Fight Hillary! Fight!

Now, before I get into this I want to say that party unity is very important. I will vote for and vigorously support this fall whoever gets the Democratic nomination. It will be up to the loser to do his or her best to unite the party and I will be extremely upset if they do not put all of their efforts into doing so.

Having said that and as you may know, I've been supporting Hillary Clinton's candidacy and today I'm again making a donation to her campaign and if you support her I encourage you to do so as well by clicking here.

Recently I was talking with a friend who is on the fence between Hillary and Barack and he asked why I support Hillary. He has been turned off by her seeming willingness to do almost anything to get elected. My reply was that short of selling her soul, he was probably right. But what's wrong with that? The following argument may be a bit basic for daily readers of HuffPo but there are many many people who are bothered by this issue who want to reason it out. Indulge me for a moment:

We have a party and a president currently in the White House that has shown they will do anything to get elected (maybe even sell their souls). I believe they stole the 2000 election against Al Gore, ramrodded the Supreme Court and used Bush Senior's friends to take control. As much as I love and respect him, I think Al Gore stood down too soon and didn't show the mettle you have to have against the Republicans to win.

In 2004 Bush used fear to win against John Kerry. The Republicans ran those famous swift boat ads and tarnished Kerry's heroic service to the country in Vietnam. They basically said, "If you elect Kerry the country will not be safe". Kerry didn't fight back effectively enough to win. Many Democrats are still angry with him about that.

I believe John McCain is an honorable man. But the Republican Party plays dirty and they are not going to let go of power without a serious fight. Over the last 8 years they have gerrymandered congressional districts. They ram these redistricting acts through Congress when they're in control and the Democrats don't undo the damage. Little by little the Republicans are reshaping the country into a conservative, backwater nation that is less free, has worse infrastructure, a less educated population and has a wider gap between the haves and have-nots than many countries in Europe and Asia. Before long it will be impossible to reverse the damage and continue to lay claim to the title of Greatest Country on Earth. They truly do "whatever it takes" to get elected and if there's one thing the Democrats haven't done well it's fight back!

The Republicans misinform, play a shell game, get uninformed voters to vote for them on values issues and then use the system not to the benefit of the country but rather to the benefit of themselves and the wealthy. They do it on the backs of their own voters, the middle class and the great people in rural states who get misled into believing voting Republican is actually in their overall interest. The last two elections were winnable for the Democrats but they lost them because they won't take off the gloves and beat the Republicans at their own game. They won't "do what it takes to get elected."

The Clintons have been put through hell by the Republican attack machine. They know firsthand what the Republicans are going to do to the Democratic candidate leading up to the November general election and they know the Democrats can't win by appealing to reason alone. Even though you and I respond to reason we are unfortunately a minority. Elections in this country are won on emotion and it is often about negative emotion for the other guy than positive emotion for your candidate. I didn't make the rules and neither did Hillary. It's just the way it is. I'd like the rules to change but is it really realistic to think we can achieve two goals at once: getting a Democrat elected president AND change the culture of politics as usual? I don't think so and even if you do I'm not willing to risk losing to try! There is simply too much at stake.

Whoever the next president is they are going to inherit a VERY difficult situation both at home and abroad. Two wars, a falling dollar, rising fuel prices, a country more in debt than ever, a failing economy, a tarnished national reputation in the world community and sky-rocketing food prices that have even resulted in Costco having to ration rice! This is the legacy Bush and the Republicans have given us. The next president is going to have to know his or her stuff!!!

I'm for Hillary because she's a fighter and won't let the Republicans ride over her roughshod. Her policies and positions are identical to Obama's but she's spent 8 years in the White House and knows better than anyone in the country (who hasn't already been president) what it's like to be president. She'd be moving into the White House with someone who actually was president for 8 years -- and a damn good one at that. The Clintons know the world leaders. They know the landscape. They are cunning, clever and can get the job done and that´s what we need right now.

I'm not saying Obama doesn't have the mettle. I'm saying no one knows for sure that he does. He hasn't been tested in the same way Hillary has. We currently have a president who had little experience going in, who alienated his father who did have experience and that got us our current situation.

This is an extremely crucial moment in our history and we can't afford another Republican administration. Obama has energized the nation but his inability to close the deal has made me nervous. What if he can't close the deal in November? Does anyone think McCain will be less of an opponent than Hillary? Can we afford to risk that?

The country I love is being shaped into an unequal, less democratic, shadow of what we could be. It is unfortunate that national politics has become what it is. But it is what it is and regardless of how she has to play the game, Hillary is more committed than are the Republicans to restoring America to a peaceful beacon of hope and an example to the world. That's the country I grew up in. Regardless of what you think of "politics as usual" it's how the game is played in this country. Hopefully it will change but how likely is that? We're talking about the position of the most powerful person on the planet. It's naive to think the Republicans won't continue to play dirty to hang onto the power and as Democrats we'd be naive to run anyone against them who isn't willing to fight them tooth and nail for it.