Democrats Unite

The violence of the political dialogue lately has made me understand how desperate the electorate is after nearly eight years of Repugnicans and three stolen elections. I totally understand Obamamania--and I also get the frustration of voters who wanted this to be the year we broke through the glass ceiling for women.

But let's get real. It's time for Democrats to put all personal bias aside and unite behind the things we believe in: a planet we can live on, reproductive choice, workers rights, health care for all, education for poor and middle class students, fair taxes, a Constitution made whole, rescuing America from war profiteers -- if indeed there is still time.

It's already very late. It's too late for quarrels about whether race or gender is more restricting. It's too late for prognostications about a future presidency we won't know until it has unfolded. Remember so-called compassionate conservatism? It turned out to be neither compassionate nor conservative. Why anybody believes election slogans mystifies me. But we do know this: a landslide for Democrats will change the direction of this country. So let's join forces to make it happen--and let's start now.

I don't believe that passionate Hillary supporters will vote for McCain in fits of pique. I sure won't. The truth is that Obama and Clinton are so similar politically that without generational and gender differences they'd be indistinguishable. Perhaps the passion for or against these two Democrats was revved up by how very close they are in vision. Sometimes people need to disagree for the sake of disagreeing.

Obama is right to offer his applause for Hillary's tenacity. He is right to take the high road. I doubt that she will be remembered for taking the low road. In politics as in life, tenacity is all. Where is Chappaquiddick now that Teddy Kennedy has honorably served decade after decade in the Senate?

If Hillary loses the nomination, maybe she can get a life by divorcing Bill. I was always a defender of their curious marriage but having seen him try to sabotage her campaign, I wonder. Maybe she'd get a burst of energy by cutting loose. Imagine her with additional fire -- she could rescue our stalled space program with her own built-in rocket.

Comments

[IAM4CLINTON]

Excellent analysis from The National Review-

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjQ4NjU0OGYyMmZkYWNlMTgyYzQxZmRjOGJiNDg2ZDc=

[bigbingtheory]

Not really but what do you expect from a magazione that thought going to war with Iaq was a good thing. The author starts with an analogy that is laughably absurd. That Hillary has won 3 quarters and will end up with the most points at the end of the game. How so?
She does not hjave nor can she surpass the popular vote without ignoring all the caucus sates and including the illigimtate votes from MI and FL. Even with that criteria she leads him by maybe 20,000. Meanwhile Obama has more pledged delegates, more states won, more super delegates, more money and a broader coalition of support. Try reading the Naton or Harper's. The New Republic sold out a long time ago.

[Kremfresch]

Hillary quotes Karl Rove's math... Her supporters quote the National Review... Which party does Hillary represent again?

[KarateKid]

LMAO. Are you Terry McAuliffe in disguise. You're as funny as he is.

[clevelandchick]

The National Review? That right-wing Neocon rag? You've got to be kidding me.

[Karenina44]

Jake Tapper at ABC blasts this as well....

[Xacko]

Bravo! I applaud this article. I see absolutely nothing wrong with the tone or tenacity of Hillary's campaign. She faught hard because she is a very deserving candidate who could and can do great things for this country. It appears Obama has bested her, however, in a very close contest. Unfortunately, the whole Michigan and Florida thing has muddied the waters; it's a problem the party must address prior to the convention.

Losing is hard. And settling on a candidate who you are convinced is second best is not much fun either. But the important thing is a Democratic victory in November. It's not about being a passionate Hillary supporter, or a passionate Obama supporter. it's about being a passionate supporter of justice and fairness. There is too much at stake to let personalities get in the way. We must end the war. We must ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health care. We must guarantee a happy future for Americans by encouraging the creation of good jobs, protecting the environment, and defending the Bill of Rights. These are issues that matter. We must win in November!!

[thefooligan5]

fantastic. we need this mind set to pervade the party. i don't say this as an obama supporter. i say this as a democrat. everyone needs to look in the mirror and they will see beneath their support for whichever candidate that they are all democrats underneath and support democratic ideals.
There is no time for emotions to get in the way of changing this country.
I implore everyone to think about issues such as economy, gender issues, women's rights, war/peace etc. and say to yourselves, "Does McCain really support my ideals? Or does Obama?"
I believe that rationality will win the day.

[jeplanet]

Xacko
I really don't like the underlying tone of this article. But I agree with the rest of your post whole-heartedly.
Democrats Unite.

[Kundera]

Gore doesn't fight when he lost. Lefties whine.
Hillary fights when she lost. Lefties whine.
Nader runs for President. Lefties whine.
Perot runs for President. Lefties don't whine.
Kerry/Edwards don't fight when they lost. Lefties whine.
Bill Clinton / Hillary Clinton will do or say anything to win. Lefties are shocked.

