I suppose it was a forgone conclusion that I would never be supportive of Hillary Clinton. Still, one of the arguments I have been making, both in my work, and in my nods towards the Clinton campaign, is that you can have disagreements with and outright oppose someone and still be respectful and constructive.
Given that when this primary is finished, John McCain will ultimately be the enemy no matter who the Democratic nominee turns out to be, I have struggled with my better angels and lesser demons to strike that right tone of being respectfully opposed to the Clinton campaign.
It’s been a difficult struggle. As I’ve recounted before, there was a time when I could have supported her, where she displayed a sense of the candidate that I would have proudly gotten behind in her bid for the presidency. But in this continuous battle with myself to not cross the line, I fear that the Clinton campaign has repeatedly tested that resolve.
I had went from being opposed to her candidacy only because of my support for another, to being opposed to her candidacy and her presidential bid based on its own lack of merit. And still, because I knew that she could conceivably become my party’s nominee, I would constantly resolve to maintaining a tone of respectful disagreement and constructive criticism.
I’ve faltered in the past, and I recognize that I have engaged in long stretches where it would seem as though I was capable of little more than invective, this due to the follies of Clinton’s campaign and its highest level surrogates, but recently I rededicated myself to ease up, to continue to draw differences, but also to make a point of providing constructive solutions and explaining not just where I think Hillary went wrong, but what she could do to make things right.
I think a part of me has always held out that one day she would ditch the advice of her campaign team and for at least one brief moment show us the kind of leadership that makes her qualified to be this party’s nominee.
But as I’m sure most people do, I drew a line in the sand; a point of no return that, should Mrs. Clinton cross it, I could not expect my better angels to hold my lesser demons at bay any longer. It was a definitive line for her to cross, but in truth it was a line analogous to my own; should Hillary Clinton succumb to her lesser demons, I would to my own.
As quite a few bloggers should be able to verify, for me that line was drawn at Jeremiah Wright. For me, if the Clinton campaign chose to be a part of the pile on, I could not forgive that transgression. Indeed, her campaign had already come precariously close to that line when it elected to use the Wright controversy to attempt to woo Super Delegates to her camp, but I ultimately clenched my jaw and let that pass.
But now that Hillary Clinton is forced to weather a terrible storm on her own, she has chosen to break a wise, week’s long silence on the subject, and became a part of the rabid pile on, no doubt to deflect attention away from the embarrassment that she suffered regarding the lie she told about the Bosnia story. She went to the paper that once was a part of the conspiracy to implicate her and her husband in the death of Vince Foster, and she used it to pass judgement on Obama’s relationship with Rev. Wright.
Here I think it important to remark a great disparity between the way these two candidates have dealt with adversity. For Obama, when his candidacy was dealt the most horrible of blows, he rose to the occasion and engaged America in an honest and challenging conversation. Most call it a speech, but that does not do it justice, it was a discussion, and only the beginning of a discussion that, for better or worse, will continue on for some time. Hillary, when faced with equal adversity, attempted to smear her candidate while defending herself with the lame excuse that she was suffering from not getting enough sleep.
As The New Republic’s Jason Zengerle aptly explains, it was not her words alone that are such a terrible transgression, but what is behind them, this low and sleazy attempt to escape her own woes by heaping upon the woes of a person who is still her colleague:
She does not even show the grace that former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee showed John McCain, as Oliver Willis briefly points out. And even John McCain had the class to provide some defense for Obama when pressed about the issue by Sean Hannity.
Hillary Clinton’s lesser demons won out when even Republicans like John McCain and Mike Huckabee won their appeals to their better angels. At every opportunity Hillary Clinton had to show that she could lead this party and do so with the sense of values that I as a Democrat hold dear, she has utterly failed. Her continued presence in this campaign is not a benefit to Democrats, it is not illuminating, it only serves to further destroy a fellow Democrat while at the same time tarnish her own image beyond any hope of salvage.
I cannot, and I don’t think other Democrats can either, abide her tactics for they undermine our abilities to beat John McCain in the fall, and they shame us as a party. So, she says, “You don’t choose your family, but you do choose which church you attend,” does she? Well what church does Hillary Clinton attend?
