Wake Up Democrats: You Are Hung up on Barack, but Hillary is What You Need
As a long-term registered Democrat who increasingly identifies as an independent and has weathered a torrid, post-9/11 love affair with conservatism, I am in a good position to judge Democratic prospects this nominating season. And I think we ought to listen to Mama and let Daddy-o go.
Fellow Democrats, there's something I've been meaning to tell you, but I've been a little uneasy bringing it up. Well, here goes. I don't think Barack Obama is for you. And I think we need to talk about it.
Wait, wait, before you get defensive--just hear me out. I know you love him. I know he's got a lot to offer. He's handsome, brainy, charming, passionate, and your love is brand spankin' new. Of course he wants you madly - who wouldn't? - and you're crazy about him.
But sweeties, listen to me: you don't really know this man.
And that's a big problem.
For starters--and please don't hate me for saying this--he's too young for you. Yes, I know JFK was young, too, but that was a long time ago, the world was simpler then, and anyway, Barack Obama--lovely as he is--is no Jack Kennedy.
When he pursued your nomination, JFK was a war hero. He had served six years in the U.S. House and--count em!--eight years in the U.S. Senate. Barack Obama has served seven years in the Illinois state legislature and three and a half in the U.S. Senate, one of those on the campaign trail. So please wake up and realize this man is not your first love. He may have JFK's charm, but he does not have his level of experience.
Next, you've been acting sort of like groupies lately, and it's getting embarrassing. I mean, crying and fainting when he speaks? What's that about? Are you nominating a President or the next American Idol?
Sure, Barack wants to help the disadvantaged, and students, and cares about energy independence. I hear you. Sure he gets you hot when he looks into your eyes and delivers his stirring speeches. But can he provide for and protect you and your children?
He wants to raise income taxes, social security taxes, and corporate taxes, straight across the board. That is no way to grow an economy.
And--I have to say it--the whole Jeremiah Wright incident really freaked me out.
"God damn America!?!"
Aren't you American? You can try to rationalize it away, sweeties, but that was a major dis--of YOU. And of me. And of every American, black or white, who doesn't believe that our country, for all its faults, is the Antichrist. Since when does a guy who loves you let his friends put you down?
Consider this: your sweetie Barack believes he can solve the world's problems by talking with our enemies. But over twenty years of friendship, he hasn't managed to influence his good friend and "spiritual mentor" Reverend Jeremiah Wright. How's he going to manage Iran's Mahmoud "The-Holocaust-is-a-Myth" Ahmadinejad, whom he has pledged to meet, without preconditions, in the first term of his administration?
He's already taking you for granted. He says he values you, but then he treats everyone who shlepped out to vote in Michigan and Florida like you're invisible. And forget about getting an autograph.
OK, I'm almost finished. Just let me put in a word about Hillary.
I know, I know, you've known her forever, and the newness has worn off. She's like that worn-in pantsuit you borrowed from your Mom, and what's sexy about that? But with her, you know exactly what you're getting.
She's got years of experience. Eight years in the White House advising the President. Trust me, she knows her way around.
She can talk policy till she's red, white, and blue in the face.
She cares about all of you, even those whose votes Howard Dean doesn't want to have count (Howard Dean--I warned you about that guy, too).
She would move heaven and earth to have you. You've got to admire her passion and determination! She cares about people in need around the world. But she also cares about you! She's brainy AND she's shrewd. And she gets the big picture.
She's no fan of war, but she understands that when you're dealing with terrorists like the ones targeting Iraqi civilians and our troops, kumbaya don't cut it. Back in August 2006, even before the surge, she was practically chanting, "Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Rumsfeld's got to go!" because she knew we needed a fresh approach to get our mojo back.
She understands not everyone loves you, and not everyone is nice, and sometimes having hope is not enough. This is important. Because I know you don't like to think about it, but you have enemies.
Lots of people are jealous of your beauty, freedom, and strength, and they are plotting every day to hurt you. She will protect you. Pre-9/11, Bill wasn't as vigilant as he should have been, what with all the philandering. But you don't need to worry about that with her--she's been dreaming about you her whole life, and she'll be faithful.
Wild sex appeal doesn't last. Dedication does.
Besides, from the right angle, I think she's very attractive.
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You are in a relationship with a liar and manipulator. there are books on co-dependency that will help you break free of the Clintons. You deserve more!
As for Wright: I will take someone who says "God damn America" then serves the sick, homeless, and hungry and served in our military, over the fatcats (Bush/Chen
You impress me busybeez. Great comment.
I usually like to dissect the intellectual merits of an article, but there would first have to be intellectual merits. So that said,
THiIS IS TRASH.
Huffpo should start hiring some of us commenters to write if this is what it has come to, just terrible.
This article is steeped in the same condescending tone that Hillary Clinton is famous for. Sorry..."s
Whatever Sen. Clinton's qualifications I wonder if her supporters ever stop to reflect on why so many perfectly respectable Americsns find her so repellent. I would say It's because she behaves and speaks like Heather writes. Like Heather, she talks down to people and acts as if she expects obedience and deference to her ostensibly superior judgement.
Apparently the Clinton campaign and the brilliant and very sweet Heather believe that if you don't support Hillary you must be childishly infatuated or deluded or an ungrateful reprobate or perhaps just plain stupid.
