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Reminder To PUMAs: Biden Is Longtime Advocate For Women
As Sen. Barack Obama prepares to announce Sen. Joe Biden as his choice for Vice President, pundits are examining Biden's record and lauding his foreign policy experience in particular. Certainly, his experience and resume' is complete and his foreign policy credentials are significant.
However, Sen. Biden's most significant legislative accomplishment was probably the passage in 1994 of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Sen. Biden was the original sponsor and architect of this landmark legislation, which has saved countless lives since its adoption.
VAWA is the most comprehensive federal legislation addressing domestic violence that has been adopted in the history of our nation. In addition to establishing stiffer penalties for gender-related violence, VAWA established the National Domestic Violence Hotline, provided grants to law enforcement and prosecuting agencies, and provides essential funding to Domestic Violence Shelters across the nation.
Sen. Biden's commitment to this issue has remained steadfast even as he expanded his Congressional responsibilities as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He authored the reauthorization of VAWA in 2000, and included a comprehensive plan to end domestic violence in his platform while running for President during this past year. Sen. Biden even took to the pages of the Huffington Post last October to express his support and leadership on this important issue.
In my career advocating on behalf of children and in support of policies that prevent child abuse and other forms of family violence, it is extremely rare to find a legislator who is willing to make such issues a priority. Sen. Biden is the rare exception who does more than offer rhetorical comments about the value of families and our children; he has actually taken action and gotten results.
As reports circulate that supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton may be disruptive during the upcoming convention due to their frustration that Sen. Clinton was not chosen to be on the ticket, I hope that the PUMAs will pause and consider the consequences of their actions. Sen. Biden brings a wealth of experience and a sincere commitment and track record of leadership on issues affecting women. That record should be appreciated -- not criticized in a knee-jerk reaction due to the frustration of Sen. Clinton's loss.
Here's the choice: (a) support Barack Obama and his VP Joe Biden who authored the Violence Against Women Act; or (b) support John McCain, whose former press secretary during the NH primary was arrested for violating the Violence Against Women Act.
To me, the answer is pretty clear.
Follow Jim McKay on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wabisabi
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No more notes to Hillaryland.
It's Barack, or bust.
Tell it to Anita Hill!
I watched Biden run those hearing to confirm Clarence Thomas, and he bullied all the women who testified. He was especially brutal with Anita Hill.
I couldn't understand it, because Thomas was an absurd choice to become a Spupreme Court Justice, and Biden surely understood that.
I remember that too.
Here is a bit of history: http://fin
Joseph Biden, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which conducts hearings on presidential nominations, chose not to interview Hill and refrained from repeating the allegations to some committee members. When the story became public knowledge, women's groups began to protest, and seven women from the House of Representatives marched to the Senate, demanding entrance to the Senate Chambers and insisting that a hearing into Hill's allegations be conducted. Biden, with what would later prove a serious lapse in judgment, chose to make the hearings public. Americans were, therefore, glued to their television sets for one long weekend, beginning Friday morning, October 11 and ending late Sunday night, October 13, 1991, watching and listening to accusations, denials, and character assassinations.
Unlike McSame who says the only reason women aren't paid as much as men is because the women aren't as well trained and who has sworn to appoint as many Scalia and Alito clones to the Supreme Court in order to get Roe V Wade overturned. What's more, McSame has said all those things THIS YEAR. The Thomas confirmation hearings were what, 25-30 years ago? You're just grasping at straws. When it comes down to it, you only have your "suspicions" about Obama & Biden, but you know McSame is no friend of women. If you don't want to fess up to the real reason you're deadset against Obama, just say so - reaching back into the previous century for irrational excuses are an insult to your intelligence and ours.
That was a very complicated situation.
I read a good deal about it at the time, and watched it. Very disappointing in many ways, but horribly complicated. Witnesses who later refused to testify on Hill's behalf. Hill herself under too much stress to be interviewed at one point. Hellish situation for all involved.
Yeah, as somebody said, Biden was the "judge" and Thomas had half the committee as his advocates, but Hill had no advocates whatsoever in that room. Talk about high-tech lynchings. Whatever he's done since, that was a blot on his record that no woman who saw it will ever forget.
OK, Clinton supporters. Here is the deal.
If Hillary supports Obama, you folks vote for Obama, and he wins, we'll vote for Clinton in '16. Even those of use who have to hold our collective noses to do it. You support our candidate, we'll support yours. Fair is fair.
