I watched the Obama victory speech last night with tears in my eyes. I am finally going to have a president that I can be proud of. My children will grow up in a world where there is nothing to which they can't aspire.
I'm still geeking out about it!
But before Obama's acceptance speech, I, we, had to sit through the non-concession speech from Clinton.
But since Obama was so gracious in his acceptance, and did not trash HRC, or her campaign, I feel that I should follow his lead. At least for today.
So I'll say something nice - she ran a campaign that got lots of people very energized. She raised a huge amount of money. She demonstrated that she is tireless and pitbull-like in her tenacity. If it had been her instead of Al Gore in 2000, I have no doubt that she would have fought harder, longer and more ferociously to get the Presidency.
See. I could find nice things to say about her.
But then I got to listen to Barack's speech. It was worth the wait! I feel that my description is not good enough to describe it, so you're gonna have to watch it here yourself. Enjoy.
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Brian, my 26 year old cousin and I have been having some pretty serious discussions about this campaign (she's a smart little whippersnapper!) and one thing she said was "Barack is MY candidate... he belongs to me..." That sentiment means so much in that when Hilary attacks or disses Obama she does it to all of us who genuinely want goodness and prosperity for our people... all of our people. And though my mama fed me the same line your grandmama did, she also told me "God don't like ugly." It is one thing to be gracious and it is quite another to be gullible. The reality is that Hilary did not allow any of us closure last night. Barack will keep fighting on both fronts until she concedes. He has to now do all the work of convincing her supporters that no, they DON'T want to vote for McCain in the fall. I'm convinced that Barack will be our next president, no doubt, and in that, I am infinitely proud. But I'm saddened and disappointed in Hilary and what she did to him, to us. Whatever inherent goodness she may have had was overshadowed by her behavior in this campaign. Barack now has to put on his worksuit, get the pushbroom out of the closet and clean up her mess. She's taking "time" right now, so she can't help.
ReplyDeleteLest you think I'm a Hilary-basher I must say that I am not. I have an extremely acute sense of right and wrong and I believe it is in her power to make things right again. There is no reason we should ask any less of her than we would of Barack.
So, today I allowed myself to work through all my anger and resentment. Tomorrow, I let it go and head toward the light.
BARACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT 2008
I agree with your assessment about Hillary's actions. On the other hand, one of the things that I love about Barack is his ability to turn a perceived weakness into a strength. Or to turn an attack back on the attacker.
ReplyDeleteFor example, he turned his lack of big money donors to a strength. Ditto for his lack of early super delegates. Ditto for her demand that he renounce and denounce Rev Wright's words.
To me, her display of ugly was made even more striking by his lack of response.
You're right though, she has so far left him to do the work of attracting her supporters. That's work that she could have done for him. We know that if she had actually won, he most certainly would have delivered his supporters (but of course, if she had won, he would have been the slam dunk or VP).
hee-hee...it's easy to come in in the hindsight of the weekend and offer some Monday afternoon quarterbacking...and so, let me dispense with the (non-)wisdoms - to wit:
ReplyDeletedoes an HRC fan, angered in June, vote against their own interests in November? I say no, particularly in the absence of a 3rd party alternative.
If the HRC fans cannot see past the paper thin differences between her & Barack, that they would instead choose McCain - that would be even worse than cutting off one's nose to spite one's own face.
to both of your points - HRC has been ungracious and self-serving throughout the campaign. the upside is she effectively closed off any shot at VP.