Okay, if we're going to get into this Commander in Chief bit, how about pressure under fire. Do you cave at the first sign of defeat or do you stick to your guns? Proverbially speaking that is. Hillary, as evidenced by the ad she ran on TV in the last days of her campaign in Texas and Ohio, has caved. Caved to the good old boys, the-worry-about-your-kids-at-3am, the fear mongering, war crowd.
Three am? Give me a break. That is the most anxiety ridden time in the whole 24 hour spectrum. I am capable of worrying myself into a lather about where I put my wristwatch or my eyeglasses at that hour. I don't need to be encouraged by anyone in that direction.
And the American people? Do we need this? Is Hillary going to invent her own color code. Will her next ads tell us, it's code gray-green today, where did you store your armor? Gas mask? Duct tape? Am I the only one who thinks, been there, done that, and as far as I can see it only made matters worse.
Hey, when Obama quoted FDR, Hillary, it would have been wise to listen. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, words said during the depression, on the edge of World War II from a man who was clearly battling a mortal illness.
What do I want in a Commander in Chief? First, someone who can remain calm and second, someone who will not abandon ship. We are fighting a battle right now, a battle for the heart and soul of our nation, for democracy, for placing diplomacy and cooperation before aggression and violence, for the good old fashioned morals our fore mothers and fathers celebrated, not as in we're going to invade your private life and tell you who you can marry, but as in, we don't torture and we don't wage unprovoked wars.
Hey Hillary, you didn't have the courage to stand up against the war in Iraq until polls showed that well more than half the country was against it. Then you never apologized for your misjudgment. Then you supported a bill that gives Bush the right to attack Iran. And then, when your back was against the wall in the latest primaries, you did not hesitate to use a tactic that hurts both your party and the nation. In other words, no, I don't want you as Commander in Chief. You've already jumped ship too many times.
Susan Griffin's new book, Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy, On Being an American Citizen, will be published early in April.