Dear President Clinton;
Sir with all due respect, (and given your recent behavior I am not certain that much is due), I am writing to ask you to stop obsessing with the notion that "we" think you are a racist. "We" don't think you are a racist. You can let that one go, Sir. Find a new reason to throw a tantrum, betray your party, lower yourself in our esteem, but the "racist card?" Old news ... wasn't really news to begin with. We know that you are not a racist ... if anything we credit you as one of the great bridge builders across the racial divide that once scarred our landscape. We think well of you for the most part, so get over it!!!
See the thing is, Mr. Clinton ... it is not about you. This is what you cannot seem to grasp. This is about a country in turmoil ... a country in real danger of losing its way. This is about us plain old Americans ... we the little people, (who do not think you are a racist). We are working here. We are trying to elect a leader who can chart a new course, a way out of this national hell. We are coming together we pesky little people, Yellow dogs, Blue Dogs and Indies are linking arms with Obamacans. Folks of every color, creed, and religious persuasion are standing together in this election because we know the jig is up, because we know that our very survival may depend upon it. We are prepared to compromise and most of us are willing to sacrifice time, money, and even our beloved identity politics.
And where are you in all of this? Bill Clinton the once great leader of the free world is whining about being misunderstood. You are sitting on the pity pot and pitching a big ol' pout. You are standing up for yourself and yourself alone when so many are down. Do you really want to be the guy who put his ego before the good of the people he once cared deeply about? The guy who blocked the light because it did not shine brightly enough in his direction?
Mr. President, you are missing the point. You are not the problem, nor are you the solution. Your hurt feelings are not a matter of national concern. There are folks out there who cannot afford to take their kid to a doctor. There are folks out there who are being forced to choose between gas and food. There are folks out there who are heartsick about our government's actions both at home and abroad. People are suffering, people are outraged, and this person is sick of you behaving like a petulant child.
The republican leadership is not exactly enamored of John McCain. Many of them are holding their noses, but they are at least adult enough to hold their tongues. They are not sure of their candidate's stance on anything and the fact that his stance changes every five minutes is not helping matters. They have a candidate that would make me want to take a hammer to my head.. Are they whining to the press? Are they playing cute with the media and refusing to resoundingly endorse their man on the ticket? No. They are playing ball and I respect them for it.
Many of us have worked tirelessly for the last eight years to reclaim the House and Senate. We have fought the Bush administration with every weapon of democracy and while we have lost most of the battles, we have kept our eye on winning the war ... we have petitioned, written letters, marched in the streets, given money we did not have, and time we could not spare. We have forced ourselves to look at the horrors of war and to admit to war crimes. The images of a planet in peril haunt our waking hours and assault our sleep. We have fought back tears and swallowed Maalox by the gallon and we are not giving up now. If we allowed ourselves to give in to exhaustion we would fall into a heap, but we will not give in. Hope is alive in us and so is daring and an incurable optimism about America and the great goodness of its people
Your wife is an amazing person and we are grateful for her presence and we thank you too for all that you have done in the past. We love you both, but we will not surrender this nation to Rovian rule on your account. You will not be returned to glory in 2012
It is time for you to return the love we have given you in great abundance through the years. It is time for you to see us for the great brave generous people we are. We have prayed with and for you and now we pray that you will return our faith.
We need you Mr. President, but we will fight on with or without your help. We will keep the faith with or without your prayers.
We nominated Barack Obama, a fine man who embodies the ideals that inhabit every vein and muscle and fiber of your being. We did not do what you wanted, but we did you proud. We are an extraordinary group of people, your Democrats. You should know, we were once wild enough and brave enough and smart enough to take a chance on a young man no one had ever heard of from some place called Hope.
great thoughts and ideas out for us to share. Bill Clinton is a guy who just can't seem to accept
his place in the public arena, so he blames Obama, or blames Hilliary's loss, or blames the rascism remark. It would be something else if not those. He is in a Viagra, red sports car time of life and he is fighting it with all his might. And the result is - he continually looks foolish.
