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Dear Mr. President
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.
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Kudos to Beth B!
If Bill wants to redeem his reputation he can start by ENDORSING his parties nominee for President.
Beth Broderick - this is one fine, sensational article, with great insight. Thanks for putting such
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.
TO ALL THE DEAD-ENDER CLINTONISTAS: Please, give it a freakin' rest. You prided yourselves on being the ones who knew how to "play the game" and the ones who were "tougher" than Obama, and yet here we are, months after the fact, and you're still whining and complaining that someone outplayed the Clintons and won.
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!"
Beth: A wonderful and uplifting post! Sorry the PUMA's are out in farce today!
How dare you call anyone who defends the reputation of Bill and Hillary Clinton PUMAs. I happen to be a Democrat first. I will vote for the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. But I will not stand by and see the hate campaign against Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton continued. I am disgusted that so many Democrats have bought into years of right wing smears against the Clintons. You think PUMAs create Party disunity, but Obama supporters who continue to trash the Clintons risk driving away support for the Democratic cause just as much as the PUMAs.
Dam* right you are!
Hi. Before I write a word - full disclosure I'm an Obama supporter. Waving a white flag.
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.
Dear liberalndfree...if you are white and have been white all of your life...then you have no right to tell us (African Americans ) how we should feel about the Clintons! Yes they played the race-card and don't have the moral decency to admit it, apologize and move on! How dare you or any other Clinton/PUMA supporter to accuse us as the one that created this mess. It has been and IS the Cilntons and their rabid supporters very well could cause the democrats to lose in November. Most of you (us) are poor hard-working class (black & white) that cannot afford another BUSH term. It is you people that will keep your rose colred glasses on in support of these demons that are hell-bent on keeping Obama from being the ONE to break that glass ceiling. If he does not be the ONE to break it./..you can rest assure it will not be HILLARY to do it at anytime!. Obama 08!
The truth is that BO's surrogates pulled the race card against BC to garner the remaining black votes (which the Clinton's always enjoyed) and apologetic white votes (which feuls SOME not all but SOME of BOs support). I don't blame BC for being ticked off about that. I would be apoplectic.
Now, to be clear, I am for BO now, but I despise the disgusting hate campaign against HRC.
A-frickingmen!
one of the most horrible election experiences of my life. And I have been voting since the McGovern fiasco.
While there are many variables to the election and BO did succeed in getting many votes via other means, there was NO WAY BO would have won w/o taking the entire black vote (and by attracting apologetic white votes). Now you could argue, any black candidate needed to do that to win and it was politically savvy, but let's be clear that this is what happened and not that BC used race as a wedge. BC deserves to be exonerated of this false charge and until he is I don't blame him for not being over-the-moon for BO.
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.
"Now to be clear, I am for BO now, but I despise the disgusting hate campaign against HRC"
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 am for BO now because I don't he's our nominee. Dugh.
I didn't turn on the Clinton's. I still would prefer her, but that's not possible.
I am not hating the players...I am hating the games they are playing. Down with Bill & Hillary Clinton and the people that still support them. Obama 08!
How do you know what President Clinton is thinking? Because Maureen Dowd told you so? She used her mind reading skills to demonize Hillary Clinton again a few days ago-- it was all about how she was planning to take over the convention by her evil scheme of putting her name in nomination. And lo and behold, two days later the Obama and Clinton campaigns announce a mutually agreed upon compromise to have the vote, with Senator Clinton voting for Obama and urging her supporters to do likewise!
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.
Bill Clinton's comments comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson after Hillary lost the South Carolina primary and his latest refusal to endorse Obama shows exactly what he is thinking. He has been reduced to a prideful and shallow man with the most grievous character flaw. The Ancient Greeks called it Hubris. And, Greek mythical heroes such as Heracles, Achilles and Agamemnon all displayed such this Hubris before their stardom fell out of the sky.
Bill Clinton's comments comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson after Hillary lost the South Carolina primary"
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.
"how do you know what President Clinton is feeling?"
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.
Poor Bill. Such a victim. Never harmed a fly in his life.
""how do you know what President Clinton is feeling?"
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
pt. 2 from below.
If the O campaign and supporters want to unite the party they ought to cut the crap and get busy... instead they self indulgently, selfishly, narccissiticly keep the trashing and the pundit memes going.THEY are projecting a lot of garbage-still- and acting like such sore losers for crying out loud.
It would behoove the winners to understand what their role is and act with some grace to try to heal some of the wounds that were inflicted and are still being inflicted as just about any thread on HP will tell you.