What about Biden? Well, Biden will be 73 in '16. He won't run. Note that if Obama had picked Kaine, or Bayh, or Schweitzer, or anybody else like that, they would be running in '16. So Obama's already taken the first step. Hillary will do her part. Now all you have to do is yours. Seem fair to you?
On the other hand, if Obama loses, you know who the Obama supporters will blame. Hillary will be lucky to hold onto her Senate seat in '12, let alone make a credible run for President. Don't think for a moment that you'll be able to take your 30 pieces of silver and still get President Hillary. Not going to happen. There will be more "anyone but Hillary" voters in the Democratic party than there will be Hillary supporters.
So the only way to President Hillary is to have President Obama first. But we're willing.
Do we have a deal?
OK, Clinton supporters. Here is the deal.
===
You're speaking for exactly one person.
But thanks for sharing anyway.
OtayPanky.
Let's see: Hillary will be 61 this October. (She doesn't look it, does she . . .) Anyway, in October of 2016, she will be 69. That's not so much younger than Biden's 73, (or even McCain turning 72 this year, who is considered by many as being "too old.")
But yes, if the Clinton supporters will vote for Obama this year, I hereby promise to vote for Hillary in 2016. I'll be 72 then, so I'm sure that she'll look like a young whippersnapper to me! lol
I think biden was a good choice. While I do think an Obama/Clinton ticket would have been good, Obama could not have chosen here if he wanted to. Rougue HRC supporters such as the PUMAs and others put him in a very hard place. He has made many concessions and there is a chance he would have come off weak. not to be sexist as i am a woman. Had he chosen Clinton he would have given the Repubs fuel to attack him ex. You can't stand up to the Pumas how will you handle Al-qaeda?
I do hope All HRC supporters will think about the country and keep McBush away from the whitehouse.
Well, Mac's voting record on Women's Issues is fitting, isn't it? His Veteran's Issues records is truly sad! As with Senior Issues. For someone who's been in his position for as long as he has, you'd think he would do better. Certainly not a record to be proud of! No wonder they just keep saying 'He's a POW!'. They don't want people looking at his record!!
Thanks for the link, Applebutter (my fav spread!). I don't know any women (thank goodness) that are so bitter that they are only thinking of themselves and what THEY want!
Even my women repub friends are voting democrat this time around. See, we understand that our economy is in the tank and a presidency under Mac is only going to make it worse. We are working hard to support our families and do the best we can each day while the policies Mac supported are making it difficult to get by. We're the ones that have to watch husbands, daughters and sons leave to go off to war never sure if they're going to return and we've had ENOUGH! PUMA'S or whatever they are think THEY are the only ones who are upset and willing to do something about it. They believe it's THEIR way or no way. Well, sorry sisters (not!)-there are more of us than there are of YOU! I despise selfishness in any form. This election isn't about me, PUMA'S, HRC, O-but it's about OUR country, where it's going and what we will leave our children. ALL the women I know care MORE about that than whether or not HRC is President!
And Cookie, Roe vs. Wade would be the least of our problems under a Mac Presidency!
ANTI-ABORTION = ANTI-CONTRACEPTION
And one more thing.....
This election is not about one candidate. Its not about partisanship. Its about this country and who is the best candidate for it. To vote for McCain to spite Obama is not just ridiculous its dangerous. This country seriously cannot take another four years of Bush policies and partisan bickering.
Put you country and its future first.
I would have no problem with Hillary supporters voting for McCain, but they are doing it out of spite because their candidate did not win. That's the problem!
There aren't enough of them to worry about.
I was a HRC supporter but I stand firmly behind Barack Obama and I am very please with his selection of Joe Biden.
That is a team we can count on.
Grata2ude,
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! my fellow democrat.
YES WE CAN. The Keyword is WE........
Right on! Let's win this thing together.
Biden is and always has been an advocate for women. It won't make any difference to a lot of HRC's supporters, though, because O blew it. He should have at least gone through the paces of looking at her for VP. He said she would be on anyone's short list but she wasn't on his. Oh, well...it will cost him a lot of votes. He obviously is not about Party unity. If he were he would have had his committee take a look at her. Spin it anyway you want, it was a deliberate and public slap at her and her supporters. That's no route to Party unity in anyone's book.