He and Jesse Jackson - their Alpha male days are over and gone, and there is a bunch of new
guys claiming that title. Ahhhh . . . such is life.
Seriously. No one needed to play the "race card" on Bill Clinton -- he did it to himself. He knew what he was doing back in 1992 with his "Sister Soulja" moment, in 1996 when the took on the "welfare queens", and when he compared Obama's win in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson's in 1984 and 1988 (there were a number of NON-black and more recent examples). When they started talking about the "hard working people, white people," they knew what they were doing. Obama locked up the black vote, so they were going to try to turn him into the "black candidate" to take advantage of latent racism.
The Clintons aren't racist -- but they're not above using race when it suits them for political gain. To act as though black voters somehow "owe" the Clintons is just as insulting as those who think they "owe" Barack their votes as a matter of racial pride.
The Clintons in NO WAY played racial politics like the Republicans do. But they weren't scrupulously clean, either. Stop pretending and playing these right-wing games of "one side is totally pure, the other side is totally evil!"
But that wasn't quite fair. I don't know 23000Days, but I know where she's coming from. And I know that it's also unfair that you feel lumped in with the PUMAs.
While I don't share your admiration for the Clintons, the fact of the matter is PUMAs usually are, as she said, out in force. And over time, anyone who supports Hillary is hard to distinguish. Because you don't distinguish yourself. I know I've never once heard a real Hillary supporter call one of them out for their agenda.
And they have an agenda and as much as it is against Obama or the Democratic party, it's also against you. Because unless you join in with them - they don't much care if you are branded with their actions. Any Hillary supporter who doesn't buy into their plan is sort of the "Uncle Tom" of her base, so to speak. You could check with people like Taylor Marsh for confirmation of that.
Instead of being angry at 23000Days you might want to turn it on them..
And I'll wave my flag and beat it. If this is unwelcome - forget it. Otherwise go talk to some PUMAs. They're smearing people like you as much as they are their target.
Now, to be clear, I am for BO now, but I despise the disgusting hate campaign against HRC.
one of the most horrible election experiences of my life. And I have been voting since the McGovern fiasco.
JM wasn't going to let that happen to him and he was wise to nip the issue in the bud by calling BO on this early on with his dollar-bill comment. It's also why BO supporters were so angry when this happened--now there is no chance to use race to BOs advantage so overtly.
But in the end BO 08.
Why is it so many dem's seem to have turned on the Clinton's? I happened to believe it's because people are sick and tried of them continuing to inject themselves into this election.
I didn't turn on the Clinton's. I still would prefer her, but that's not possible.
Now you presume to read Bill Clinton's mind, just like Maureen Dowd. It's obvious that if President Clinton were out campaigning for Obama more than he is now, you and Maureen Dowd et al would be denouncing him for trying to steal the spotlight, as part of the Clinton's evil plan to seize the nomination!
If Obama wins,it will be his victory. If Obama loses, it will be his defeat. Get over your obsession with what the Clintons are thinking and doing. Stop trying to police party loyalty as if this were something other than the Democratic Party.
What was so wrong with that? Seriously--explain that to me. IMO, BC was saying BO took SC because he got the black vote. And isn't that true? Whoever in a dem primary gets the black vote in SC takes it. He was also saying that HRC could still win the primary like BC did with losing SC.
Good point.
If Obama wanted him out campaigning I have no doubt he would be, brruised and battered as he is geeling- which frankly, anyone with a drop of empathy could relate to given what the media and the so called "progressive" dems and others in the party did to him/them.
Who wouldn't be resentful having had such a long, productive, friendship with someone or some group to be turned on so viciously by the media and by O surrogates who fired up people to turn the AA community.
the Memo's proved that was the plan. Give the A's a reason to turn against the C's and vote for O.
they did a good job. Now it backfires and the C's still get trashed for it.
I'd be bruised and hurt to as would anyone. As I have said earlier anyone who has had a very deep and public betrayal knows how horrible that feels and it doesn't go away overnight.
Still, it is up to O to ask him to campaign, no one campaigns for someone without their invitation.
