I admit I don’t care for the very junior Senator from Illinois. I know, quelle surprise. But in truth, my first choice for the nomination has never won the nomination and yet I have generally supported the nominee in the general election (I did not support John Kerry for the record, I abstained - in essence I didn’t like him and I thought my services would have been of greater use if I monitored the election instead of participating in it and so I monitored the 2004 election in Columbus, Ohio for the European Union). This time around I intend to actively oppose Obama’s candidacy full throttle advocating for a NOTA vote. NOTA stands for None Of The Above. I’ll cover more on that should the need arise because as of this writing I remain fully commited to helping Hillary Clinton win the Democratic nomination.
While I do not care for Obama, I have a deep and growing antipathy for Obama’s supporters, both those in the Democratic leadership and in the Obama fan base. Here’s some of the things that really tick me off:
Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, unable to contain himself, administered one last kick to Clinton’s dignity by opining that the New York senator lacks the “real leadership” needed for the job of vice president. He said that Obama should pick someone who is “in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people.”
That was Ted Kennedy who allowed a woman to drown because he ran from the scene of an accident and whose nephew raped a woman on a Palm Beach beach and because Kennedys can get away with murder, what’s rape? Here’s Guy Saperstein, the former head of the Sierra Club:
Hillary brings nothing to the table; unlike LBJ, she can’t bring a swing state into the Democratic column. Obama could win New York with Daffy Duck as his VP.
That’s the same Guy Saperstein who called John Edwards a “traitor” to his party for not endorsing Obama when he dropped out adding that Edwards was “irrelevant” from here on out. That Obama chose to play the “Edwards Ace” after his humiliating 41 point defeat in West Virginia just as the East Coast evening news were starting yesterday to overshadow negative coverage only demonstrates Edwards’ “irrelevance.” You would think that a former head of the Sierra Club would be familiar with West Virginia since it is one of the most beautiful states in the country and that West Virginia is a swing state. Voted for Clinton twice, voted for Bush twice. How much more of a swing do you need? And David Corn of Mother Jones who compares us to the “confederates”:
Assume Obama is the nominee and imagine that he loses to McCain in the fall. Where would that leave Clinton? She would be able to wag her finger at her party, and she wouldn’t even have to say those haughty words. She and her die-hard confederates would be able to note simply and smugly, We did try to warn you.
Corn could have use the word “supporters” but instead he went for a racist jugular. Obama has called Hillary “likeable enough.” Keith Olbermann compared the Clinton campaign to David Duke. Samantha Power called Hillary “a monster.” She has been compared to George Wallace by Michael Klare on Salon. Another commentator called her Orval Faubus, the segregationist Governor of Arkansas in the 1950s. And don’t get me started on the comments of Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, Donna Brazile, Roland Martin and Jamal Simmons. William Kristol has been kinder to Clinton and he’s on the other side.
And the blogs have been far worse. Do people need reminding that she was the most influential First Lady in the country’s history? Or that she has devoted her entire life to public service? She started her career when Obama was a boy of eleven.
Here’s a Seattle Times op-ed on why such rhetoric is utlimately self-defeating. The Obama camp has encouraged misogynistic attacks and this gay boy won’t forget this fact not now, not ever.