It’s so nasty out there

I am amazed at the hatred and bitterness I observe on political blogs by some Hillary supporters. It is hate directed at Obama, his surrogates, his supporters, media and especially a blogger who is remotely critical of Hillary or positive of Obama. The verbal abuse (it does go both ways) was heating up towards the end of the primaries and once the RBC met, the gloves were off.

This weekend it hit an all time low with really mean-spirited comments being left about Tim Russert. The guy has just died, and while he was not my favorite journalist I will respect his memory and the people who love him, and keep silent of any criticism that I could have. Its called human decency.

I understand why these supporters are reeling from the lose of an epic battle that was the democractic primary election 2008. After the 2000 and 2004 general election I could have been bitter and moved to Canada. Well actually, that is not a good example because in 2003 we did move to Argentina. Al Gore was a gracious loser, who played by, and respected the rules. I took his example and conceded to Bush, and vowed to fight harder the next time. In 2004, I was disappointed when Kerry emerged and Howard Dean faded and demoralized by Kerry’s eventual loss. I don’t remember in all of this LOSING, telling people, I didn’t know, that they were disingenuous, stupid, cult members or trolls.

What I am not understanding is the intensity of meanness. Again, I don’t really no what the numbers are as there has already been some movement of women in the polls to Obama. However, some of the disenfranchized are pissed off enough for 10 people. They have three main arguments as to why they will NEVER EVER vote for Obama.

• Process related: She won the popular vote, caucuses should not count, the Florida and Michigan delegates were stolen
• Sexism/Racism: She was victim of media and Obama campaign sexist attacks and Obama campaign played the race card against her, and he had affiliations that would reflect possible black racism
• Barack Obama is unfit for office of president: Because of the above, inexperience, lack of substance and “dont know what Obama stands for, character is questionable”

I have no sympathy for the Process related argument. There are rules as to how we elect our presidents. Some are in the Constitution and some the political parties make. There are processes and protocol for questioning or changing these rules. I would argue that if Hillary did think the nominee being pick by accumulating delegates through primaries, caucuses and superdelegates, she should have tried to change the rules before she lost. Its like the electoral college. Every general election cycle we talk about how archaic this part of our constitution is, and we never do anything about it.

Undoubtedly, sexism was a challenge Clinton dealt with during this campaign. Is that why she lost? No. Is is Obama’s fault? No. Did Obama lose because he was black? Oh, wait..he didnt lose, he won.

There is a lot of stuff about how he is not qualified to be president. This line of reasoning quickly degenerates to his affiliations and his “ambigious” religious background rendering him “unfit”. Wow, that is quite a judgement to make without there being any facts involved! There are a whole set of rumors (smears) that have gone viral and are stated as fact by many commenters. Obama supporters can be sensitive on the boards too, but not to the degree of spreading smears, that they know arent true. My personal favorite because it it so stupid, is that he has not presented a birth certificate and he is refusing because he 1) was born before Hawaii was a state and is lying about his age 2) Was actually born in Kenya and has no birth certificate 3) His parents were not married. He has infact submitted one (not required to) and it was scanned and making the rounds.

I hope people can grow up and move on.

Its like being prom queen of the world

It’s so great being the most popular kid in the class. Everyone loves America. We know how to treat our friends and piss off our enemies. I don’t think our reputation could be much worse. Maybe, soon they will have less reason to hate us, not that we are proactively doing anything about it.

Our ally in Iraq, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, has publicly rejected The U.S.’s proposed terms of our continued occupation of Iraq once the UN mandate expires in December. The initial terms were aggressive allowing the American troops to establish 50 permanent bases, soldiers and private contractors to serve with immunity, the US to operate militarily at will, and to use the airspace as if it was our own. Apparently, the State Department was led/led us to believe that Maliki would advocate this U.S. security pact and convince the current Iraqi government, made up of chaotic factions, to sign off on it. So either he was blowing smoke or he was naive enough to think that he would be able sell this bill of goods to all the different volatile pieces that make up Iraq today. Not surprisingly, he got a lot of flack from his own government, and Moktadar al-Sadr this past week took large, mostly peaceful crowds to the streets in protest. So under what appears to be a lot of political pressure, today the Prime Minister said in no uncertain terms:

The Iraqi demands are unacceptable to the Americans, and the American demands are unacceptable to the Iraqis, and the result is that we have reached an impasse…..The Iraqis will not consent to an agreement that infringes their sovereignty.

Iraq resists Washington’s demand to have a free hand in undertaking military operations without cooperation with the Iraqi government…We can not give permission to the American forces’ independent right to arrest Iraqis or execute operations against terrorism. We can not allow them to use the Iraqi skies and waters at all times.

So how is this apparent impasse, good news for us as a nation? Well, it could mean two things. It could be the beginning of a negotiation that will result in a security pact that Obama will inherit and our own Congress didn’t have a voice in. I think that could be problematic, OR it could be the beginning of the end. What if these splinter groups that are fighting against each other, become united in their desire to get the U.S. occupying forces out. What if they KICK US OUT?!?! They ask us to leave…Maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad thing. We leave and we stop both the literal and figurative bleeding. This allows us to get back to the business of stabilizing Afghanistan and fighting the good fight. Will we leave if asked?? That is a whole other post, but in the meantime a girl can dream cant she???

Iraqi government statistics state that there are 5 million orphan Iraqi children (35% of all children).

I hear you might not be feeling well…

I hope you get better soon.  We actually have some stuff in common…You went to Shakers Heights High, I went to Shaker Heights High.  You live in Fairfield County, I lived in Fairfield County.  You met my Dad through DNC related activities, I knew my Dad…. 

You are a great actor and a person who lives with a lot of grace.  Feel better.

I dont have the words

Since Tuesday, I have been reading a lot of post game analysis of the primaries, the speeches from Tuesday and the aftermath.  There is a lot of speculation on the battle ahead against McCain, the VP selection and how do we get Hillary’s most rabid supporters to support Obama.  But I will let the better writers and experts tell you.  Here is the best of the best giving you a look at whats happened and what is ahead.

Frank Rich this Sunday says it better than anyone could.

Andrew Sullivan, who was never a fan of Hillary, has a few kind words and some hard truths.

This is very much relevant to my experience.

Mark Penn is gross.

A little sometin funny:

And the inane.

Wow

The Democratic Nominee

The Ponzi Scheme hits rural Argentina

This weekend was a killer.

Yesterday was the RBC meeting where the fate of the Florida and Michigan delegations were decided. I watched the CSPAN coverage. It was kind of entertaining. There were some funny moments. I thought the highlight was when Donna Brazile, who is so impressive, delivered in a manner only she can, “My mama always taught me to play by the rules and respect those rules. My mother also taught me…that when you decide to change the rules in the mid-game or endgame, that is referred to as cheating.” I also liked watching Robert Wexler, a congressman from Florida. He is the one man “Impeaching Bush and Cheney” show. He argued for Obama that the Florida delegation get seated, in proportion to the popular vote, but with each delegate worth 1/2 of a vote. He is a spitter. I respect him and I am thankful for his passion. But this is an instance of when you don’t want front row seats. I am not sure it would be pleasant to share with him a small space for an extended period of time. He is a yeller too.