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This week, I was conversing online with one of my friends, we'll call him Bro. H. We were discussing the current political scene, and he posed this question to me, "How do you feel about the possibility of Hilary R Clinton getting the nomination over Obama in the DNC?" Well that really got me into some deep thinking as this really IS a possibilty considering that Sen. Clinton has already stated publicly that the popular vote does not matter as much as how the delegates vote (even though the delegates are appropriated based on the popular vote except of course for uncommitted "super" delegates). As of the Pennsylvania primaries, Obama leads Clinton by over 500,000 votes. Clinton has further stated that delegates may change their vote, meaning that even though Obama has a lead of over 100+ delegates over her, giving him the path to the nomination, she would not object if a sufficient number defected to her, giving her the final lead in delegates--it's as simple as that. Well, I decided to enumerate for H, my feelings on his question, and why I felt that way, so check out my post below! Let me know what you think too. KHBro. H, I feel...Uneasy. I feel that if Clinton gets the nomination with fewer earned delegates, fewer superdelegates, and fewer states (half) than Obama has won, then the Democratic party will lose quite of few of it's constituents--like me. (If the party nomination rules don't count then what's the point of running? Candidates might as well just pay off key party figures and call it a day.) And that is not in their best interest when trying to take back the White House and Congress, and future Supreme Court nominations in an election that they have a good possibility of winning. I was a supporter of Bill Clinton in his Presidency and up until this election cycle when I feel he and his wife started acting like Black voters owe them something. I certainly don't plan on voting for her due to several major factors among others:
1) claiming experience that she doesn't have (as if going to meetings during her husband's presidency automatically qualifies her for anything other than first lady status.) Given this logic, Laura Bush should be the President,
2) her inability to tell the truth about simple things (Bosnia sniper fire, named for Edmund Hillary, health care stories, implying that Obama is Muslim as a scare tactic, she fought AGAINST NAFTA etc),
3) trying to pit Black voters against female/feminist voters & white male voters,
4) agreeing to rules then trying to change them after she sees they (dis)advantage her (MI, FL delegates, caucuses...),
5) her record on supporting an insane war that she now supposedly opposes,
6) Clinton is supposedly the best candidate to lead on "Day 1". However, if she does win, her financial management style will doom the nation to a continued recession and higher national debt to to her inability to plan for the long run. All you have to do is look at her own campaign for proof. Clinton has known since 1999 that she would run for President in 2008, that's why she started making plans to run for the Senate in New York. She and her husband had built a vast political and financial network over the last 15 years since he was first elected President in 1992. She began raising money long before Obama, did yet she has little to show for it financially. After raising over $100 million prior to Super Tuesday (Feb. 4), Clinton has to take out a $5M loan shortly after b/c her campaign had squandered all that money, expecting to have the DNC nomination wrapped up on that day. This "plan" was admitted by her staff, so it clearly demonstrates that she has little ability to plan wisely for the long-term with other people's money, no matter that the over $100 million she had raised was one of the highest fundraising totals in the history of modern US elections, behind Sen. Obama. In the meantime, paper trails indicated that Clinton left behinds dozens of vendors across numerous states owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid campaign bills. Her staff only paid some of those bills when the vendors came forward on TV or in the media--some of these guys are small businesses who can't afford to go 1 or 2 months without collecting say $10,000 in debt. "Ready on Day 1?" Hardly.
7) finally Clinton is what the Republicans have been looking for. They are still not that excited about McCain (big money Republicans are still not embracing him--and their money is critical to winning). But... if she hoodwinks the nomination, Republicans will unite even more than they were ever able to in Bush' election-stealing escapades due to their hate of anything "Clinton". So from that standpoint, she is is unelectable, the most important argument of all.
All these reasons go to show me that Sen. Clinton practices "do anything/say anything" political opportunism--after Bush we need someone who stands for what is good and right when convenient and inconvenient, not just when the polls tell them. For me that person is Sen. Barack Obama. In a future post, I may detail the reasons WHY I Would (Will) Vote for Sen. Obama. I already voted for him in the Florida Democratic Primaries.
