It's Personal For Hillary Supporters
Let's get real, almost all of the remaining Hillary Clinton supporters who have not committed to backing Barack Obama are women. And their decision has absolutely nothing to do with politics or policy. There is nothing left to gain for Hillary Clinton politically by having her supporters hold out. And from a policy perspective Hillary Clinton and John McCain are diametrically opposed to one another.
So, why are a lot of these women still saying that they might support John McCain over Barack Obama? Because for them, it's personal. Notice they never, ever talk about how McCain has policy positions closer to Hillary. Because that would be insane and completely indefensible. They always say how Obama hasn't shown enough respect to Hillary or that he he hasn't done enough to reach out to her voters and win them over.
What they're really saying is my husband/boyfriend/father doesn't show me enough respect. The men in my life haven't done enough to reach out to me and win me over.
That sounds harsh, but since there is no plausible political or policy reasons for their petulance, you know it's true. And I know what some will say to this blog post -- you shouldn't alienate these Hillary voters ... you should reach out to them. Yeah, yeah, I'm tired of kissing their ass. If they want to vote against their interests and elect a guy that is going to screw them over just to make a point to themselves or the men in their lives, that's their choice. They know they're being ridiculous and it's time to stop encouraging them.
Having said all that, there is one person who can make a difference in changing their minds. And it certainly isn't me. It's Hillary Clinton. So far she has done precious little to do this. She gave five minutes to Barack Obama in her concession speech and talked for 35 minutes about herself and her supporters. And she went to one campaign stop in Unity, New Hampshire with Obama. That's it. Frankly, that sucks.
Tonight is the night she has to stop all this nonsense and really bring her backers into the fold. If she fails to do this in a convincing way, then she will prove once and for all that she only cares about herself and not about her party and her own principles. This is the most important speech at the convention. We're going to find out if Hillary Clinton will deliver for the Democratic Party or just look out for herself.
PS -- We are having live coverage of the convention, including play-by-play coverage of the speeches (including Hillary's tonight), on our website starting at 5PM Eastern every night of the convention.
Follow Cenk Uygur on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks
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I'm reminded of the parallel struggles for the right for women to vote and the emancipation of the slaves in the 19th Century. That towering figure, Susan B. Anthony, was enraged and thundered that "Those n*****s got it before we did!"
Am I the only one to see a similarity between the PUMA's and Susan B. Anthony's attitudes?
It seems to me that rage and resentment are at the root of their thinking. Another piece of our national baggage has been shed, and God willing, gender discrimination will too. The next woman to run for the presidency will find the trail well-blazed.
Let's get on with the business at hand: clearing out Bush's Repugnican cesspool and restoring our country to one we can be proud of.
Dear Brother Cenk,
An ecellent tough love essay/ post, I agree. Yet Senator Hillary Clinton's speech tonight at the DNC was excellent she showed herself to be a leader tonight and I expect President Bill Clinton to do no less tomorrow, so this issue has become moot as far as I'm concerned. Agape.
O/B 08
The forces Hillary Clinton unleashed are the inevitible consequences of resentment politics. Call it the Iron Law of Resentment: Once you inflame your supporters' sense of resentment to win power, you lose control of them; it's no longer about you the politician any more; it's about THEIR resentment; and a significant portion of the followers you incite will not be willing to give this resentment up, just because YOU got what you wanted.
When Hillary Clinton realized she was losing the battle for the democratic party nomination, she recast her campaign as emblematic of the lifetime of slights, double-standards and injusticeS suffered by her entire generation of women. Her message found fertile ground, as the politics of resentment often does. Women saw their own struggles reflected in hers; saw Barack Obama as the embodiemnt of all the men who'd ever kept them down, been promoted over their heads, or 'stole' the kudos that should have gone to them.
It worked. They're furious. And no, they don't have ANY intention of giving this up, no matter what Hillary wants or doesn't. It's not about Hillary any more. It's about them, and they're still mad as hell about it. Fed up to here and determined to take it no longer!
Barack Obama can go jump in the lake.
Sadly, that's what always happens when someone opts to play the resentment card; you can't unplay it.
Cenk, as usual, you nailed it!
Regarding your last sentence: "We're going to find out if Hillary Clinton will deliver for the Democratic Party or just look out for herself."
I'm afraid we all know the answer by now and sadly it's not the one we would like.
