18 Million Supporters Should Buck up a Couple Bucks

Few things get my ire up than illogical stupidity. Perhaps this is why I never jived with the Hillary Campaign. Reading on CNN just now, Lynn Forrester, one of Clinton’s billionaire backers said, “He has provided her with a pittance compared to what the Clintons have given Obama. Her debt could have been cleared within 10 days. It’s ungracious.” This is the same Lynn Forrester de Rothchild (wow, not that’s an elitist name) that set up the website, togther4us.com, a site that basically is a protest against Obama. And now she has the gall to complain about Clinton debt?

You know, Lynn, your right. If everyone one of Hillary’s 18 million supporters gave a buck, her debt would be gone…no wait, she had a lot of debt. A ton of debt. She’d need two bucks…

You see, my point is that all those that kept telling her, keep in the race, keep in the race - you’re the ones that have an obligation, not Obama. The Clinton’s have done nothing to help Obama.

Get over it. Major WTF.

Thank You Hillary

Throughout this campaign this blog has not been the kindest to Hillary Clinton. I place blame for that squarely on reaction to what I felt was a devisive message from her campaign. And this feeling was only reinforced on Tuesday evening when a concession speech sounded more self congratulating.

With that sentiment, I watched her concession speech this morning and I have to say, it was probably the best speech she’s delivered.

Thank you Hillary. I for one feel that in this one speech you took ten giant strides to unifying this party for the November election, and the defeat of John McCain. And in the end, if Barack Obama does not win the nomination, it will not be because of your lack of effort, but the fact that John McCain was the better candidate…oh doesn’t the RNC and the Republican ditto heads only wish.

Best. And go Democrats in 2008.

(UPDATE: The illustration for this post was of course inspired by Shepherd Fairey, who was inspired others, who were inspired by even more others…). If you want to see more of his work, check out obeygiant.com.)

A Letter From Hillary Clinton

Dear Nate,

I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.

On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.

I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party’s nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise.

When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House.

I made you — and everyone who supported me — a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I’m going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life.

I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise.

I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you.

In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness.

I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you.

Sincerely,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

———

Although this is not news (pretty much everyone knew this yesterday) I guess my $10 donation bought me some access. And I can now turn focus on McCain. I have so many ideas for cartoons focused on McCain that I’m having a hard time figuring out where to start…but start I will.

Also, just curious if anyone out there watched the Katie Couric Evening News interview with Barack Obama. I wish I’d recorded it. She was pushing the point of whether Obama liked Clinton or not, and he wouldn’t give in. Look at 5:30 of this video.

A Letter to the Clintonistas

To Hillary’s Supporters,

As I’m sure you all know, tonight was a historic night.

For the first time in American history, an African-American won the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. Unfortunately, for some of you, this nomination seems rigged. As the last two weeks have unfolded you’ve fallen back on accusations of sexism as the reason for Clinton’s loss. Some even suggested there was some conspiracy behind Clinton’s lack of pledged delegates. This argument has been spurred on by your leader, HRC, and used to drive a wedge between fellow democrats.

Tonight I hoped for something different from Hillary. I hoped she’d offer me some reason to get behind a joint ticket. Unfortunately, the Hillary Clinton I saw tonight was the same Hillary I’ve seen since she started to campaign last year. And I know I’m not alone. The other 18 million American’s who voted for Obama saw the same person.

This is the reason your candidate lost the election. (And remember, this was her election to lose…)

Tonight, on display, was a candidate who, despite her professed advocacy for civil-rights, could not bring herself to concede in the face of history. Instead she chose to stain the moment with her arrogance.

Her South Dakota victory speech became a speech about the creative math that gives her the “popular” vote count. She pushed you, her supporters to her website to show their support and donate to her candidacy. I went to her website and I encountered the second reason she lost.

She fails to understand social media and how politics are changing forever.

My comments on her blog are never filled with profanity. I do not degrade anyone, but I am honest about being an Obama supporter. And my comments do not post. How can your candidate advocate an open dialogue with her constituents and her blog (one of the most open, social forms of connecting with people) is screened like Putin’s Russia.

And so I end with this final request. I’d just finished watching McCain’s speech and thought I’d witnessed the lowest of class. I was wrong. I watched Clinton’s speech. This was the lowest of class.

My request is that you reconsider your pledge to take this to Denver or vote for McCain.

However, if you, as Clinton supporters, really want to vote for McCain come November…I for one do not care. If you, as women, really feel that a white male who’s against women’s right to choose what to do with their health, I do not care. If you appreciate men, who under the stress of a long day, call their wife a “cunt” who wears too much make-up. Again I do not care. (Because it’s my blog I can say the “c” word without being screened)

I say “I don’t care” with complete confidence that there are millions out there who are not like you, millions that are bothered by a McCain presidency, that do not want to look their own sons and daughters in the eye, and say, “I voted for McCain.”

Why We Can Trust Obama on Negotiations with Enemies

“Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” — John F Kennedy

Today is likely to mark Obama’s move to finally secure the democratic nomination for President of the United States. This long journey has been marked by gaffes, preacher associations, heated debates, conflicting polls, and passion filled charges. Now it will be marked with the end, a final speech to kickoff the general election. For those that have been following this from the beginning though, the Obama nomination has not always appeared to be so likely.