Dr. Ron Chusid provides for us a revealing glimpse into Hillary Clinton’s high powered prayer group:
Clinton’s conservative social views have been noticed by others such as the Cato Institute:
Not only does she have ties to it, but is at times motivated by this influential prayer group that pushes a socially conservative agenda. That’s not very much in keeping with the precepts of the Democratic party, now is it? It looks worse when you confront that with Obama’s ties to Wright, a relationship in which he denounced the controversial statements of the preacher, and it should be noted that the hit piece regarding Wright was grotesquely taken out of context.
Even through all of this, I still feel an obligation not just to point out where Clinton went wrong, but what she could have done that would have been right. She could have maintained the vow of silence that her campaign has thus far adhered to regarding the Wright controversy. If she was truly pressed on the issue, she could have shown her opponent the kind of simple grace that both Mike Huckabee and John McCain showed. Regarding the Bosnia trip, at a bare minimum just being honest for once and admitting that she screwed up would have been a start.
I think I would have been wowed if she turned this into a debate about the impossible expectations that Americans have of their politicians to be Supermen and Superwomen, or to explain that hardcore battle experience is not necessary to be an effective and wise Commander in Chief. It would have been a risk, but after watching Kerry lose in 2004 because he was so ill-disposed to doing the risky, because he was so afraid of putting his neck out there and saying the controversial and ultimately of showing true leadership, I want to see my candidate show that he or she is willing to do what is right over that which is easy.
But in the only true Commander in Chief test that any candidate can take prior to actually assuming office, displaying courage, integrity, and leadership, Hillary Clinton has failed completely.
This is the call to fellow Democrats that Hillary Clinton has earned no leniency, that the argument to protect both candidates does not stand because she is so complicit in destroying her opponent on her own. With each passing day Clinton shows herself not to be a blessing to our party, but a tumor, one that should and must be excised promptly.
For all intents and purposes, the lesser demons have won.
More on this courtesy Memeorandum: Washington Wire, Top of the Ticket, Booman Tribune, TalkLeft, Commentary, Power Line, The Swamp, Hot Air, Weekly Standard, Don Surber, The Seminal, Marc Ambinder, Open Left, TPM Election Central, Spin Cycle, Boston Globe, The Liberal Journal, The Campaign Spot, Taylor Marsh, Prairie Pundit, On Call, American Spectator, Balloon Juice, Roger L. Simon, QandO, Donklephant, Political Punch, Gateway Pundit, Michelle Malkin, The Page, The Daily Dish, and The Carpetbagger Report.
Hillary Clinton is truly a nasty piece of work. Even if one does not consider the supposedly inflammatory nature of the Wright sermons, she took an opportunity to promote healing or at least thought provoking discussion, and instead parroted a line that even the conservative nominee and the man he defeated has abandoned.
I have no doubt Hillary would have left her church and the place that introduced her to Jesus because it is abundantly clear that there is no belief, no ethic, no moral, or important relationship she would not gladly sacrifice in order to further her own naked ambition. However, she should get that choice. These are the words of her pastor in the white house for 8 years Dean J Snyder the Senior Minister of the Foundry United Methodist church. The Clintons church while they were in the white house.
A STATEMENT CONCERNING THE REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT
The Reverend Jeremiah Wright is an outstanding church leader
whom I have heard speak a number of times. He has served for
decades as a profound voice for justice and inclusion in our society.
He has been a vocal critic of the racism, sexism and homophobia
which still tarnish the American dream. To evaluate his dynamic
ministry on the basis of two or three sound bites does a grave
injustice to Dr. Wright, the members of his congregation, and the
African-American church which has been the spiritual refuge of a
people that has suffered from discrimination, disadvantage, and
violence. Dr. Wright, a member of an integrated denomination, has
been an agent of racial reconciliation while proclaiming perceptions
and truths uncomfortable for some white people to hear. Those of us
who are white Americans would do well to listen carefully to Dr.
Wright rather than to use a few of his quotes to polarize. This is a
critical time in America’s history as we seek to repent of our racism.
No matter which candidates prevail, let us use this time to listen again
to one another and not to distort one another’s truth.
Over 2 million Americans have seen the full context of the Rev. Wright’s sermon on YouTube. So, when Hillary says it’s out there for people to make up their minds I hope they truly do.
Hillary is a political succubus. She will suck the energy and will from this party until we are broken and defeated.
We have to defeat this person.
Wow… okay, do you have a link for that statement?
I’m serious, that’s good stuff.
As for Hillary being a succubus… It gets harder to disagree with that every day.
I just finished watching the Clinton comments and was coming in to write a screed daming her and calling this ridiculous truce to an end. Screw her, screw the truce and screw Bill. This knee-capping, as it is being called, has guaranteed I will NOT vote for her is she to find a way to steal this nomination.