Haven't we already seen enough of the nastiness Hillary is capable of displaying when her monumental ego takes over?
From her mocking of Obama's charisma ["..choirs of angels singing form the sky..."] to suggesting (and secretly hoping) that he, like Bobby Kennedy, might be shot during the campaign...!!!!!
Anyone still wondering which one is the real Hillary????
Visualize Dick Cheney in a pantsuit with a blond wig and you'll get the picture!
If Hillary Clinton wants to be President, she must support Obama 100%. If Obama loses, Hillary will be partially-blamed. She knows this. There is a possibility that Obama could lose and Hillary won't be blamed, but this is quite remote...and the Senator must surely understand this, too. Her political career will crumble if Obama loses, because the media will blame her and her inability to unify her troops with Obama's. No matter what we think, the media narrative will be that it is Hillary's fault.
With this in mind, it seems reasonable to conclude that Hillary, if she is looking out for herself, will thrown 100% support behind Obama.
Only if her judgment is clouded by anger and ego will she resist.
So the last sentence is partially right. We will find out if Hillary can deliver tonight...and we'll know whether she's looking out for herself...but those things will be in parallel. If her speech isn't 100% supportive, we will not argue that she values her Political Future...we will argue that she has thrown away her Political Future on a petty, angry grudge.
Whatever you think of Hillary, her political future is now inexorably tied to Obama's. He cannot lose without her being blamed...and she cannot win any re-election if she is partially to blame for electing John McCain...
I think that what Clinton fails to realize is this: if she tepidly supports Obama and the pumas follow through with their threats and McCain is elected, the majority of Democrats who stood for Obama will never forgive her. She will be a pariah in her own party and will likely lose her Senate seat as well. Nothing short of actively and fervently campaigning for Obama will do. She and the former president have so far done nothing but offer "left-handed' support. Her arrogance blinds her to how suicidal this tactic will be for her political aspirations.
I can identify with the Hillary supporters, being a 60 yr. old white woman, having come of age in the 60's. You sort of had to be a woman then to totally get it, however, I haven't supported HIllary because I think Obama is what we need at this time. If the results had been reversed I would have been devastated and angry, however, as adamant as I was, maturity (although not alot I confess) allows one to roll with the punches and stand up for the good of the whole.
If these women don't put aside their disappointment now and vote for Obama, it is truly a case of getting what they deserve, the sad part is that everyone else will get robbed. If resentment motivates them to vote for McCain, or write in Hillary or whatever their anger is pushing them toward, the rest of us will suffer and maybe they aren't intelligent enough to see that.
Hillary can do more and has a responsibility to do more to put her supporters straight. If Hillary doesn't do it, we all loose and Hillary can count on a disappointing future for herself, because she holds the power to sway her supporters, and she has absolutely not delivered them from their resentment and anger.
Put your big girl pants on Hillary and make your supporters proud of you by aggressively insisting they vote for Obama.
Right on, Cenk, and there is no other way to put it. If you truly supported Hillary Clinton, and you are now planning to vote for John McCain, you are casting a vote against everything Hillary Clinton stands for, everything she worked for as First Lady, everything she continues to work for as a United States Senator. And a note to those who believe Obama hasn't shown enough "respect": respect is earned; the hardcore Clinton holdouts have not earned that respect. Senator Clinton HAS earned that respect and she has been shown it at every turn despite idiots like James Carville and Lanny Davis undermining her at every turn.
To me, the people who plan to vote for Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney or for Ralph Nader where he's on the ballot are more honest than PUMA and their ilk who claim they are going to McCain. At least they, viable or not, do not represent policies that will take this country further and further into the neocon wilderness.
Cenk, maybe men should not be writing about this subject. I don't think you understand how hard women have had to struggle to attain the most minimal of human rights in this country. And what did we see in the 08 primaries? - pundits discussing Hillary Clinton's clothes and body type! I was not a Hillary supporter, but I'm filled with anger over the sexism exhibited by the press and many of the voters.
Why aren't you writing about the racism that caused virtually all blacks to vote for Obama because he's half black? This racism was actually the cause of Clinton's loss of the nomination.
First of all, there has been no more consistent a critic of the "me and mine" shallowness of identity politics over the years than Cenk Uygur.
Second, you have no basis in fact with which to assert that racism was the motivating factor in blacks supporting Obama. The facts refute that. When Obama began the race, the majority of blacks supported Hillary Clinton. If race-loyalty were the single, decisive factor behind Obama's support, then the vast majority of blacks would have been behind Obama from the beginning.
