A Plea To The Real Hillary Clinton
Having just read Howard Wolfson's article in The New Republic, I can now rest assured that Hillary Clinton, whom I avidly supported in the primary, is not a cat. We can all put our prurient curiosity away and act like grown-ups because Hillary has decided that it would be "bad for the Democratic Party" if she and Palin were to scratch each other's eyes out for the benefit of all the losers who simply want to see two women go at each other.
Thank you, Hillary, and thank you, Howard Wolfson, for wagging those fingers at us. Thank you both for the comfort this moralistic and, in the end, irrelevant reminder gives us in the face of what is possibly the most significant threat to our real values the country has faced since McCarthy.
I supported Hillary to the very end, thinking all the while I was supporting a woman who, when the chips were down, would always do what was best for her country, even if it meant it was not best for her. If Wolfson is right, and I'm not at all certain he is, I put my money on the wrong candidate and in the wrong primary.
It seems pretty clear that NOW is the time for Hillary to show us that we were not wrong about her. NOW is the time for her to use her intelligence and the devotion to the rights of others she convinced us she had when we gave her all we had to help her win. NOW is the time to come out swinging at a scary demagogue in a skirt who's talking right past Obama as if he were the invisible man.
A woman of substance, the real Hillary Clinton, must take on the faux Hillary Clinton and make it clear that she, Hillary, got 18 million votes because she represented rights and took positions that Palin is committed to undoing. Every single issue Hillary Clinton said she stood for and would fight for, and I know I needn't name them, is now on the chopping block and only she can prevent the axe from falling.
It is going to take the real Hillary to address her pretender. Hillary must challenge Palin on what she purports to be versus what Palin and her record have clearly demonstrated that she is.
No one else has the ability to take on Palin but Hillary. Hillary must once again remind her supporters that it was not her, per se, that we worked our hearts out for, but her ideals and principles. She must remind us all that Palin bears no resemblance to her whatsoever and that if McCain wins, everything that she, the real Hillary Clinton, has spent her life fighting for will be in jeopardy.
I, for one, will never forgive the real Hillary Clinton if McCain and Palin win because I know they cannot win if the real Hillary decides to make this the battle of her lifetime, to prove the real Hillary was, indeed, the real thing.
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Can you stop??? This election is not about Hillary Clinton and it is not about Palin v. Clinton.
Don't you get it - this is exactly what the Republicans want! They want this to turn into a big circus, with the spotlight on everything except Obama and Biden and their policies.
Democrats threw Hillary on the trash heap and chose to run a designer candidate: one who is proving to be not up to the job. If you take the racism out of Father Pflager's diatribe, he characterized Hillary's attitude perfectly.
If she didn't have so much debt, she wouldn't give BO the time of day. Anyone who thinks the Clintons are out for anyone but the Clintons has been, and is delusional.
Hillary's only shot at another chance is for Obama to suffer a probable loss in November and Hill comes back for the cat fight with VP Palin in 2012 - after that, she's too old.
Anyone and everyone who is scratching his/her head about what the hell Clinton is doing should by now realize that, however you look at it, Clinton's candidacy was a God-given gift to the Republicans right from the beginning. She divided the electorate along gender lines, landed very self-destructive and self-defeating (for Democratic Party) punches on Obama, and presented a golden opportunity for Republicans to exploit the rifts in case she was not nominated. And of course, if she were to be nominated on either side of the Dem ticket, she would have energized the Republican base like nothing else with all the past and present controversies about her and her husband as fodder. Furthermore, Hillary by not withdrawing at an appropriate time, like all other candidates usually do, and dragging it all to the bitter end, basically handed over an angry and disenfranchised constituency to the Republicans. No wonder that McCain basically didn't have to do much campaigning or fundraising for a better part of 2008. Thank you Hillary. You cost the Dems the election and delivered a truly dark future for the entire world. What a legacy!
As one of those 18 million, I can tell you that we need no help recognizing Bizarro Hillary when we see her. In fact, most Clinton supporters I know who were ambivalent about Obama a couple weeks ago are emphatically supporting him now after the Palin nomination. Palin needs to fade away, Obama and Biden need to get back on message and regain control of the cycle. A Palin-Clinton showdown is not what we need.
If McCain wins, the fault belongs to Obama and Dean alone. Yet it seems Clinton is already being set up to be blamed for their arrogant and shortsighted failures. She's the gold that Dean and Obama jettisoned like trash and that the Republicans wisely grabbed.