I'm certainly not defending the PUMA crowd's hatefulness and smears but one's hatefulness does not excuse the others and considering the malicious abuse that was hurled at the C's and her supporters long before Puma came into being one can understand if not approve of the backlash.
I keep thinking "do you want to win or do you want to be right because if you want to win you really ought to stop driving the wedge in and poking the wounds with sticks- and O and his surrogates should really figure out a way to undo the damage they did to the PresidentC.
If they wanted party loyalty they should have been loyal and not treated HRC/BC/and their supporters as enemies.
It is not that he is a racist it is that he will use race as a wedge issue to win.
ummmm, no.
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.
Bravo.
I am not for your sometimes anti-BO comments, but you are dead on here. Someone needs to talk about what REALLY happened.
We wouldn't even be discussing this, had Bill not felt it necessary to try and belittle O's SC win, by pointing out he was BLACK. Every thought about that?
Exactly how. And don't give me that crap that he said that BO was going to win or did win SC because he would garner the black vote. It was a fact and what every single political pundit said over and over again--he is expected to get the black vote and he did.
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.
Dear Beth Broaderick,
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!
Her arrogance?
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.
liar liar, pants on fire.
This is the kind of comment these childish, smearing, divisive, untrue, agenda laden, poor winner comments deserve.
Why do people keep saying that even though he used racism, he isn't a racist? If he used racism to stir up those who are racist, then he betrayed the blacks and his not being a racist himself is meaningless; and if meaningless, he might as well be one.
Your attempt to package Obama supporters alongside Bush supporters has been tried and failed more times than you're obviously aware of, LarBear. No more so that during the apex of the primary season, on these very threads at HuffPo.
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.
As O supporters did to HRC. Painting her as a neocon, dirty, evil, racist. You demonized her from the start, treated her and her supporters as the enemy, used old neocon smear tactics and rumors about her.
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.
ChiGuy...
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!
He knows full well that most people don't consider him a racist.
This is just one more phony tactic to elicit sympathy.
It's pouting for attention to the nth degree.
And how many times have you called someone a racist for not supporting 0bama? Because of your handle, I have been watching what you post.......and you bash away.
President Clinton owes you nothing. He served his time.
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.
Your boy Bill is a hypocrite. He's the one who said politics is full contact, yet he cannot take a little bruising.
Bill's mouth wrote a check that his behind couldn't cash.
"You want to back a candidate who trashed him?"
_________________________________________
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.
It was not Obama supporters deciding that Hillary ran a crappy campaign and lost. It wasn't us who told her to sit with Mellon-Scaiffe and Bill to go on Rush Limbaugh's show. I loved Bill Clinton and have been so disappointed and shocked at what he has become. Bill and Hill have huge egos and it is not becoming. I am sure many Obama supporters respected Bill but now see him tarnishing
his legacy at his own hands. I'm not sure why we are nasty. All I want is for Bill and Hill to take responsibility for the errors of their campaign and acknowledge the hubris that she had in thinking she didni't even need a plan after Super Tuesday. These facts have nothing to do with Obama or those who support him.
ohhh, i see, only Obama has the right to reach across lines, to try to mend fences, to be big enough to try to bring everyone in, to give everyone the opportunity to hear what the Dem's can do, what their policies are.
You people really crack me up... that is just one of the reasons that though I will vote for O i really don't care much for him anymore.
I watched you people twist and turn with the wind. You would assail, attack and smear HRC for something and when 2 days later O would say the same thing or do the same thing it was considered understandable, the right thing to do, he wants to win and he has to do these things... Yet HRC was demonized for the very same thing and "doing and saying whatever it takes to win."
As has Obama.
Watching the FISa vote was a real education in how unbelievably lacking in critical thinking and objectivity most of you are.
more coming.
As for Hillary's expericience,Obama has more legislative experience than Hillary. 12 years as a state senator and 4 years as a US Senator.
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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 had enough experience to out campaign, out fundraise, and out organize her. Oh yeah, she LOST!!!!!!
Well said Beth. Let's hope he takes the time to read it.
Bill Clinton knowingly provoked racism with his comments, and if he thinks his covert tactics went unseen then he is a dyed in the wool fool.
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!
See, that is precisely what is pissing people off.
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.
continues...
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"
The anger is toward the DNC and RBC for manipulating the primaries to select the chosen one. My motto is: remember the GOP in 2000 & 2004, and I can't support a Democratic party which does the same as the GOP did then.
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