Clinton was a devisive candidate. Your comment, and those of the other PUMA trolls, proves it. Hillary doesn't need you to be upset on her behalf, she needs you to vote for the candidate who you feel will best lead with your interests in mind. If you are a woman, that candidate is not John McCain. Protest all you want, but don't cut off your nose to spite your face on Nov. 4th.
Consider also how your campaign affects Hillary's image. Unless you really are a McCain supporter, and that's the whole idea? Make it so that no one will ever vote for Hillary again?
You PUMAs are incredibly selfish and foolish, or else just shills for the GOP.
The first thing I would suggest is that you learn to read. My post was an objective observation. Which brings me to my second point. If O supporters would learn to listen and read perhaps there would not be so many hard feeings. You jumped in to make a conclusion that was erroneous just because you didn't actually pay attention to what the words were saying. That is the type of thing that leads to divisiveness. You'd be amazed what actually reading or listening to someone might do instead of jumping to insult or argue with someone.
I'm not a PUMA but I do see O and his camp as the divisive ones. I'm an independent and not bound to any candidate or party. I still don't know who I will vote for. I know I will NOT vote for McCain but that is as far as I've gotten in my decision making.
Sorry, not buying it.
If he had vetted her and then not chosen her these same people would use that as an excuse. Only if he had chosen her as VP might those few have voted for him, but even then I am not sure.
They blame Obama (or whomever would have been the democratic candidate) for beating Hillary.
In some ways its understandable as this was a very close primary... but don't tell me then that these people supported Hillary because of where she stood on issues. If that was truly the case there is no way in H*ll that they could turn around and vote for McCain.
Just_Joe, they wouldn't have voted for him EVEN if he had chosen her. They felt she should be the nominee but obviously she didn't have the votes or she would be. I would say a fair number of Hillary supporters who have not thrown their support to Barack Obama are never going to be happy. There is nothing we can say or do that will make things better. I wish them luck with their new candidate and hope it works out for them. I know there are those who will go to their graves feeling wronged..n
it would have never worked. in theory perhaps a nice idea, but i cannot imagine how in the world old bill would have figured in this equation. and hillary is way too ambitious to take on a complementary role to O. She would have wanted to run the entire show. It would have been disastrous in practice.
The problem with Hillary is Bill and the vexing dilemma of his proximity to the WH... Sad but true.
But then, I was a BIDEN supporter from the very beginning, so I'm as close to being deliriously happy as possible, under the circumstances. (I'd still rather it were BIDEN/Obama, tho')
Hillary asked that unless he was ready to offer her the VP spot, she did not want to be vetted because it would mean going through her husband's financial dealings. She would have had to refuse vetting if she didn't have the offer first.
More me, me, me. I want, I want, I want.
I think Obama had had enough of it. Bravo.
For many of us, the perfect candidate could never win. There are too many opinions in the US. We can't be like the right wing and be "one issue" voters (race, abortion, poor Hillary, or whatever).
Can we try, like Barack has, to be a little pragmatic? Sometimes holding on to our dogma means we will lose. If this were just any election, that would just be four more years of crap. No big deal. This time, we are at war and working on starting WW3. This time, there are supreme court nominations likely to occur. This time, we can't afford to lose.
I'd say we do have the perfect Presidential candidate. I think Obama/Binden maybe the best Presidential ticket in three decades.
Good post, but I think the Barry Flynn (former NH press secretary for McCain) comment was gratuitous. I think McCain's own record on women's issues is enough without guilt by association.
That's an excellent point (re: Barry Flynn). I'm not a fan of editing blogs after they're posted, but you are correct, and I will keep that in mind for future posts.
Thanks.
Here is a user-friendly comparison of the voting records of Obama, Biden, and McCain:
http://www
PUMAs and other Hillary die-hards won't change their minds, because it's all about them, not their country. Any woman considering McCain needs to look up his record and understand that he isn't the pro-woman candidate. He is extremely weak on social issues across the board, and he will warmonger - sending your sons to unjustified wars for his own glory. The worst of it will be his economic plan, which takes Reagan/Bushonomics to the next level: annhilation of the middle class. Please seek out information and think before you vote, ladies.
Your logic works for McCain supporters, for the majority it is about them, not America.
It is difficult to tell what they are. It's really hard to imagine anyone being so bitter over the primary that they would vote against their own best interests.