Now Clinton must save the Dems from themselves. Precisely what can Clinton say at this debate that Welsh demands she have NOW with Palin when Palin points out how abusively the Dems treated Clinton and how they let the press treat her? Clinton knows she can't answer that and won't give them that ammunition. Meanwhile, the Republicans are protecting Palin in the press..
What the Republicans get and the Dems don't is that the whole Clinton debacle wasn't about Clinton. It was about women, across party lines. And these women watched Clinton get gang-raped in the press with no protest from her party, then assassinated by that party, then humiliated by Obama when he passed over her as VP, and what would have been a winning, fabulous ticket.
What do women everywhere see? The typical male/female scenario; the woman stripped of power but with all the brains, must step in and save everyone from the boss's bad judgment, daddy's bad judgment, the Patriarchy's bad judgment.
If Obama becomes president, no one can bail him out. Remember the sign on Truman's desk, "The buck stops here?" It's time you folks who demand Clinton drop everything and run to Obama's rescue remember that.
This election is so important. I know we all believe that we are fighting for our causes, the country, our children and each other.
The candidates, Obama and Biden are fighting and leading. And we want them to up their game and do better.
They are not alone. The Obama campaign and party and all of the supportive groups are fighting. We want them to up their game and do better.
Hillary Clinton is supporting the candidates and the party. I want her to up her game and do better.
I and my friends and colleagues are fighting for these candidates and our party (and our children and friends). We are trying to up our game and do better.
We mean to win.
You're dreaming. I hope I have to eat my words, but I'm not holding my breath.
I don't think that Hillary should catfight with Palin, however, she needs to stand up for the party and the candidates wholeheartedly with all the spirit that she can bring forth.
I absolutely disagree that it is only up to Senators Obama and Biden to deal with Hillary Clinton. Of course they are working on that end. Of course.
I challenge Hillary Clinton here to do better. My group of ladies (professional women in the sciences) have written a letter to her to request and appeal to her better nature for our country and our children's interest to support this election process with her whole heart. I beg to differ that this is illogical to ask her to contribute or to rely only on the candidates. This is what the Obama campaign is about. We get involved any way we can. This is the democratic process regardless of her own self-interest and political goals.
In case you have forgotten, this is Obama's campaign and Obama's party. HRC has said she would do whatever she was asked. If she went out on her own without the blessing of the Obama campaign, you would blast her. What has Obama asked her to do that she has declined?
She has outcampaigned and outfundraised all of Obama's other politician friends What more do you want from her? She was out yesterday in FL, has a fundraiser scheduled for 9/22 with her biggest fundraisers.... Get off her back and focus on the real issue - Obama has to win this himself and could have had the election in the bag had he chosed HRC as his running mate.
I don't understand this narrow thinking.
This is my party (not only Obama's). This is my grandmother's party. This is my mother's party. This is my daughter's party. This is my lady friends' party. This is the party that has the platform that we believe in.
I will be on the back of any politician that I believed would help our party win. Hillary Clinton is a well-respected politician who has the power to help, and yes to help more than she is. She isn't the only one to help. It is for all of us to do better including Senator Obama and Joe Biden and the Democratic Party members.
My daughter turned 18 in June. This is the first election she is taking part in. She has thought well and hard about the issues and policies she is supporting. She is supporting the democratic party and Senators Obama and Biden to win the election. I am proud that she is taking part and is doing the best she can. This is her party.
Sen. Obama had the stats as well as the personal interaction with Sen. Clinton during the dem. primaries to have made the elightened decision to not just ask but invite Sen. Clinton to be his vp and to win the election for the dems. If you want to place blame that's where it goes. All repubs. gave a great sigh of relief when he chose "any-one-but-Hillary".
The way Hillary was treated by the dems it's a wonder she is out campaigning at all. I will vote for her in 2012!
I thought it was Joe Biden's joe to take on Palin. People need to make up their minds. Obamcans wanted nothing more then for Hillary and Bill to disappear after the primaries where over. Hillary Clinton has already done more then any other 2nd place candidate in the primaries to help her parties nominee. Even if she goes home now and doesn't leave her house for the next three month she has already done more then any other 2nd place candidate in primary history. Its time for Joe to go after Sarah and Barak to go after John. The teams have been picked and the game is on. Please stop sending Clinton out there if you are going to win this now is the time to get tough.
