John Lewis is one of the truly great leaders ever produced in the U.S. -- even greater than his namesake John L. Lewis, creator of the CIO. I respect John Lewis -- his commitment, intellect and humanity -- one of the real guiding lights of the civil rights movement.
Having said that, even people of his greatness are occasionally wrong, and in this instance, endorsing Xena, the Warrior Princess, Mr. Lewis is wrong. Clinton has been, and continues to be, a Bush enabler -- granting him the authorization to put my family (but not hers) at risk in Iraq 5 years ago, and now in Iran 5 days ago.
People say don't make it personal. If a politician, regardless of party, continuously sends your family in harm's way for no reason that is in the interests of the U.S., but simply in their own careerist interests, then it's personal.
Hillary has enabled Bush to put my family at risk for nothing but her own petty, careerist reasons. She would be more anti-war than Cindy Sheehan if it were Chelsea who was at risk instead of my (and all those like me) family.
This does not take away, however, from the greatness of John Lewis. He's entitled to an error. He's human.
Lewis endorses Clinton "Without Hesitation Or Any Reservation"
This piece was published as part of the Huffington Post's OffTheBus project. It is also published on Georgia Politics Unfiltered.
Speaking to a standing room only crowd, which included Herman Russell of the H.J. Russell Company and Valerie Jackson, the widow of former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, Georgia Congressman John Lewis endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for President saying the former First Lady has "devoted her entire career to the causes of children and families."
"I believe Hillary Clinton will be a strong leader," Lewis said. "She will fight for what is fair, for what is right, and for what is just."
Sen. Clinton said she was grateful and so blessed to have the support of "one of the people I admire most" and humbly accepted the endorsement. Clinton then went on to launch into a speech in which she derided the Bush administration for blowing a lot of "hot air."
"There's a lot of wind blowing in America," Clinton said. "That wind is hot air...that wind is a lot of huffin' and puffin' about how the world will come to an end if we try to give uninsured children and their middle class and working families health care."
Sen. Clinton repeated a campaign refrain that "too many Americans are invisible" and said her campaign is a continuation of John Lewis' work.
"We're all better when we're working and pulling for another," said Clinton.
Lisa Favors, an Atlanta resident, stated that she was supporting Hillary because she's "the best candidate, has the most experience, and can think on her feet." Joey Davis, a former Roswell City Council candidate, said that while he was disappointed that his 2 year old daughter wouldn't be the first woman President, he intended to canvass in North Fulton for the Hillary campaign in the future.
Read more OffTheBus coverage here.
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Wow!! JOHN LEWIS??? THE John Lewis?? Endorsed Hillary for President? Well in that case, I'll have to re-think my support of Barak Obama.
As soon as I figure out who the hell John Lewis is!!
It sounds like Barack Obama is the only black politician you've ever heard of.
Frankly I'm not surprised that an Obama supporter doesn't know who John Lewis is or his accomplishments.
Obama probably doesn't know either.
Oh Obama definitely knows who John Lewis is, although I agree though that it doesn't look good that a supporter of his doesn't.
On the general topic, we are playing up the race card though. Is this news because Obama is black, and we expect all black people to line up behind him?
Well, if you have a computer, you can find out real quick who John Lewis is. He was a guy with guts and leadership and spoke with MLKing at the Washington Memorial in 1963. What are you, 12?
Exactly !
LOL!!
The real story is Obama failed to get the endorsement of John Lewis. That is significant.
This was significant to me too. However, for a sense of proportion:
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/10/obamas_still_strong_in_georgia.php
neocon David Horowitz endorses Hillary of C-SPAN
http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=8630&SectionName=In%20Depth&PlayMedia=Yes
Horowitz, "If elected Hillary will continue the Iraq war and win it."
"if we try to give uninsured children and their middle class and working families health care."
BUT Hillary is not intending to GIVE families health care. Instead she proposes that we all BUY our health care within the current system. She says under her plan, people can keep their current plan if they like.
BUT that is NOT what we want!!! We want to get the profit motive out of health care. Then we could have health care for all.
Hillary claims to be for children and family, but actually she is for the Insurance Industry.
Clinton campaign whining about Obama pointing out her foreign policy blunders.
They say he has abandoned his promise to bring us together, he is going negative.