Thank you for your commentary and especially the link...ver
Everyone should have a good look at the above link. Very revealing and helpful - especially for Woman and Human Rights!
Thanks for posting it "applebutter"
Am I the only one thinking that "PUMA" is a right wing republican front? Clinton is brilliant, many of her ardent supporters are also very smart ~ how to explain PUMA otherwise, when it works against women's issues in the most practical sense?
i am afraid that you may be right. she wants to derail O so she can run in 4 years. she is totally underestimating the strength of the democratic party. i used to like her, now i am just plain afraid of her.
I agree with your post and appreciate the link - i will pass is on.
Thanks for the link applebutte
Great post Mr. McCay. Sadly I don't believe that it will do anything in the way of 'converting' any PUMAs to support Obama/Biden. Sadly, after numerous attempts to have a rational debate with PUMA members on the importance of a unified Democratic party, I have come to the conclusion that they are simply filled with hate. A hatred of Obama, his supporters, and the DNC. A hatred so strong that logic makes no difference to them.
"Sadly, after numerous attempts to have a rational debate with PUMA members on the importance of a unified Democratic party,"
"A hatred so strong that logic makes no difference to them."
Now Doctorwang?
Aren't you being just a bit disingenuopus with these comments?
I think if we look at your profile the "debate" has hardly been a rational one.
to keep up nasty and hateful commentary and insults about HRC while telling people what they should do while insulting them non stop is not a debate.
And hateful?
Now you know that there is no comparison of hatred on this site between the few PUMA's who are dedicated to posting here and the rest of the Hillary Haters who never miss a chance to take a shot.
Unity would have happened a lot sooner if the winners had been more gracious and stopped their hatefulness and smears. I mean it isn't like it can be denied you can read any thread and read this.
I think it is more helpful to be an example of how to unify and come together for the good of the party than it is to try to insult and demean people into it, don't you? We know that much of this divide is very closely related to the behavior of those vewry vocal O supporters who were clearly deranged in their hate mongering.
OhMercy, Please tell me when you became Hillary's guardian?
PS/part 2.
You know I just can't stop at 250 words.
Set the example and stop the hatred.
So if the few PUMA's keep it up, so what?
In the meantime you keep driving in the wedge and alienating those HRC supporters who did come over and are totally willing to vote for O.
How do you think they feel when day after day, thread after thread all they read is these horrible neocon smears against HRC?
Wouldn't that make you think twice?
Its exhausting, demoralizing, marginalizing and alienating.
How can they get jazzed and interested when they read this garbage, this disrespect, these neocon era smears?
Instead of unity they see people with no self discipline, restraint and really, self respect still going after HRC- and, having done real research they know what is being said is false. The fact that the left would use the neocon attacks of the 90's and the medias memes against her is even more upsetting to long time Dem's who know the truth of what went on and who have never seen other Dem's act so hatefully to other dems.
Try setting an example, trty putting yourself in the shoes of the recipients of the venom and bile- maybe you will understand why these PUMA people say EF You.
Trust me, I am not defending them, I give them a hard time. I'm going to speak the truth no matter who is keeping the crap going.
I don't care how they feel. This is a political campaign, not a support group. Nobody cares how anti-war voters felt in 2004 after the Democratic Party gave us two pro-war candidates on the ticket. And we didn't expect them to do so. Many Dean and Kucinich supporters went to work for Kerry. We didn't lie on our backs and hold our breaths and scream.
It would not make me vote for McCain Ohmercy. Hillary Clinton has been taking care of herself way before you became a supporter. There have been 64 books about her and some of everything else. She has survived and will continue to survive without your help.
Clinton supporters, unhappy about the failure of their candidate to get the nomination, should be wary of even any appearance of contributing to a Democratic presidential lose.
It will eventually come right back at you.
If Clinton supporters are seen as sabotaging the democratic cause then I can assure them that there is a large and critical majority of democratic groups and individuals that will never support or vote for Hillary Cllinton, or any people connected with her, for any position whatsoever.
That kind of karma is real, very real. Hillary Nader Clinton. Has a ring to it.
Oh, not only with Hillary. It will be detrimental to any female candidates in the future.
Then how are you different from 'democratic ... individuals' who will not vote for Barry in this elections?
If anything, you position is harder to explain. Why, for example, you 'will never support or vote for Hillary Cllinton, or any people connected with her, for any position whatsoever?'
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