Chitown: Not all of us wanted Hillary to disappear into the woodwork after the primaries! And while it may be quite true that she already has done more than any other second place canditate in primary history, the fact remains that she can do still more, and in some of our eyes, she has a moral imperative to meet this challenge head on. We do love her, but more likely than not, we will love her even more if she takes the risk and wins this election for the people. .. her place in history as one of the good gals will be assured.
I can't help but be reminded of the power Joe Lieberman suddenly found himself able to wield when he became the tie breaking vote in the Senate, or the position the Florida Harris woman found herself in in 2000. Hillary is in a similar position now, she has the power to derail the Sarah train, not that I envy her her task. Go Hillary! You can do it! You can use this power well, I know it.
This is completely illogical. Ask Obama and Biden to deal with her, they are the candidates!
Let's remember that the Clintons are politicians, and they have always pursued their own self-interest.
Begging Hillary to do battle against Sarah on Obama's behalf won't work.
How about actually offering her something?
Here's a suggestion:
A secret protocol in writing: Soon after Obama and Biden are inaugurated in January, Biden will resign "for health reasons" and Obama will appoint Hillary as Vice President. With a Democratic Senate, the appointment is sure to be confirmed.
Hillary Clinton is either a Democrat or she isn't. She is either supporting Obama in the election process- with her whole heart- or she isn't. This is NOT an ambiguous election year to snip about.
I did not vote for Obama in the primary, but I am all for him now.
I don't give a hoot if Hillary likes Senator Obama. I Do care about my country and my children and grandchildren deeply. We can't have eight more years like the last eight or worse. Talking about what went on in the primaries and at the DNC is not helpful and it is only spiteful. Talking about hurt feelings is useless.Get out of the mud! I am a moderate Democrat and I want our party to win and make changes in Washington.
Giving excuses for Senator Clinton is not helpful and it is extremely cynical. If she doesn't give her whole heart to this election process including winning Ohio, I will definitely not vote for her ever again.
Hillary Clinton was a Democrat before Barack Obama could even say the word. Puh-Leeze, Lucy8o8! She has been his MOST ardent supporter and fund raiser since June. If you can't see that, well, I suggest a stronger prescription.
I don't understand the logic here. Why is this Hillary's job to do Obama's dirty work? He did have his minions like Mathews, Olberman, Brazille, Powers (who called Hillary a monster), and the guy who said the Clintons are pimping out Chelse--he had all these people to destroy Hillary as a politician, as a candidate, as a contender, as a person, and as a woman.
I think Hillary has done enough by asking her true supporters to rally behind the nominee. Although I supported Hillary in the primaries, I'm coming around after Hillary's great convention speech.
IF she takes Sarah Palin head on, the first female republican VP candidate, I'd be very disappointed. I'd be disappointed not at Hillary but at the DNC and the Obama machine which are again starting their below the surface attack on Hillary for not doing what they want her to do.
I feel exactly as you do. I also quite resent Obama supporters continually holding out a threat to Hillary and the Clintons that if you don't do X (fill in the blank), we'll blame you for the loss. It's time for Obama and the Obama supporters to "man up," as the sexist expression goes, and to acknowledge that they will have no one to blame but themselves if they lose.
"I also quite resent Obama supporters continually holding out a threat to Hillary and the Clintons that if you don't do X (fill in the blank), we'll blame you for the loss. "
Yes, these threats are very childish, much like all of those that came from months from Clinton's supporters, holding their GE votes hostage unless Obama named Clinton VP. No one one here holds the moral high ground, so that argument is pointless.
"...if they lose." You state this as if you have nothing to do with it. If WE, the Democratic Party, which I asume includes you, loses, then so too will you. Compartmentalizing and pretending that a McCain/Palin administration would do nothing to you other than vindicate your primary-related bitterness is very short sighted.
drbla - agree with you 100%.
Do you really imagine all of those 18 million votes were issue votes? Are you joking?
The progressive wing of our party dominated the nominating process, especially the caucuses, and we ended up with the more thrilling but ultimately more daring and riskier candidate. What's happening now is precisely what the HRC camp predicted would happen with BO as a candidate: a struggle for Ohio, a struggle that wholly the result of his being the nominee, not for some imagined lack of effort on Clinton's part.
Yes, I look back now on all those wild claims that everyone knew were false. I'll get all of Hillary's states and more. What about the southern strategy? What about claims that they'd win Georgia? It all comes down to the swing states now.
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