Kyle,
Ask and thou shalt receive.
Regards, C
And yes, it’s authentic. I got it from the foundry ministy website frontpage (foundryumc.org).
Check out the Rev’s Easter Sunday Sermon too.
“I was feeling depressed about the racial tension in America this past week. At the request of a member, I made a statement this week about the attention the media was giving to some comments by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, whom I have heard speak a number of times. The statement is available on our website and copies are available in our office. I was feeling sort of depressed. When are we ever going to be able to get past the racial divisions that run so deep in the American psyche?
Then suddenly this weekend I moved from fear to joy. I realized that the tension we are experiencing is because the rules are changing. What we are experiencing is the shock of resurrection which always causes within us fear and great joy all mixed up together.
I was the pastor of a primarily African-American congregation for several years in the 1980’s. When I say primarily African-American I mean all but two people in the congregation were African-American. One of the two who was not African-American was married to me.
It was the most fearful and joyous experience of my life. Every day we had to choose between fear and joy.
I knew it was a sacrifice for a congregation of African-Americans of the generation who had grown up before and during the civil rights movement to have a white pastor.
For African-Americans, church in those days was where you could go to say what you really thought and what you really felt without white people looking over your shoulder disapprovingly. Church was something –sometimes the only thing – that belonged to you, that you got to run. Church was where you could let your guard down.
Suddenly now you’ve got a white pastor. He is in some ways an intruder; yet, you’ve got to treat him well because there is no higher value among a people who know what is like to be put out than hospitality.
It was frightening for me, too. I was always nervous I would say or do something offensive. There are all sorts of things white people do that are offensive and we have no idea. I was careful and guarded, and members of the congregation were careful and cautious around me.
We eventually figured out how to be church together. But every day we had to choose between fear and joy.
One turning point was when three men in the congregation invited me to go with them to a men’s prayer breakfast at a neighboring church. We had a fine breakfast. As was often the case in those days, I was the only white person in the room. Then it was time for the speaker.
The speaker spoke on the superiority of the black race over the white race. He quoted scientific studies that proved, he claimed, that the brains of black people are, on average, larger and more developed than the brains of white people. It was a mirror image of the foolish pseudo-science white people had used for centuries to supposedly prove they were superior to black people. A mirror image.
I could tell that the three men who had invited me to the breakfast were mortified, just absolutely mortified. They sat as stiff as if they were corpses.
One of the men had driven us there. After breakfast and the speech, we got in his car. The ride back began in a very uncomfortable silence. Nobody knew what to say. Finally I decided I had to say something to break the ice. So this is what I said: “He’s not all wrong, you know? Every black person I have known,” I said, “has had a more developed brain than my white brother-in-law.”
Every day we had to choose between fear and joy. The rules were changing and every day we had to choose between fear and joy.
We made it – that congregation and I. It was scary but we learned we weren’t so fragile that we would shatter if we heard or experienced something uncomfortable. It wouldn’t be the end of the world. We could take risks with each other. And eventually there were actually times when we almost forgot the shades of our skin. Great joy. ”
Very cool.
Regards, C
Mike: Strange as it may seem, there is still a chance that I may vote for her, if only to help prevent McCain from taking the White House, but I will not lift a finger to help her. Or, more accurately, I won’t drop fingers on keys to help her as it turns out.
C: Thanks. This is it. I’ve pretty much gotten tired of every time something comes up hoping that Hillary will do the right thing. I’ve pretty much lost patience with saying every few weeks, “okay, this is the new line she can’t cross.”
It’s done.
That is very cool.
Anyway, I’m going to start working on this stuff tomorrow. I only have about an hour before I have to start doing the last bit of work I have to do before heading home.
Again, thanks for this stuff. I think I already have a headline.
Hillary says Rev. Wright wouldn’t be her pastor.
Well, you know what, if I had a husband who humiliated me in front of the entire country by carrying on with a twit of an intern while in the White House…
He wouldn’t be my husband anymore.
Wow… and there it is.
Did I actually say that out loud…
yes… yes you did. But it’s okay, no judging. There’s a lot of disappointment right now in Hillary. Let it out. You’re good.
I am just glad that I was not drinking anything when I got to Terry’s comment…
Nice find on the sermon and statement Albert and Cernig.
No kidding. I thought I was going to pee my pants; swear to God.