were her and really wanted to make a difference, I wouldn’t want to step down either but I’d like to think I’d take one for the team, as I have in my own life inthe past. It shows true character to do though, and is often not rewarded, but will go a ways to healing the wounds she has helped inflict.
Wake up and smell the roses, Hillary. You. Cannot. Win. Anymore. The democratic nomination should go to the one with more delegates and more popular vote. Obama has that and will have that even if all votes from every state are counted until all 50 plus territories and outlying colonies are counted. There’d have to be some strange <0.01% fluke of statistics for it to be otherwise, and after 2000 and 2004, I don’t believe in flukes, only carefully organized deceptions.
To spend anymore time fiddling while the “rome” of the democrats lead is burned by this struggle hurts our chances tremendously in November. The party is being split; her attacks, mild or not, help define Obama in negatives, just as the Republicans want, and, to top it off, far more people don’t like her from her past associations as wife of the president, of which Obama has none, and will vote against her no matter what, come hell or high water. Some say this about McCain re his negatives, however, the neocons are already playing suck-face with with to save whatever chance they do have at maintaining some semblance of power. The one candidate McCain looks best against is Hillary. Hillary almost guarantees a close election. I’m not up for that, are you?
June is too late, Howard. May is late as it is. End this now!
A word about Michigan and Florida
Everyone’s votes should count. Unfortunately, Michigan didn’t have Obama on the ballot. Both bucked rules Clinton and Obama agreed (I believe but I may be wrong) to along with the DNC leadership. This whole thing could have been avoided by one simple step – a national primary for the party. Michigan should have a re-vote but everyone who voted to have the primary early should be fired from the Dem committees they are on. Florida should have the votes counted (assuming I have the states correct here). Regardless, we still have Obama in the lead in both delegates and popular. It’s a real shame too that some states won’t count too.
Wise up people. Get rid of delegates, super-delegates and the electoral college. Whatever happened to “of the people, by the people and for the people,” anyway? Oops! that was a Republican in the good sense of the word.