Senator Clinton gave a fine speech putting her campaign on hold (a technicality so she can still raise money to pay off her campaign debt - partly to herself) and endorsing Senator Obama Saturday - complete with some touching moments I had missed (including placing her campaign in the context of women's rights - something she never dared do during the active campaign) (Clinton giving the speech pictured above).
But before going into the Urgent Care appointment I saw her final speech as a full-blown candidate, to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee - in which - as much as I like the idea of Israel - she was a little too slavishly pro-Israel for me (as she has been during her seven years a U.S. senator representing New York state), in a way that Senator Obama will have to and I assume already did before AIPAC. Many of the regimes or de facto regimes in the Middle East - Syria, Iran, Hizbollah, and Hamas - are both terrorist or terrorist-supporting, militantly anti-Israel and anti-Zionist if not also anti-Semitic, and are the the functioning governments of countries of territories under their control - and in some cases were even elected by the people. We're never going to have peace in the Middle East if we don't talk with some of these folks - not necessarily concede anything and demand also that they stop the terrorism - of course, we have not hesitated to talk with one of the most authoritarian goverments in the world - North Korea - and yet the North Koreans don't quite have a lobby like South Korean conservatives do to block the U.S. from doing so. Obama has talked about direct talks with some of these governments and powers, but it seems he has had to say that doesn't extend to quasi-governments only, like Hamas and Hizbollah. And Senator McCain will hammer away him anyway.
I also took a peak at the http://www.hillaryclinton.com/ Web site today, and there are literally hundreds of messages on there - only very few going with Senator Clinton in favor of Obama - some urging her to run as an independent - which is crazy - and many others saying they have already signed up to work for the McCain campaign - not even many just saying they would sit out (although no doubt some will). Now, some of these folks may come around.
I also took a peak at the http://www.hillaryclinton.com/ Web site today, and there are literally hundreds of messages on there - only very few going with Senator Clinton in favor of Obama - some urging her to run as an independent - which is crazy - and many others saying they have already signed up to work for the McCain campaign - not even many just saying they would sit out (although no doubt some will). Now, some of these folks may come around.
No doubt some of these are men and women for whom Senator Clinton's qualifications and leadership skills, personal drive, and - belatedly - her populist, anti-corporate, anti-media message (if not also her positions) (as well as personal allegiance to her husband) attracted them and they are very disappointed that their candidate (a candidate who might have won if she and her campaign managers had run a better campaign) has not won.
No doubt others genuinely believe that the national Democratic Party's rules committee's decision late last month NOT to seat all of the delegates from Florida and Michigan (and not to award all of the Florida and Michigan delegates to Clinton) - never mind that Obama followed the rules and pulled his name off of the Michigan ballot, never mind that Clinton originally supported the national party in voiding those two states' contests, and never mind that all of the other 53 states plus followed the rules and therefore got all of their delegate counted - genuinely is akin to 2000 when then-Governor Bush and the Republicans stole the presidential election by stealing Florida for Bush.
But - and this is what I picked up campaigning very briefly for both Clinton and Obama in Kentucky - there's no doubt that some of Clinton's later support came from people who were more anti-Obama than pro-Hillary. And no doubt some of these were racist (anti-black, anti-Muslim, anti-Middle Eastern, anti-African, anti-immigrant, anti-foreign, or perhaps anti-coastal/anti-elitist/anti-professional managerial class/working class-ist), although it's difficult to separate racism from feelings that African Americans are not qualified from Reverend Wright-gate and from bitter-gate. Senator McCain also has great qualifications and some interesting positions historically. I hope many of these Clinton supporters will stay active in the process, instead of simply sitting at home, but I hope that more of them swing to Obama than you would guess from simply perusing the Clinton Web site message board.
(Already there are several organized efforts to organize Clinton supporters for McCain - though so far their Web sites are amateurish enough I'd rather not feature them.)
No doubt others genuinely believe that the national Democratic Party's rules committee's decision late last month NOT to seat all of the delegates from Florida and Michigan (and not to award all of the Florida and Michigan delegates to Clinton) - never mind that Obama followed the rules and pulled his name off of the Michigan ballot, never mind that Clinton originally supported the national party in voiding those two states' contests, and never mind that all of the other 53 states plus followed the rules and therefore got all of their delegate counted - genuinely is akin to 2000 when then-Governor Bush and the Republicans stole the presidential election by stealing Florida for Bush.
But - and this is what I picked up campaigning very briefly for both Clinton and Obama in Kentucky - there's no doubt that some of Clinton's later support came from people who were more anti-Obama than pro-Hillary. And no doubt some of these were racist (anti-black, anti-Muslim, anti-Middle Eastern, anti-African, anti-immigrant, anti-foreign, or perhaps anti-coastal/anti-elitist/anti-professional managerial class/working class-ist), although it's difficult to separate racism from feelings that African Americans are not qualified from Reverend Wright-gate and from bitter-gate. Senator McCain also has great qualifications and some interesting positions historically. I hope many of these Clinton supporters will stay active in the process, instead of simply sitting at home, but I hope that more of them swing to Obama than you would guess from simply perusing the Clinton Web site message board.
(Already there are several organized efforts to organize Clinton supporters for McCain - though so far their Web sites are amateurish enough I'd rather not feature them.)
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