I'm Feeling A Bit Conflicted

i've been having odd feelings the past few days... in all honesty, i'm very troubled with the way the clintons have been campaigning as of late.

the rout of clinton by obama in south carolina over the weekend only highlights the impact of just how negative the campaigning became.

perhaps the democrats need to adopt reagan's 11th commandment: thou shall not attack your fellow democrats.

i just feel conflicted. i still strongly support hillary. i want her to be president. but at what cost? can i support this type of divisive politicking?

maureen dowd made such an interesting point this past weekend on meet the press when she said every time the clintons attack obama it's like they're plunging a dagger into the idea of hope.

it feels that way...

and i hear such varied responses to my feelings of confliction. my father told me that "it's what the clintons do...drag people down to their level." another friend literally barked at me: "you need to get over it! you need to get over it!"

but is it splintering the party? how will this impact the general? will african americans come home to the democratic party with hillary as the nominee? can she win without support of white males?

i'm a big believer in doing what's best for the party. at the end of primary colors when other people poo-poo the actions of the stantons... i agree that they had to move forward with the information. if they hadn't - the republicans would have found out about it and taken the party down with them.

it was shitty, yes... but it was best for the party.

is taking out obama before the general better than leaving him to face the vicious onslaught of the GOP?

i'd like to take a moment to examine a couple of recent developments.

"the patriarch of the democratic party"
i heard ted kennedy described this way today after he endorsed barack obama. earlier today i told someone i didn't think he would endorse because he tends to stay out of these things...

but he did. and he endorsed obama. and it was a moving endorsement.

what does this mean? i think it can only help obama in the primary election. he is an adopted son of camelot now and everything that comes along with it.

but i immediately told a friend: it will hurt obama in the general. and sure enough - a member of the RNC echoed my exact words earlier on msnbc: "you have the most liberal member of congress endorsing the second most liberal member of congress. it will only hurt senator obama with republicans and independents."

the campaign event hadn't completely ended before the GOP came out with their game plan. he also said the clinton/obama fight has given the republicans plays for the general.

what are we doing with all this infighting?!?!

a message of hope
i like obama's message... i like obama. but i agree that soaring rhetoric can only take you so far... can only take the country so far.

paul krugman has a wonderful editorial in the times today about obama and his promise to unite the country.

from krugman's article:

To the extent that Barack Obama 2008 does sound like Bill Clinton 1992, here’s my question: Has everyone forgotten what happened after the 1992 election?

Let’s review the sad tale, starting with the politics.

Whatever hopes people might have had that Mr. Clinton would usher in a new era of national unity were quickly dashed. Within just a few months the country was wracked by the bitter partisanship Mr. Obama has decried.

This bitter partisanship wasn’t the result of anything the Clintons did. Instead, from Day 1 they faced an all-out assault from conservatives determined to use any means at hand to discredit a Democratic president.

For those who are reaching for their smelling salts because Democratic candidates are saying slightly critical things about each other, it’s worth revisiting those years, simply to get a sense of what dirty politics really looks like...

Those who don’t want to nominate Hillary Clinton because they don’t want to return to the nastiness of the 1990s — a sizable group, at least in the punditocracy — are deluding themselves. Any Democrat who makes it to the White House can expect the same treatment: an unending procession of wild charges and fake scandals, dutifully given credence by major media organizations that somehow can’t bring themselves to declare the accusations unequivocally false (at least not on Page 1).

The point is that while there are valid reasons one might support Mr. Obama over Mrs. Clinton, the desire to avoid unpleasantness isn’t one of them.

read the entire article, it's interesting: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/opinion/28krugman.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

i think democrats are fooling themselves if they think obama won't face the same deluge of partisanship greeted by bill in '93.

what's more important to me now is getting someone in office that can actually lead and not fuck up the entire nation as #43 has done.

#44 must be smart, competent and up to the task of battling the republicans for what is right.

and i'm sorry...but that person is hillary clinton.

but hillary, please! ask bill to tone it down.... and where have you been the past week? i've seen a lot of bill on the news and in the 24 hour cycle. but not a lot about you.

and the feminists and non-feminists are pummeling you because of it.

it's your campaign, girl. let's not forget that... you're the woman i want to vote for. you're the person that gets me excited.

don't ever forget that. and go win this thing!

hmmm... maybe i've worked out some of my conflict?

e.

p.s. meet the press quote of the week
i think our dear friend rudy "i spent more time at ground zero than you did" giuliani will hear the bagpipes for himself tomorrow.

he is currently in a distant third in florida...his must win state. and as maureen dowd said yesterday on press:

[Rudy]'s got to stop talking about 9-1-1 and call 9-1-1 because he's in real trouble there. And I was expecting more of a--from a man who loves opera, more of an operatic finale, one way or the other, to save himself or to self-immolate. I mean, some Maria Callas death scene. But he's so mundane.

poor rudy... not only is he losing florida... but maureen dowd just called him a fag with that opera comment.

sometimes life is not a conflict. rudy is a fucker!

réquiem ætérnam dona eis, dómine,
et lux perpétua lúceat eis.
requiéscant in pace. amen.