It's intensely disrespectful.
Granted I'm sure Heather is both utterly brilliant and quite "sweet" but who is she to tell me what I "need?" Thanks but no thanks Heather and Hillary, although I appreciate your sage advice and your attempts to save me from my reckless political immaturity, I assure you I am perfectly able to think and vote for myself.
Hillary talks as if she can do it alone: and I profoundly mistrust that instinct. I think we would have had universal healthcare 15 years ago if Hillary had understood that the will to get it done comes from the people, not the politicians. Instead, she kept the people out of the process, instead trusting to secrecy to get it done. And it didn't get done: corporations were allowed to frame the debate, and it failed miserably. I mistrust her instinct for secrecy -- I've had enough of presidents who think they know best, and they don't have to be accountable to the people for everything.
I don't know if Barack Obama will live up to the hope and the promise we see in him. I know that Hillary -- strong as she is on policy -- doesn't even think the dreams are practical, that we could possibly live up to them. Frankly, I'd rather go with someone who has a vision to make things much better, not one who sees incremental change as good enough.
What you fail to understand, in your focus on those words of Rev. Wright's, is the larger context -- and indeed, context is everything and in a very concrete way Rev. Wright expressed my fears about the direction of this country under Republican leadership.
And your insinuation that we don't know enough about Barack Obama ... well, please, you haven't been paying attention. He's my senator from Illinois, thank you, and yes, we know him well enough. My kid goes to the same summer camp as his: I see him at camp some days. I like the way his campaigns are true grassroots campaigns, that his campaign has been shoring up local party infrastructures in every state he's been in, that he inspires people to think we can be better than we currently are. I like his acknowledgment that he can't do it alone -- he needs the support of we the people. And that we the people are going to have to hold his feet to the fire to get the work of the people done.
Frankly, I know more about Hillary Clinton than I ever wanted to know -- and I'm sure the Republicans via the traditional media will continue to root through the underwear drawers of both her and her husband if she wins the presidency. I would prefer to be spared that. I grant you that Hillary knows policy up one side and down the other, that she's intelligent and witty and probably charming in person. But I am disturbed by her tendency to lie, by her tendency to tell us what she thinks we want to hear, by her cosying up to the VRWC -- and yes, she was right about that all those years ago, by the people she prays with, by her dependence on the culture of consultants. I don't like the way she thinks Washington is the center of the world, and the rest of us don't really understand the ways of the world. That kind of thinking led to the Iraq War, and its very dangerous.
And I don't understand how you can denigrate someone whose pastor says some impolitic things, while holding up someone who lied about experiences that were caught on tape and verifiable. I understand where Rev. Wright's anger comes from, even if I don't share it -- and I also think America will be damned if we continue to allow our leaders to get away with torture, the subversion of the Constitution, and the ill-considered occupation of foreign countries.
Look at her bio. Well, THAT explains it.
I thought you were joking until you got to the part about wright. didn't bother to listen to the whole speech in context, did you?
you gonna vote for laura bush next time around cause she spent 8 years advising the president?
you just go right ahead and vote for a candidate that supports the neo-con agenda of american imperialism. yeah that's worked wonders for america these past 7 years.
That. Was. Awful.
Did the author get paid for writing this?
Go to www.politc
You have the url wrong but after correcting your spelling I did find this letter from Dr. King
http://pol
It sure puts preacher Wrights anti-semitism in context
He wrote that letter 41 years ago and, for the most part, was correct. Anti-semites conveniently used the rubric of anti-Zionism as a mask for their hatred of Jews. However, I can't help but wonder (and you should too) if MLK would feel the same were he to have lived through the last 41 years of Israeli (and, therefore, Jewish) oppression of the Palestinian people and others.
As a Jew (albeit a secular one), the Jewish state of Israel is a constant disappointment to me, just as the embrace of those who support Israel in the hope its success will hasten the rapture is a source of fear and wide-eyed amazement. Orthodox Judaism especially is a heady mixture of certitude and racial purity that, philosophically, holds its own with Nazism and the Afrikaners of the apartheid era in South Africa, as well as every other purity-based philosophy infecting the human race.
I support the existence of Israel, but I abhor and condemn the Israeli state's methods and rationalizations. I sure as hell don't support the Orthodox concepts of Halacha that have found their way into the civil life of Israel. This comes too close to the desires of those Muslims who wish Sharia law to become both the religious and civil law of countries they dominate. Scary stuff to one who was raised in the American traditions of a secular state.
We've had Hillary. Take the rose colored glasses off and look at reality. Hillary giftwrapped the republican takeover of congress in 1994. We need her now? Put down the wine glass and step away from the brie. Hilary took the most important vote of her life and used it to authorize President Strangelove to invade Iraq. All for political expediancy. We need that kind of "leadership' and judgement like a hole in the head.
Thanks sweetie. That is 3 minutes of my life I cannot get back. And what was the point of it all? I will be cstatic when Hillary bows out after Pennsylvania, and we don't have to read anymore stuff like this.
Rolling on the floor laughing my arse off; this stupid post was worthy of me spelling out the whole term.
Three letters for you:
D. L. C.
'Nuff said.
Heather, this is great. Absolutely great. Somehow, I know you won't have any hurt feelings over all the flak you're going to take from Obamatons.
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