I'm beginning to think O is full of crap about having Bill campaign.
Another disappointment I've had in him.
I think Bill's made his feelings pretty clear by refusing to endorse the nominee of his party. And their lies the BIG problem. people (like me) kinda of resent that. I can't say how Bill feels but I know how I feel about Bill, he is not behaving at all Presidential
O surrogates used that issue and this is why BC is feeling as he does.
Anyone who has been so publicly demonized and betrayed by those who knew better- friends for God's sake- would have some kind of empathy instead of keeping the meme going.
If you really wanted to win you might consider your rhetoric and stop propagating the punditry spin which followed the infamous but under reported MEMOS from the O campaign about painting the racist meme on them in order to turn the AA vote. Dated BEFORE NH and SC.. You are now driving the wedge in.
I am not for your sometimes anti-BO comments, but you are dead on here. Someone needs to talk about what REALLY happened.
All BC was saying was that it didn't mean HRC couldn't win because BO was expected to win SC just like JJ did.
THAT is not using race as a wedge--it's a fact and there was nothing wrong with pointing that out.
Your EGO and arrogance is both typical of a Obama supporter and a Bush supporter... Basically Fanatics... We're right, taking over, and we're America... The rest of you just shut up and go away... This is our Nation now...
Getting through to a Obama fanatic, Bush fanatic, or Religious fanatic, is Highly Improbable and that is an understatement... Fanatics, like Bush, live in a narrow, subjective, either/ or, lineal, belief and reality... In the Fanatic, lineal, Reality/Belief, one is either with them, or the enemy... Any Democrat not for Obama, becomes the Enemy...
Using Bush as a Model of a tunnel belief Fanatic, it's, let's talk it over, then do it my way... There is no other way in a two dimensional mind... (Actually more a lineal, one way, Belief based mind)
I have no doubt, Bush, like Obama fanatics in their tunnel reality, believe, as Bush does in his, all he does and has done is "right"... For in a lineal "tunnel" reality, if one is not right, they would have to be wrong... Being right pre veils all other possibilities... Belief in that "rightness," veils/shuts out, any other possibility... Their is no arguing, discussion, etc, they're always lineal right... That's how one can be right about flying a plane into a building, Invading another Country, Disrespectful of others, or Ignoring their Candidates behavior...
Ego, arrogance, yes! Respect of others NO!
I think you mistake her being firmly entrenched within the world of reality as arrogance.
Obama is the nominee. Period. Bill Clinton is a denial filled, egomaniac who cannot admit that he made a huge mistake when he recklessly decided that racially divisive comments would help his wife win.
This is the kind of comment these childish, smearing, divisive, untrue, agenda laden, poor winner comments deserve.
It's disingenuous, and you know it. It failed then, and it will fail continuously until common sense finally sinks in.
Why? Because on this site, hundreds of times times that I've witnessed, her supporters have proffered any number of lies about Obama regarding his race, religion, and his politics.
An old saying about glass houses and casting stones comes to mind.
It's high time for you and your ilk to accept the fact that Hil 'n Bill, with the extreme arrogance of history and inevitability, dug their own trench, out of which they could not climb.
The rea pity is that they dragged so many of you in with them.
The things written here about her by so called Dem Progressives were so outrageous you pushed people into this polarization.
If you can remember in the beginning almost every HRC supporter was happy with both candidates and would have gladly voted for either, whoever won even if they supported HRC. There was pride in the Dem party because of what we had done, we broke the barriers not once but twice. This is how Progressives behave. When it became apparent that there were very, very few O supportes who could contain their glee at hurling abuse and venom at HRC, her husband and her supporters no matter how outrageous the tide began to turn... and still many H supporters tried to stay optomistic, tried to use reason, begged for the garbage to stop, but you kept driving the wedge in.
cont.
It might be a little difficult (or beyond you) for you to grasp, but I did not compare supporters... I did not say Bush supporters are Obama supporters, or vice versa... I was addressing the mental "sameness" of Fanaticism...