I say he is bringing us together, bringing us together to make sure she (another Bush-lite) does not win teh nomination.
And when it is it negative to attack a candidates policy votes. it is not like he called her naive, inexperienced. Like she did to him.
He could call her naive, incompetent, for authorizing the Iraq War and then failing to learn from that mistake and cast another vote that could lead to war with Iran, seals the deal.
This woman is not quailified to be President.
WE do not need a Panderer and Chief, we need a Commander...We need Obama.
There's a lot of wind blowing in America," Clinton said And it was coming from her own mouth!!!1
Voted for Iraq War.
Voted for resolution that could lead to war with Iran.
Continues to accept lobbyist money.
Says it is not prudent to meet with Iran then says it is.
Says she would not torture, but told the Daily News she would allow torture in ticking time bomb scenario.
Lies, mistruths, no leadership skills, phony,
We need a fresh start.
He endorsed Joe Lieberman also.
Sounds like another politician who needs to visit their proctologist. I am tired of these "so called" polititicans ramming their candidates down my throat. I will vote on who I think will help restore our country's integrity and best deal with the issues. I will also take into account that Hillary at times sounds like just another politician and waffles on the guts to tell us we need to get out of Iraq pronto not in another 10 or 15 years!
John Lewis emdorsed Hillary....so what? Who cares?
Obviously you know nothing about the recent civil rights struggles during the 60's with Martin Luther King, John Lewis and others. John Lewis's endorse is a big deal.
I do. I know all about it and guess what ?
WHO CARES ?
I'm a 33 year old African American woman and I don't sit around waiting for so called Black Leaders to tell me who to vote for. I make up my own mind. I'm not a sheep. So, even I am saying, "Who cares?"
A bus without a back. I look forward to a Hillary Clinton administration that will reach out, sound a roll call to all our peoples and will choose those men and women based solely on qualifications and mindset. Trusted servants only need apply. A fact not reflected in the current makeup.
Jim Hurley
Right- so why is it her "inner circle" in this campaign
IS ENTIRELY
made of women?
All 'trusted servants,' in terms of loyalty.
Neo-con Charles Krauthammer, the Washington Post columnist and FOX-News contributor, endorsed Hillary because of her 'lack of principles'. I will always remember what a top AEI fellow said: "Since 1968 the GOP has sought to determine who the Democratic opponent would be", (HHH, McGovern, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis) until Bill Clinton, and now they want Hillary. Here are the excerpts:
"The Post correctly called Hillary's retreat from free trade " opportunism under pressure," the pressure being the rampant and popular protectionism of her presidential rivals, particularly in protectionist Iowa. But while "opportunism under pressure" suggests ( pace Hemingway) cowardice, the better description of Clintonism is slipperiness. Adaptability. Cynicism, if you like....Note the clever use of terms..."
..."I could never vote for her, but I (and others of my ideological ilk) could live with her -- precisely because she is so liberated from principle. Her liberalism, like her husband's -- flexible, disciplined, calculated, triangulated -- always leaves open the possibility that she would do the right thing for the blessedly wrong (i.e., self-interested, ambition-serving, politically expedient) reason
Nonetheless, if 2008 is going to be a Democratic year, as it very well could, Hillary would serve the country better than any of her Democratic rivals.
On Iraq, for example, she talks like someone who knows she may soon be commander in chief and will need room to maneuver in order to achieve whatever success might be possible. Clinton has emphatically refused to give assurances that she would get us out of Iraq during her first term...
Even Clinton's response to a debate question on torture -- "As a matter of policy it cannot be American policy, period" -- is elegantly phrased to imply an implacable opposition to torture and yet leave open the possibility that in extreme circumstances a president would do what she had to do, i.e., authorize torture, regardless of the express policy.
Clinton rarely falters. Always careful, always calibrated, always leaving room for expediency over ideology. That's Clintonism, of both marital flavors.
Here is the LINK to the Charles Krauthammer ENDORSEMENT of Hillary Clinton in the Washington Post and nationally October 12, 2007.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/11/AR2007101101598.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Krauthammer's endorsement validates everything that has been said about Hillary as the "Corporatist" default candidate if a Democrat is going to take the White House in 2008.
AKA "Bush w/ a skirt" is the Republican Party's BEST chance at retaining the White House... and if, in the unlikely scenario the Republicans were to (lose), the STATUS QUO will still be preserved.... A WIN/WIN for The Corporatist "Money Party!"
