You and I have had countless discussions on this, and ultimately, it comes down to: it’s just not that easy. And I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt to Clinton supporters as well on this. You don’t want this to be all out war, you don’t want to hand over the White House to McCain, so you try, and then you’re side is on the receiving end of a slight, perceived or real, and you lose both control, and the desire to control, wrath upon the offending party.

That’s where I’ve been for weeks.

But, one thing I saw in our community mail box was a video put forth by New York supporters for Obama, and it was half of a really great ad. Just regular folks saying why they supported Obama. As I said, it was only half of a great ad, though, because it went one for one, back and forth, “I support Obama because,” then, “I don’t support Hillary because.”

What I’m saying is, I get it, I really do, but you should know, when you let your emotions get into it, it isn’t as easy as just turning it off. It requires a kind of discipline I admit I lack.

In any case, I’ve been warming up the anti-McCain guns anyway, and after a week or two I hope to have them in fine, firing form.

Now if I can manage to string together more than a couple hours of sleep at a time, I’ll be good to go.

Dear Yankee Progressives: speaking as a global citizen who has been forced to watch helplessly over the past 8 years as your cocaine cowboy resident-in-chief and his motley posse of sociopathic right-wing banditos have done their goddamndest to roll back pretty much every advance in Western civilization that has occurred since the dawn of the Enlightenment, I really, really don’t want to see McSame inherit the third term slot and continue the dubious, destructive legacy (100 years or bust! bomb, bomb Iran! Habeus Whatus?!), all because myopic Democratic activists kept doing the GOP and MSM’s dirty work for them [until] it was too late.

So how about y’all remember who the real fucking enemy is (hint: not Hillary Clinton [edit: NOR Barack Obama]), before it’s too late, m’kay?

Problem is, i think, when you work so hard to create something as complex as the Clinton persona in the early phase of the campaign, it doesn’t take much to tear it all down.

“I guess the less I knew of her the more I liked her but now that I’ve come to know her (only through the media, we’ve never hung out) but the more I’ve come to know her the less possible it has been for me to like her.”

If I had never watched her debate, I might have stayed neutral in the race. My nieces and nephews, all in their 20’s early 30’s, are a SOLID block for Obama, so that impressed me (eight of the eleven were apathetic before Obama), but I know too many racists so I assumed Obama could not win.

I began to educate myself on Obama and I watched Hillary Clinton twists what he said and his positions all into a shape that I recognized as being Typical Clinton.

Billy Rector had to die. Women who had sex with Bill were lying bimbo’s; sure Bill’s attack on Monica Lewinsky was a lie and a powerful man denouncing his concubine as THAT WOMAN!!!, but Hillary had a point about their enemies.

But how much is enough with The Clinton’s? Marc Rich Pardons? Deals with Dictators? Voting to give The Village Idiot his own Iraq War so he could show his dad who was the bigger man?

For 16 years, I defended The Clinton’s; I voted for each twice (NY State). And always that pattern: The Clinton’s do something either distasteful or reprehensible, and I excused it by attacking their enemies or options. Hillary couldn’t vote her conscience on the war because she had to show Bush she had the cajones to be Commander-in-Chief.

Hillary couldn’t tell the truth about Obama’s Health Care Plan, which is that it is also an attempt to cover everyone and would go through gyrations when it made its way through congress; she couldn’t say Robert Reich analyzed Obama’s Plan and thought it was MORE likely to cover everyone than Edwards (my candidate) or hers.

But Hillary lied about what Obama said about Reagan and the Republicans, and when caught she said, “Well, that’s what it sounded like to me.”

I suddenly thought, “No more.” No more making excuses for The Clinton’s.

When Hillary’s multiple versions of her heroic actions during The Battle of Tuzla Tarmac came out, I did not have to say, “Other people are worse.” or “There had been snipers there at one time.” or any of the pro-The Clinton’s lies one instinctively tells because Bill and Hillary lie and disappoint so often.

I was free. I could sit back and see that Hillary Clinton took a great story, about how Our Armed Forces protected her and Chelsea and Sinbad and Sheryl Crow, a great story about how she visited the troops and how much the troops appreciate having people back home remember they are in the field and turn it into another Clinton Lie.

And why? Hillary did it because Obama said, carelessly, that “having tea” is not the same as foreign policy. So December, 2007, The Battle of Tuzla Tarmac, Field Marshall Hillary slaps a soldier in his bed for his cowardice, leads her troops to the Rhine, and tells Obama off: “I don’t recall anyone offering me tea THAT day.”

So now, her hosts are rude?

But really, Obama is not our Savior (or savior). However, he is not that known quantity, one half of The Clinton’s. And when he messes up, you don’t have to say, “Other people are worse” or tell lies. Unlike The Clinton’s, Obama doesn’t attack his enemies. My goodness, as Donald Rumsfeld would say, I am not even sure Obama thinks he HAS enemies.

(I took the liberty to correct a word, if you don’t mind. I’m about 99% sure you meant “bigger man” up above, but it seems that a rather unfortunate typo happened in its place. K-)

The media and some in the blogsphere like to dumb everything down for their audience. If you’re not voting for them it must be either race or gender.

It’s just possible people won’t want to vote for Obama because of his stance on issues.

And people won’t vote for Clinton because….

she lies

What I found was that Hillary’s gender was having a net positive effect on her support. In other words, the exit poll data showed that people were more likely to vote FOR Hillary because she’s a woman than they were to vote AGAINST Hillary because she’s a woman.