[bigbingtheory]

Lefty's don't whine. We plot violent take overs. Hope you are well armed.

[clevelandchick]

Don't feed Neocon trolls, they feed on blood and misery.

[reggieb]

This lefty is shocked that you are spending your time thinking about lefties when party is in the crapper.

[Karenina44]

This Leftie would like another sip of her Pinot.... Come on, forget the kool-aid, we are all about the wine.

Darn latte drinking, npr bag toting, prius driving, college educated, whole foods shopping (well, trader joe's -- two buck chuck is perfect in this economy) liberals. ;)

[stanjz]

Maybe Senator Clinton does truly love Bill Clinton. I'm not the judge. It does seem that he has exerted a bad influence on her. I had nothing but sympathy for her until she acted more like a leg braker than a fighter.

[clevelandchick]

I thought it weird she went there with her post. People can have opinions or even buy into the rumours about their relationship but in the end staying in that relationship is their choice. To be so invested in a person that you publicly declare their marriage should end is a tad creepy to me. It reeks of those people who care more about Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears than they do their neighbor.

[RBChicago]

Ms. Jong - Excellent post, but do not expect much postitive feedback, Obama supporters do not appear to be gracious in victory. I actually believe most people backing Obama on Huffington Post are actually Republicans, at least I hope so, hard to take that Dems could be so ignorant.

[bigbingtheory]

And your conclusions aren't condescending in the least. Keep on broad brushing. You might feel smart, but it's obvious to others you are not.

[clevelandchick]

Judging from your comment, it's painfully obvious that Hillary supporters aren't the most sportsmanlike losers either.

Your assertion that Obama supporters are really Republicans lacks all logic, reason and evidence. It's been the Republicans who have been bashing Obama's patriotism and telling their flock to go out and vote for Hillary 'for a day' in all of the open Democratic primaries with quite a lot of success. It is estimated that in Indiana 7% of the primary voters were from Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos where he's asking his followers to change their registration and vote for Hillary to keep the race going.

As an Obama supporter I wholly agree with Erica's post. Maybe the reason you shouldn't expect positive feedback for your comments is that you make ridiculous claims where the evidence shows the exact opposite of what you assert.

[Karenina44]

Dear RB --

Please do not judge all Obama supporters by the bad apples. I will not condescend and tell you I have been perfect in this melee, but these past few weeks have been painful and sad to watch the party fracture and for us to devour ourselves, expecially after our collective trauma of George Bush.

Can we talk about what we have in common?

I listen to Thom Hartmann, in his wisdom, on AirAmerica, and he says over and over again that he doesn't have a horse in this race, but knows both candidates would be inifinitely better than John McCain. When listeners call in and start trashing one of the candidates, Thom stops them, and says "now defend that same candidate.­"

Regards,
Karen in SF

[democratsaint]

he didn't have the guts to vote on 126 votes at a state senator,he now wants to hide behind is wifes skirt,saying she is free to attack anyoe but no one can say a word about her,sorry but those were HER words,her explanation was just as bad. this country has done a lot of good things before him running for office.yet thats the only thing she is proud of.he sat in the church for 20 years yet cant remeber him saying those things.oh like he didnt go to church the sunday aftrer 9-11. he had tapes of rev wright sent to him when he went to law school. he wants to say he was from a working family ,yet he went to private school his whole life,who paid for it?
he says he is not a politician yet he does want to count fla and mich because it would hurt his campaign.ie its more important that he is nominated than they have a vote.
sorry but he want win in nov, and you people will call everyone a racists,yet he has run a racists campaign from he start.bush got more black votes than clinton does.

[bigbingtheory]

This is an easily debunked tlaking point. In the Illinois Senate it is common practice to vote "present" in protest. FL and MI broke the rules, Hillary agreed those delegates wouldn't count. This is all elementary information you are ignorant of BECAUSE you have foolishly given your support to esomeone who is lying to you.

[loocifer]

That's bullshit. Why not vote nay instead if you really wanted to protest. Because if you did than you might actually have a record to examine!

[JMorgan]

democratsaint is also known as Mattie, and is as deceitful in this mask as in the other about Obama's record. After being informed of the facts of Obama's voting record, Mattie/dem­ocratsaint is now completely mischaracterizing Obama's actions by implying Obama didn't vote when in fact he voted "present". Voting present is a common and valuable legal tool for crafting legislation that more elected representatives can sign on to.

I'm concerned about voters like you with very definite opinions on politics, but with little or no practical understanding or experience for the mechanics of government.