You would like to spin this as being about Politics in General... Obama versus the Clinton's... Try re-reading what I was addressing... I.E., the Mono Mind Set...
huffingtonpost.com — Dalai Lama: "Of course, I have great respect for, in fact, I love President Bush, because he is very frank, very straightforward. His intentions are good, but some of his policy in spite of his sincere motivation and right goal, and some of his method becomes unrealistic because of lack of understanding about reality."
QUOTE (ChiGuy ) "It's high time for you and your ilk to accept the fact that Hil 'n Bill, with the extreme arrogance of history and inevitability, dug their own trench, out of which they could not climb."
Thank you for your literal demonstration of Fanaticism's Mono view of the World, arrogance, disrespect, and inability to grasp others view of the world... Well Done!
This is just one more phony tactic to elicit sympathy.
It's pouting for attention to the nth degree.
You want to back a candidate who trashed him?
Your choice.
But a lot of people will not go along with you on that path.
There are many, many Democrats who will NOT discuss this publicly. O supporters are nasties.
But they so disagree. And they will vote.
Bill's mouth wrote a check that his behind couldn't cash.
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Please provide a few quotes by Obama where he "trashed" Bill.
Or Hillary for that matter.
I'm betting that you will never reply to this with any evidence other than your say-so.
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Obama was a PART TIME Illinoise state Senator.
He spent 143 days in the senate PRIOR to running for President..
NOT Much expierance there.
Stolen? Lest we forget 10 to 11% of Hillary's votes were by Republicans...the Democrats need to fix this!
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Oh really I think it was Obama who put out a video DEMOCRAT for a day..
If you're insinuating Obama played the race card could you give one specific thing he said? Obama's campaign avoided race conversation like the plague - knowing it would mobilize uneducated white racists.
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Jessie Jackson JR. said after her win in New Hampshire that she didnt cry for Katrina victims, that the South Carolina voters would have to analyze her tears.
Jessie Jackson JR also made a reference to OJ Simpson. about how he would have to be careful about attacking a white women.
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He didn't care who his comments hurt, and apologising after the event was him trying to continue smelling of roses despite deviously attempting to exploit racist tendancy.
No, I don't think he's racist, but he is totally ruthless and fully prepared to use racism in a subliminal manner when it suits his objectives!
The fact that the media spin and the O surrogates put this meme out and people do believe he played the race card. The media still bring it upo every chance they can.
He isn't upset that people think he is a racist, he is upset that people think this way about him, partiicularly after the long record and relationship he had with the AA community. People turned on a dime instead of considering the person. I guess they felt they needed a reason to abandon him/them to vote Barack because of that rel;ationship so the media and the O surrogates provided them with one.
He feels betrayed by the Dem's who should know better who played it for all it was worth when it simply wasn't true.
Everytime his remarks, and Hillary's are taken out of context and used against them to prove this racism meme it is destructive. Now what Beth should be writing about is for O supporters to stop this crap, to work toward Unity and stop promoting disunity.
She is putting it all on BC?
Sorry I don't think so.
In fact, I don't know if he is angry, but I know his feelings are very bruised as anyone who has ever been betrayed so unjustly and so publicly should have some kind of empathy with,
He may or may not be angry, but I certainly am every time I read this garbage.
Anywho, as to the media coverage, I do recall Senator Clinton getting a pretty free ride when everyone was to touting her as a lock for months upon months before Iowa. It's not media bias just because your not the one getting the attention. The fact is that Senator Obama, simply because of his background is going to get hammered by the media more than any other candidate. So along with the extra positive attention he gets, he gets a lions share of the negative as well. I really just don't get the angry Clinton backers. I really can't imagine there would be nearly this much bitterness if the situation was reversed. I would have had no problem whatsoever supporting Senator Clinton. While she might not have been my first choice she would still be the candidate that next best represents the ideals I care about. Clinton supporters, do you really think McCain is that guy for you? I am certainly not trying to be inflammatory towards my fellow democrats. I am simply trying to understand the thinking. There's a new "race card" cartoon up at "Wisdom of Bush"