Meanwhile, the exit poll data found the opposite was true for Obama. By which I mean that the exit poll data clearly suggested that more people were voting AGAINST Obama because of his race than were voting FOR Obama because of his race.
In other words: very few of the pro-Obama people are sexist; but a lot of the pro-Hillary people are racists.

Unless, for some reason, people are more willing to admit to being racist than they are willing to admit to being sexist. Which would mean that racism is more acceptable today than sexism. Which would kind of undermine the argument that sexism is this massive problem in the US today.

So, there you have it: those making the claim of misogyny have a choice. Either they acknowledge that Obama supporters are not sexists, or they acknowledge that sexism is not that much of a problem in the US today.

For some reason, though, I doubt that they will be willing to listen to cold, hard facts. Which means they will choose option C, which is the one that is demonstrably false: sexism is a major problem in this country AND it is hurting Hillary much more than racism is hurting Obama.

In truth, I don’t think Hillary’s campaign is going very far outside the bounds of what has happened in prior primary campaigns, even within the Democratic Party. It just seems that way at this point for a couple of reasons:

1. Obama’s style of campaigning is so different that Team Clinton’s approach stands out in stark contrast
2. We’re all so fed up with the direction BushCo has taken the country that we’re eager — nay, anxious — for a change
3. The rise of blogtopia makes it possible for people to vent in really public ways

I know you guys are all very decent people, and I think we’re all genuine in our desire to see the Democratic party triumph. But we need to take the next step – let’s be genuinely curious about what drives a Clinton supporter, and let’s try to genuinely work things out.

I mean genuinely.

We are disgusted with some of the Clinton campaign’s moves, sure. I bet some of them are too. Let’s ask the question and see why they stay with her.

Would you be willing to consider putting up a diary on MyDD and inviting Clinton supporters over here for a dialogue? I think it might be interesting at the least, and it would be a proactive step that nobody else is really doing.

And it might just be the sort of thing the party needs to start the healing now, while there’s still time.

The best thing we can do is be open; be honest; address the concerns of Hillary supporters and treat them like the progressive brothers and sisters they are.

As I like to say: What Would Obama Do? Would he jump down their throats when they parrot one of her (admittedly silly) talking points? Or would he attempt to understand their issue and try to work towards consensus?

Half the problem this primary season has been that Obama’s supporters aren’t half so magnanimous as Obama himself. Let’s live up to the standard he sets. Let’s practice what he preaches.

It IS a big tent, and everyone IS welcome.

Bitterness and stupidity. Doesn’t Bush also have a base of 29%?

I read the following from MyDD.

Brazile: HRC supporters are destroying her candidacy

Below is the alleged email that fired up Donna Brazile:

“I do support Senator Clinton , But should she not be the Democratic party nominee, I am extremely positive i won?t be voting for Barack Obama now or in a GE. Mc Cain is looking much better to me” “Some of those reasons are: 1.Rev Wright ,trinity churches black theology , supporting Farrakhan and hamus and the whole obama?s 20 year relationship etc. 2 Million man march with Farrakhan which was organized and participated by in front and center by Barack Obama 3. His relationship with William Ayers/weather underground 4. His long and complicated relationship with Antoine ?Tony? Rezko 5. His arrogances are trouble some and should not be a trait of a world leader?s image 6. He supports Nuclear energy and protects them 7. Although he say?s he?s Patriotic, I don?t see evidence of that 8. He?s been lying about many things ( I want and need a president I can TRUST) 9. He lacks Economic and Foreign policy expierence 10. His support of his brother ?Ondinga, his lack of denouncing and rejecting what odinga supporters did in Kenya 11. he can?t admit he takes special interests money 12. there IS plenty of evidence that he is a muslim, being muslim alone does not bother me, but lying about it, trying to hide it does 13 His manipulating the FEC committee (lack of one, lack of control on finances) 14. It?s apparent that his wife Michelle also shares these above things with him and she is not ?first lady of the usa? material.” “Those listed above are also reasons that if he is YOUR nominee as to why I also will NOT BE DONATING to Obama or the DNC. I am sure your aware that at least 29% of Clinton Supporters agree with me, as I am sure there are still a Good Portion of John Edwards supporters that will Follow suit”

Cee… hmmm… I’m not sure what they can do next, may require more than a thinking cap.

Tas… Perhaps you’re right. But then we’re talking about basically an entire support base of trolls…

Sorry if this is rushed… working now.

I guess the less I knew of her the more I liked her but now that I’ve come to know her (only through the media, we’ve never hung out) but the more I’ve come to know her the less possible it has been for me to like her.

Obama has always been someone I wanted to get to know so I read his books but Hillary never moved me the same way. So what I”m hoping is that someone out there can explain to me how Hillary moved them and why they support her b/c of that?

I just read the comments at your blog from Susan’s favorite new videographer. Good gawd! I missed seeing them because I stopped reading most of what she scrathed out over there.
She has been called on her sources several times. I suppose now she is beyond giving a damn. This is all about Hillary. If her victory means appealing to those in the low end of the gene pool, so be it.

Kyle,

Clinton supporters have to wake up. They’re going to continue to hate us Whole Food shoppers until they do and there is nothing we can do to reach them.

Put on your thinking cap. What is the nastiest thing the Clinton cabal can do next?