I’ve been hard pressed to say anything positive about Senator Hillary Clinton’s bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Last Saturday, she just about redeemed herself by conceding the nomination to Barack Obama with perhaps greater eloquence than she ever used in her own defense. Gone were the complex and sometimes absurd calculations on why she was the better nominee. Gone were the poorly chosen words which made you doubt her ethical standards (”he’s not a Muslim, as far as I know”, “We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California”). This concession speech hit all the right notes while appropriately taking pride in the barriers that her campaign had busted down.
There was one passage in the speech that was particularly moving because it spoke to all the women voters who felt disenfranchised by Hillary’s defeat.
“Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time. That has always been the history of progress in America.”
Some may forget that Barack Obama is not the first African American to knock on the door of presidential opportunity. His predecessors include the improbable Al Sharpton, and the more probable Jesse Jackson and Carol Moseley Braun. Each of these candidates made the prospect of a black president more palpable to our country and made Obama’s candidacy that much easier to obtain. It can also be said that Braun, Shirley Chisolm, Lenora Fulani and Elizabeth Dole, each in their own way paved the road for Hillary.
The bottom line is that history is not always made in bold strokes but rather is made through slow gradations of color. Hillary Clinton has made the prospect of a female United States President that much more likely. Now the time has come for women to recognize how much closer they are to their goal, and support Barack Obama before John McCain sends the womens movement back to the dark ages.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance
June 9, 2008
Senator Hillary Clinton greeted a throng of enthusiastic supporters last night as she celebrated what would become a 41 point Obama whupping in West Virginia. Her speech wisely steered away from bashing her opponent, Barack Obama. She managed to strike a nice balance between spunky contender and conciliatory loser.
There was one moment however that illustrated just how desperate Clinton’s campaign has become. She is now relying on dead people and 11 year old boys to pull her through. Read below:
“…tonight I’m thinking about Florence Steen from South Dakota, eighty-eight years old and in failing health when she asked that her daughter bring an absentee ballot to her hospice bedside. Florence was born before women had the right to vote, and she was determined to exercise that right, to cast a ballot for her candidate who just happened to be a woman running for president. Florence passed on a few days ago, but I am eternally grateful to her and her family for making this such an important and incredible milestone in her life that means so much to me. I’m also thinking of Dalton Hatfield, an 11-year-old boy from Kentucky, who sold his bike and sold his video games to raise money to support my campaign.”
Let’s take on the second example first and discuss what is wrong with this picture. An 11 year old boy sells his beloved possessions to finance the campaign of a multi-millionaire. From Hillary’s incredibly self centered view of the world, this seemed wonderful. I would have been happier to hear Hillary follow up by saying “when I heard about Dalton, I immediately sent him a check for $100.00 and told him to buy back his toys and enjoy his childhood.” Then again, when your campaign is in debt up to its ears, I guess money from anyone is welcome. I’m sure in her Kentucky speech, she will brag about the prostitute who sent her a month’s worth of hooking proceeds. It’s so thrilling to see everyone involved in the race.
Then there is the case of Mrs. Steen. It is not lost on me how important it might be for an elderly woman who never dreamed of seeing a woman President to actually have the chance to vote for one. Unfortunately, Hillary let us in on a little secret that Mrs. Steen is … dead. OK, she wasn’t dead when she cast her absentee ballot and I suppose this is no different from someone getting hit by a car on their way out of the polling place … the vote still counts. Still it seemed amusing to me that Hillary is now reaching out to the extreme ends of life’s journey, an 11 year old and a near dead woman, to find support.
Then again, as my wife reminded me, Hillary is originally from Chicago where counting the votes of dead people is somewhat of a tradition.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance
May 14, 2008
There are many who say it’s time for Hillary Clinton to get out of the Democratic presidential nomination race. I am not one of them. It is not time for her to get out but it is time for her to get up. Her campaign always manages to find its way into the gutter and now is the time for Hillary to lift the campaign up and end her race for the 2008 nomination with dignity.
Her latest statement to USA Today hardly served this purpose.
“There was just an AP article posted that found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans is weakening again and how the whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me and in independents, I was running even with him and doing even better with Democratic-leaning independents. I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.”
Putting aside the implication that those who are voting for Obama are not the “hard-working” Americans, the fact that she claims she has the white vote nailed down is just shameful. Not only is it polarizing (a specialty of Hillary’s going back at least 16 years), it is condescending and pandering at the same time.
This is what I would like to hear from Hillary Clinton:
“I do not want the vote of any American who votes for me because they do not want a black man in the White House. If you are supporting me because you do not want a black man in the White House, then please, do not vote for me. It goes against everything I have worked for throughout my political life.”
If Hillary cannot muster the courage to call for racial reconciliation in this country, even at her own political peril, then she should indeed get out of the race.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance
May 9, 2008
Back in January, I wrote about an incident that made me realize that I was married to Dick Cheney. This morning, the following exchange occurred:
My four year old daughter was refusing to get ready for school, specifically, refusing to brush her teeth. In an attempt to motivate her, I said, “I can finish brushing my teeth before you do.” I then rushed into the bathroom. She followed me and said “I don’t want to race.” Since she went over to the sink to start the brushing ritual, I said that no race was necessary if it displeased her.
She wound up finishing her teeth cleaning before I had finished mine and she announced, “I win!” I said, “wait a minute, I thought we weren’t racing?” Apparently, seeing that she had finished first, she could not resist claiming victory despite the fact that no contest was in effect.
My wife said, “wow, she’s Hillary Clinton”. Sure enough, as long as the outcome of Florida and Michigan were unknown, Hillary was willing to agree that those races were beauty pageants only, with no significance to the actual primary race. Of course, once she won the popular vote in both states, she changed her tune.
It says a lot that one of our candidates for the Democratic nomination has the same sense of fair play as a four year old.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance
April 18, 2008