In June of 2007, after one of the first debates, Hillary threw the first punch, hoping to expunge any Obama “hope” early in the game, by demonstrating that his inexperience on foreign policy was his greatest weakness. Unfortunately for her, she helped him create one of the key differentiators between them, and gave him a foreign policy stump speech.

Now, over the weekend, in reflecting on a conversation Obama had with Clinton, he recalled:

“… she and I have been on this same journey together, and … once the dust settled, I was looking forward to meeting with her at a time and place of her choosing.”

No preconditions.

Hillary can bring her requests for a spot on the ticket, or her plea for aid in repaying her $40 million in debt. Despite suggestions an innuendo that she might be waiting for the worst to happen to Obama, he’s willing to sit down and talk. It can be over tea or whiskey, at the shooting range or bowling alley, in West Virginia, or Kentucky. It’s her choice. And she can lay out the conditions. He will listen. And then they will negotiate.

If Obama can negotiate the mending necessary to bring Clinton and her supporters on board, I have full faith he’ll be able to start a dialogue that secures our borders, starts the path to peace in the middle east by involving Iran and Syria, and convinces Dr. Strangeglove of North Korea that he really doesn’t want those nuke toys western countries harbor so selfishly.

Weekend Diary of a Poltiical Junkie

SATURDAY

6:30 AM PST: Turned on CSPAN and watched 30 members of the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee hash over various arguments on why two states that went against party rules should have a reduction in their penalty because no one thought Hillary would not be the nominee by June of 2008.

10:30 AM PST: Sometime around noon, after all grievances were heard, and the biased arguments of declared members of the committee had been fully aired, everyone took a break (a long break) and decided to talk behind closed doors.

11:00 AM PST: I turned off the TV and missed the removal of one unruly Harriet Christian, a Clinton supporter, but thankfully for YouTube I would later watch it multiple times as I went between fits of tears and laughter.

4:00 PM PST: Clicking between DrudgeReport, CNN and HuffingtonPost, I learned that Obama had officially resigned from his church, the United Trinity Church of Christ. I found myself both empathetic and a bit peeved that he did this (I’d not watched his explanation until later - and when I did, it made more sense, as it related as much to the burden being placed on the church than his political aspirations). Now I just wish people that weren’t going to vote for him in the first place would give it up.

5:00 PM PST: Or sometime around that time the DNC Rules & Bylaws committee finally meets again (yeah!) , and I watch as rude Clinton supporters interrupt continually during the motion, debate and vote period. Finally, as the ruling on Michigan is discussed, Harold Icki (a Clinton supporter, and supposedly the one that was supposed to stack the deck in her favor) decides it’s finally his time to pontificate and accuses the rest of his colleagues of hijacking 4 votes from Hillary (actually 2 votes considering they were half votes). He seems convinced that this would have made a difference and obvious to the fact that during the long recess his candidate was very close to getting a lot less.

SUNDAY

12:00 PM PST: Or sometime around this time, I learned that Obama lost Peurto Rico to Hillary Clinton (big suprise). Hillary claimed she’d now had the popular vote (bigger surprise considering she’s made this claim for over a month now and no ones been listening). And that she planned on continuing her campaign until she truly owned everyone in the United States a wad of cash.

3:30 PM PST: Logged on and created a profile on Hillaryclinton.com, thinking I’d try a bit of party unity myself and create havoc on the blog posts of Clintonistas. I think they saw through my black male disguise though because I never saw a single comment get posted.

4:00 PM PST: I decided, heeding her call for money, to donate $10 to her campaign. Along with the donation I sent a memo explicitly requesting that she use this money to payback the supporters she was defrauding with her argument that she actually had a chance to win the nomination.

5:00 PM PST: On barackobama.com I write a blog post, explaining my devious donation…and it seems Obamacans didn’t see my humor. I realized there really is a rift in this party…wow…I never would have guessed. I get a sense that this is what happens when generational shifts create chaos in government. The old skin doesn’t shed without some blood.

———

Note: Times are likely inaccurate but hopefully the general chronology coincides with your own weekend, fellow political junkies.

Congratulations Clinton! You’re officially the candidate for…

the racists that still exist in this country.

What disturbs me is that there is obvious racist sentiments leading to Clinton’s victory in West Virginia. There were reports in exit polling that two-thirds of the voters in West Virginia would not vote for Obama because he is black. This should disturb Clinton more than anyone. Why should she celebrate in their votes? And it should disturb her supporters. It taints anyone that supports her.

Clinton has no chance of winning the nomination. It’s over. It’s long been over, but the Democratic party has been patient with her. And yet she continues on, based on the hope that super delegates will cozy to her broad base appeal argument.

My argument against the broad based appeal and the idea that Obama can’t win white, working class American’s is basic. I don’t want to be in a party that has racists. Period. I thought that was the other party (in fact the last two presidential elections West Virginia did in fact go to Repubicans). So if the Democratic party wants to make the argument that in order to win the election, it must appeal to this group, then sorry - I’m not party to that.

In fact if Hillary truly is not a racist then I’d expect her to come out and reject, repudiate and denounce the votes of the two-thirds of West Virginia. But of course we wont’ hear anything like that, instead we’ll have to endure another three weeks of torture as this nomination process slowly bleeds campaign money that could be going to the fight against McCain.

Wow…it makes you proud to be an American for the first time… right Michelle?

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