Your efforts to balm the wounds and calm the waters are a beacon to us all.
Well I understand your intent on what you write. And I understand your vitriol - you are on the otherside of the fence than I am. This does not happen for me very often, usually I choose the guy least likely to win. This time I happen to be on the winners side. From my perspective Barack invites something in me that makes me very, very happy - a sense of wellbeing in the governemtn I have not felt for many, many years. I see greener pastures while others see grey.
While I think you 9th floor represent a certain percentage of the population, there is a large percentage that voted and campaigned for Hillary who will now vote for Barack because they are fearful, pissed, fed-up, and angry over Bush’s years and they feel McCain will continue that on in one form or another, and that is simply not acceptable. Many of my relatives fit this category, Mother-in-Law, Father-in-Law, my mothers side of the family…they will all vote Barack in the fall yet were staunch Clinton supporters forthis primary season.
I think that if I thought Bush’s policies were best for the country I would vote for him. I had certainly come round to voting for Hillary (if she had won the nomination - which I had seen as posible in the midst of Wright’s concert tour) despite my distate for her based on the fact that policy wise she would be better than McCain.
Now mind you I find that “Iron my shirt” very offensive. But just as Hillary isn’t responsible for the fact that some racists say offensive things, Obama is not responsible for what some misogynists do.
I hope that those who feel wounded by this campaign can come round. Again, I think that Hillary believes that she is doing that which is in service of that goal.
Would there be any action on Obama’s side or by Hillary’s that would help decrease the severity of the wound to you 9th?
Nothing personal Lemur, but that kind of thing is really starting to piss me off. Is it not conceivable that someone might vote against Obama based on the issues? I don’t give a flying fig what color someones skin is nor what their ancestry might be (providing it doesn’t intersect the Bush or Kennedy family trees too recently) , but if their positions on a few key issues are more out of line with what I favor than their opponent is, I’m going to vote for the other person.
Guilting white men into voting for someone because they are black or female is a rather poor method of choosing a leader, don’t you think? Just as bad as not voting for them because they’re black or female.
With Obama and Clinton essentially identical in policies, I don’t much care who gets the nomination.
I think the longer Hillary hangs on, the more polarized voters become and the less likely there will be unification in time for the general. It would be one thing if Hillary didn’t keep acting like she’s working towards some spectacular upset that will show all those sexist naysayers a thing or two, but she is and that is what worries me. This is the phase of the race where Hillary should be softening the disappointment of her supporters by putting party first. I’m not seeing much of that, though. I’m mostly seeing me me me me me me me me.
This article in today’s Washington post makes me worry more. The more that Hillary and her supporters frame her loss as a product sexism, the more they’ll keep thinking that Hillary was robbed by…well, the black man. I don’t think these folks will be hurrying to elect Obama, just as I don’t think many others will be hurrying to elect Hillary if she finagles the nomination.
I wish I could share other Doper’s optimism, but I don’t. Even though I understand her motivation, I gotta say that Hillary is fucking things up for everybody.
Yes.
No.
Its May, face. Six months to go, and in politics, thats two eons and an age. Let the Dems have a few months of getting to know McCain better, and bygones will be long gone. A few more McCain policy statements and panders to the trog right, and they’ll walk over their grandmothers to vote for Obama.
Precisely.
Ok, the master of overly literal interpretations has spoken.
How about “wanting to vote for someone just because they are black/female is just as bad as not wanting to vote for someone just because they are black/female”?
Here’s hoping! Time for Hillary’s most ardent backers’ tempers to cool, and for them to realize just what a McCain Administration would mean, will be time well spent.
My dream ad: A picture of the New York Times, headline blaring “McCain Elected!”. Bugs Bunny walks onscreen and says…
“Of course you realize, this means war!”
“Finally, we’re also tired of being referred to as racists when we point out that, for example, blacks are voting for him because he’s black to a degree that is not comparable to women voting for HRC just because she’s a woman: and that’s because she’s been on the scene so there’s more to judge by than just that as where this man has been on the national scene for 2 years. Give me a break. It is more acceptable to be sexist than racist. A guy held up a sign at a Clinton rally that said “Iron my shirt!” – haha; now if a guy held up a sign at an Obama rally that said “Shine my shoes!” would that be seen as equal? Not at all. The press would be all over the latter; but nary a word about the former to the same degree. We point that out and…guess what…we’re whining. And so on.”
You are either Geraldine Ferraro or have a transcript of yesterday’s Today show. These are her exact words.