Okay, we've had our fun. But the party is over and it's time for a dose of realpolitik. John McCain will be the Republican Nominee, and he may eat Barak Obama for lunch. No seriously, we're facing a national hero - a man of true grit who is respected by many. We need to pull out the stops and leverage our advantage in a strategic and thoughtfully crafted manner. From this author's point of view, no Democratic candidate is better equipped by nature and experience to do just that than Hillary Clinton. And Obama, bless his heart I hope he has a long and fruitful political career, is not the candidate we need at this moment in time. Despite what the two most famous Kennedy's may think.
The withdrawal of John Edwards following Kucinich's exit has left the progressive left blogosphere with some hard decisions to make. I think it's time bloggers bite the bullet and get real. Time to endorse Hillary. And the sooner we can get that bandwagon rolling, the better. Matt, Markos, Arianna...are you listening?
For goodness sake, Hillary Clinton *is* the candidate of change. Or have we forgotten that she is a women and her nomination will mark an historic first? And does anyone for a moment think she'll be a clone of Bill? Give me a break. And more important, Hillary deserves a chance to write her own chapter in American history. I am so ready for that.
Look, any respectable Democrat is going to represent a sea-change from the last 7 years. And the ultimate candidate will need to have the habits, contacts and energy necessary to fix a lot of broken stuff. A lot of very broken institutions, agencies, policies and procedures. That person will need to have what it takes to restore our international reputation and return the US to it's proper role as a major superpower. Again, Hillary is the logical choice.
And one other thing. The Obama campaign continues to call me and boast about bringing the country together...reaching out. I'm just not into that right now. I'll be the first to admit that there is a time for inclusion and bipartisanship. I submit that this is not that moment. Why would anybody in their right mind want to bring any of the crew who has systematically destroyed our country and scorned our constitution to the table? Include neo-cons and the religious right? I think not. More like, over my dead body. And that, kind readers, is the very best argument for supporting Hillary Clinton. I don't believe that she will be vindictive, but she is attentive to detail and will pursue the Republican evildoers and ensure proper retribution is meted out.
3 comments:
I will spare you the litany of counter-arguments point by point. Lord knows they are well-documented and legion.
But, bless your heart, if you are calling for Matt, Arianna and Kos to endorse Hillary, you are whistling into the wind. Every one of your reasons for believing Hillary to be the best candidate is about 180 degrees from what most other progressives believe to be the case.
I will just point to some recent developments. MoveOn.org members have voted to endorse Obama over Hillary by 70% to 30%. ColorOfChange.org's 400,000 member primary results were Obama over Hillary by 70% to 11%. The remaining percentages for Edwards now overwhelmingly going to Obama. The DailyKos reader poll results stand at 76% to 11%, Obama over Clinton.
I do heartily agree with your call for the progressive bloggers to endorse now that Edwards has withdrawn and the field is down to two clear choices. The time is here and now and there is no reason not to fall on one side or the other.
Personally I await Firedoglake. They were very active in supporting Lamont over Lieberman. They are currently active supporting Donna Edwards over Al Wynn. Why are they MIA in this contest? Is it a case of gender identiy politics?
I will mention one important issue since it is fresh from last night's debate.
Hillary continues to defend her Iraq vote by characterizing the Iraq resolution as a tool for diplomacy. This was Kerry's rationale too. But everyone knew at the time, it was a vote to authorize war. She said she did all due diligence, but she didn't bother to avail herself of the NIE. She said she trusted that Bush was telling the truth about his motivations and reasons and that he would use the powers she authorized responsibly, yet today she will not admit to being naive and exercising poor judgment.
And just as salient as all the above, last night she lied about the Levin amendment, saying that it was worded in such as way as to cede authority to the U.N., when in fact, it explicitly did not.
Obama correctly says that the decision to invade Iraq was not just bad in execution, but bad in concept. Now, it is not just a matter of getting out of Iraq, but changing the mindset that got us into Iraq in the first place. While Hillary continues to defend and rationalize her war authorization vote, she shows that her mindset remains the same.
Don Roberto,
Please consider joining me on Super Tuesday evening over wine and conversation to parse the results of the day. We can continue this discussion then. Suffice it to say that momentum does not appear to be going my way on this issue.
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