Voting "present" isn't the same as not voting. There is tremendous value in voting "present" or abstaining.

Abstaining (or voting present) is a legislator's method of registering his desire for the legislation to move forward, but not in its current form. He has a problem with some part of it, how it's to be implemented, perhaps, and with enough other abstentions the author of the bill then has a record for how (or if) to move forward in getting the legislation to a place where a majority will pass it into law.

[democratsaint]

see part of the problem with this country is blind voting for party. sorry i feel that obama IS NOT qualified to be president.so why should i vote for him?party loyalty?that a lousy reason.tha­ts why we had 8 years of bush.he is black?wow thats another great reason.he himself said he would not run for nation wide office cause he was not qualified for it. now we are expected to vote for a person based on the fact he is a democrat and ignore his lack of any meaningful expierence. a man who did nothing but push racism out front because it helped him.he turned his pastors ranting about the country into racism because you idiots would buy that. then when he dumped his pastor for the same things he said you bought it again.

[bigbingtheory]

I'd suggest you were so busy swallowing Hilalry Clinton nasty talking points that you failed to actually research the cadidate. Truly, you arte clueless if you still believe that propoganda. That propoganda is what is hurting our party and why many of Dems who supported her in the past, are now very angry with her. She brainwashed you into thinking Obama is less than he is. He went to private school on a scholarship by the way. That's an easuily checked fact. He grew up poor with a single mom. Do some research before you throw your vte away.

[Kremfresch]

How bout the party PLATFORM? hmmm? How bout the fact that EVERY position held by your hero Hillary is also held by Obama? Hmmm? How about waking up and actually PAYING ATTENTION instead of being led around by the ring through your nose?

[KarateKid]

Vote for anyone you wish. We could give a rip. I've signed up 249 new voters, all Obama voters, so we'll try to get over your "loss".

[lisakaz2]

Wow. I'm amazed at this change of heart. I hope reading about McCain's coded references to Griswold v. Ct. (1967) in RH Reality Check will convince a lot of women where their true interest lay, not to mention McCain's pov re: the Lily Ledbetter law about unequal pay (I really relate to Ledbetter's story all-too-well). I do hope you are sincere.

I do wonder what you have to say about HRC still trying to change the rules to somehow win the nomination. (Like losing 2 of the first 3 games and wanting a 3 of 5, then 4 of 7, etc.) Arianna and NARAL thought it was over and mathematically it should be. The goal should be to defeat McCain and retake our country as We the People. I think Obama, a constitutional law professor, knows an awful lot about the latter.

I'm somewhat surprised too about your comment about HRC divorcing Bill. I did think he played a very uneven role for her. Reminds me of the odd relationship between Henriette and Joseph Caillaux (she shot a newspaper critic, Gaston Calmette, to death in 1914 -- Edward Berenson's book on the subject is an awesome account): Henriette may have shot Calmette not really to "save" Joseph from an attacker willing to publish anything to bring him down but to sabotage his career (if unconciously). Because the Clintons both share political ambitions, I doubt she'll ever leave him.

[gmc940]

Remember that there were a VERY HIGH PERCENTAGE of Republicans who flatly stated that they would not vote for McCain immediately after Super Tuesday. Rush Limbaugh said he would support Hillary over McCain. So did Ann Coulter. That didn't last long.

Once the nomination is wrapped up, Dems will have a choice between the Democratic Nominee and John McCain. Once that happens, I am confident Dems will fall in line just like the Republicans have.

[jeplanet]

I agree. But there will be a few seething individuals who will refuse to get over this. Only a few though, I think.
It's too bad, because they'll be missing out on a chance to be a part of REAL CHANGE. They'll regret it in years to come.
Just like I still regret not going to see Princess Diana when she was in my City.
Different, but you know what I mean.

[KarateKid]

What you say is true but I could care less about people who vote out of emotion rather than the issues. They are not voting FOR something, but rather AGAINST something. So, who cares? This country is full of dummies.

[LAR1969]

Voting for McCain makes you.... a Republican.

[JediForce]

Clinton is obsessed. She wants the white house, damned be the democratic party, and damn be feminism and whatever else she has to tear down on her delusional journey.

She is worse than Glenn Close in "Fatal attraction". I watched that movie again recently. At least Glen Close did die at the end after being shot and when the credits started rolling. I can see HRC getting up an arguing with the director that she is not finished, she has more acting to do, and that he is a sexist for asking her to die. Instead she would have Michael douglas and his family die so she is the last one standing.

Well, that movie would have been ruind, and so is this presidential election if the democrats don't wake up and ditch her and her disbarred lawyer of a husband.