Day by day "thinking Democrats" are concluding that John Edwards represents, and can be TRUSTED to carry, the dreams of ordinary Americans to the oval office and to... KEEP HIS PROMISES! Unlike the aforementioned candidate who has been OFFICIALLY ENDORSED by the NEOCONS! J R
Clearly looking at the list we see people who gone from active revolutionaries in their day to "retired" civil rights fighters and so I'm not surprised. I'm thinking Hillary is getting a lot of sympathy support - they realize 2008 is IT for her, her last chance for the WH and so they'd rather throw support for her and let Obama wait his turn. But they're missing the big picture. No doubt, HRC would make an excellent president, but now is NOT the time for another Clinton presidency. It will simply repolarize America in the other direction when what America needs most right now is a fresh approach to things. We can only swing this political pendulum but so far before our nation is irreversibly damaged. Read history people!
Hillary has been an advocate for children and childrens health since her college days. Read her bio
That was until she learned Darth Vader was her father!
Now she worries more about Big Pharmas health over kids health, she TALKS a good game, but she walks with Big Money!
How come Rep Lewis has to support Obama because he is Black... The Clintons have a proven track record with people of color... Condi Rice is black and when New Orleans was being flooded she was in New York buying shoes so just because people are black does not mean that a black person has to support them... I like both Obama and Clinton, the goal is to make sure the republicans are out is all and to all the Gore supporters who keep saying all this stuff about him being the best candidate, once he gets into the race his rhetoric will subside like it did the first time he ran... Politics is a game and Gore comes from a very Political family not much different than Bush's family...
Because if you roll the clock back a couple of decades, you'd have a John Lewis campaigning in the black community to elect him based heavily on the fact that he is black. Now that he has a chance to return the favor and support another brother requesting the same of him, he shuns him in favor of a white woman, adding considerable weight to the prevailing flawed logic that a black man can't be elected president in America. Yet tomorrow, he'll be in the 'hood tell us to "stick together and support each other". The pattern is the same for all these long-career black politicians - they're all selling out to the Clinton machine. It's not about race, it's about the dang ISSUES - on what _issues_ does Rep. John Lewis choose to endorse Clinton over anybody else? And to date, none of these elected black officials backing Clinton have given a solid _issues-based_ reason for endorsing Clinton. Please provide me details of this "proven track record w/people of color" of HRC.
The Clintons have a proven track record with people of color...
Please enlighten me on this "proven tracck record" Last time I checked, it was Clinton that backed the Republican-sponsored welfare bill that has over 5million people subsisting below the poverty line. It was Clinton who signed the patently racist crime bill (again Republican-sponsored) that has resulted in almost 1million blacks - mostly on drug possessioin charges - in the slammer.
This myth about Bill Clinton being the first "black" president is ludicrious and insulting to the intelligence of clear thinking black people (this excludes the likes of Sharpton, Jackson, Rangel, Lewis, and the rest of those anachronistic "civil rights leaders") This sellout by Lewis is just another in the long procession of house niggers returning to the plantation.
For those who believe that Hillary is a progessive fighting for the upliftment of the downtrodden, I have a bridge in Brooklyn up for sale. Take a look at her donors/backers and the dumbass ideas she has promulgated over the years ("abortion is a tradegy", legislation to ban flag burning, her stupid vote to invade Irag, not to even mention her recent shameless vote to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Gaurd a "terrorist" outfit - make no mistake about it, that vote is tantamount to a declaration of war)
Hillary is a closet neocon, the "centrist without a center, and the disaster waiting to happen to us
"People of Color" ????
Please, the Black Community , well at least my generation of Blacks, don't particularly care for the pandering and patronizing by Hillary Clinton. We look at actions. Not lip service. Barack Obama has done more for the Black community in actions , than the Clinton's have ever done. Photo ops with Black people mean nothing to me.
Clinton will do the best job. I think she should pick Richardson for VP and make Obama the Sec. of State
My prediction is General Wes Clark will be her VP (to shore up her military cred) and Gov. Richardson will be her Sec. of State. Obama will be the junior senator from Illinois until he runs again in 2016.
Wait, that will be the First Gentlemans job.
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Posted October 12, 2007 | 04:30 PM (EST)