Third, you have no basis in fact with which to assert that the black vote in and of itself was the decisive factor in Hillary Clinton losing the nomination.
"Maybe men should not be writing about this subject???"
Would it surprise you hear that many Irish-Americans vote for Irish-Amercans, that many Polish-American vote for Polish-Americans as well as many African-Americans voted for an African-American?
When an excellent candidate is running in your particular niche, of course, you will give him/her special consideration and if he/she is truly excellent, you will give that person your vote. It happens all the time.
In Mr. Obama's case he is excellent in most areas and was better qualifieid that Mrs. Clinton so I happily voted for him as did millions of of other Americans of every hyphenated variety, not just African-Americans (we are around 15% of the population of the U.S.A.).
P.S. Do note that we African-Americans did not vote en masse for Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or Alan Keyes.
Amen!
If this is the case, and I don't necessarily concede this, then the diehard Clinton supporters need to reflect. Are they dismantling stereotypes or are they making their own plight worse by acting in ways that support the stereotype they so dearly hate.
There is too much in this election that has been "personal" This election is not about the personality of Obama, Clinton or McCain.
It's about rescuing the country from the conservative and neoconservative movement and the trail of destruction they have left at home, abroad and to our constitution. It's about the future of our country and planet and whether or not we will have one.
I wish all sides could see the big picture here.
Exactly. And yet we have so many who claim to be so informed who hang on all this dribble the media spews, as if any of it makes any difference.
The fact is that over 70% of the population knows, *knows*, we are on the wrong path economically, politically, globally...and yet they wanna vote for the guy who will continue the last 8 years and in fact make it WORSE because waaaaaa, "I don't like Obama", waaaaaa, "I wanted Hillary", waaaaaaa, "he didn't do enough to win me over".
Well, when you are poorer 4 years from now, when the Supreme Court is so conservative you are watching your human rights go out the window, when the middle class of 2012 looks like the working class of 2000, when we are in a ware with Russia in addition to all the others, I am blaming YOU. It's not McSame. YOU have the ability to change this. YOU had the chance in 2000, and even worse in 2004, and here we sit, looking disaster in the face and you wanna vote for McSame because "I like him".
Brilliant. Lot's of gray matter went into that.
Perfectly said.
People want this election to be about them, this time. George Bush has made sure of that by eight years of making it about him and his cronies.
But in doing so, in demanding respect as women many fail to see that Barack is the candidate that does respect women. The fact that women don't run for president in the GOP doesn't seem to dawn on them, so punishing the guy who defeats one is unfair. We're the good guys.
Hillary needs to make a statement, that women risk losing the right of choice, of what happens to their bodies and those of their daughters if this old man gets into office.
EXACTLY!
I've often wondered how is it that this "respect-obsessed" crowd of angry white women ever considered voting for McCain after learning that he called Cindy a C***T in front of some of his friends (just because she dared to imply he was losing his hair)!!
Do they think McCain (or Bill, for that matter) has any more respect for Hillary than Obama?
I agree that any rational person would have decided to support the party candidate by now.
These women are beyond child bearing age so they are not worried about reproductive rights, apparently they are comfortably well off because they are not worried about the economy.
It is the ultimate expression on selfishness.
I would just add that there is an air of bias to their claim that it wasn't Barack's turn.
Every word is perfect, except...
They need to realize that if they don't support Obama in significant numbers, they will nail the last nail in Hillary's hope chest for POTUS. Obama supporters will remember.
And so I pledge... ;-)
I completely agree. I've tolerated some of these Clinton supporters tantrums for too long. If they want to vote for McCain then go right ahead but I will not kiss their ass, grovel, or plead for them to support Obama.
In my opinion Hillary has a huge task tonight, and her political future depends on it. She needs to convincingly tell her supporters it's time to get aboard and and do what's right for the country and their party. If she doesn't do that then I don't think she will have a political future.
If Obama loses, fair or not, Hillary and Bill will be blamed from here to high heaven. When it is time for her reelection in New York she's going to have a hard time trying to get Obama supporters and especially blacks to support her and she can count out a future run for president if he loses.
It's an emotional choice. Unforfortunately at the risk of electing McCain, they are voting against their own interest.
I don't undrestand it.
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