[JMorgan]

Erica Jong writes, "The truth is that Obama and Clinton are so similar politically that without generational and gender differences they'd be indistingu­ishable."

Hardly. And the fact that Erica Jong believes that demonstrates she's ignorant of the candidates' records, policy proposals and is a poor judge of character.

Jong's posits that Hillary's failure to connect with the 17 million Democrats that voted for Obama is due to Bill Clinton's sabotaging his wife's aspirations. That is an ironic conundrum for the feminist Jong, that I don't know how she rectifies. I don't happen to believe that anything Bill did or said was without Hillary's consent, knowledge, blessing or outside of her own world and political views. But as Jong does believe it, how does she support a candidate for CEO and CIC of the U.S. who fails to run the one "organization" she supposedly has complete control over (her campaign)?

Bill and Hillary Clinton ran a racist campaign that should have feminists up in arms. Discrimination against group is discrimination against all groups. For Jong to focus on Bill, and ignore Hillary's lies, the racist "whispering campaign" undertaken by Clinton's surrogates that still goes on, and by Hillary herself (just last night, and whenever she states that she's "more electable", is racist!) demonstrates that Jong fails to understand the rejection of Hillary isn't about her being a woman, or second best - Hillary is UNACCEPTABLE as a candidate.

[tdbach]

Care to disabuse Ms. Jong of that notion that Obama and Clinton are politically near-clones? Please clarify these momentous differences.

[PatrickWalker]

You start of right, then off into the deep end. I used to denigrate the Clintons but once you realize how far to the right Obama is on freemarket issues, sorry, he's no longer a Democrat at all. He's more Joe Liberman than Bernie Sanders.

Who is open for continued WTO "Doha" talks? If you guess Hillary, you guessed wrong. It's hilarious to see all these young people who were in the streets in Seattle suddenly bamboozled by Obama's oki-doke and not even realize he's their actual *enemy*. Gen-X is so lost now, I actually fear we gain control.

Why is Obama unable to get get the blue-collar vote? Because his unions that back him are so weak right-wingers positively *love* him for it. For instance, the SEIU, enamoured with "bigger is better" is more interested in growing its ranks than to actually ... I don't know ... file a single grievance against management and protect its existing members?!

There is a right-wing pattern emerging on the Obama side. It began with his unwillingness to let the word "regulation" pass his lips, his marketbased solution to healthcare, on through NAFTAgate, and now a willingness to proceed with the next round of WTO talks (they're in retreat but still going). Yeah, that only works WONDERS for Obama's supporters.

If people think they were stabbed in the back by the Clintons in the mid-1990s, they ain't seen nuthin' yet.

[kdubbg]

Where did you get this? He wants to change the entire way trade agreements are structured and implement Fair-trade vs Free-trade.
re union support. I may have missed soem, but besides the SEIU he's gotten endorsements from:

United steel workers
Communication Workers of America
American Postal Workers Union
Unite Here
United Mine workers of America
International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
the American Federation of Government Employees
plus nine AFL-CIO unions and four from Change to Win.

Do you seriously think that voting for mcCain would be better? Because your horse is out of the race and out to pasture.

[jah2008]

Um, Dems cannot unite as long as Hillary is out there dividing the party. Could you please tell that to Senator Clinton?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/21/clinton-says-shes-willing_n_102934.html

[Axolotl]

Erica,

Please help us discipline and punish Hillary for all of her trashy, low-road behavior throughout this campaign.

Her equating today her self-caused voting in FL and MI to the struggle for the vote by blacks and women is truly insulting to both groups. Simply awful.

She remains the worst possible role model for young girls and women. What awful, lying, cheating, cry-baby behavior.

(Signed) A woman wronged by Hillary to the point that she is going to puke into her Hillary sweatshirt.

[hopeless277]

Hey, folks, she ain't goin' nowhere. You'll see her in Denver challeging every vote, every decision. You'll see her call Obama 'illegitimate' when MI and FL aren't seated to her wishes. Trust me, in Clintonland either she wins or no one does.

[BubbaC33]

Its good to see Obama supporters are not hesitant about trying to hurt his chances by further alienating the Clinton supporters and the center of the Democratic Party.

[bigbingtheory]

Wake up Clinton supporter! She is hurting our chances. Therer are many moderate Obama supporters. If you expect us, who have been defeneding the nominee against your candidates scuroulous attacks, to now placate you, you are mistaken. We can't make you fall out of love with Hillary. You jerks have been offending us, those who support the nominee, for 2 months. We don't wexpect you to let go of your petty and bitter belief that somehow we're all duped or mesmerized and Hillary got a raw deal.