To Clinton’s supporters, I am so emotionally invested in this election process and I feel your pain that your candidate is losing. I know I would be so pained if the maths were against my preferred candidate Obama.
Obama has won in every way used to determine a successful campaign. He has won 32 contests compared to Clinton's 17. He has won more delegates (this is how the party determines who wins its primary in a proportionate allocation of delegates and even Penn mistakenly thought California was winner takes all). He has won more states, more popular votes (get real, he wasn't even on Michigan’s ballot and neither were any other candidate apart from Clinton), raised more money, and the superdelegates who overwhelming favoured Clinton at the beginning of this race and none of you were complaining then (before super Tuesday, she had more than 100 more superdelegates than Obama), are now endorsing Obama mostly because majority of voters have spoken in their constituents.
Clinton is a seasoned politician and should be proud of some of her achievements and whilst I did not appreciate her negative campaigning, I believe Obama has weathered these attacks and that it has made him a stronger candidate who has been shown to be as imperfect as the rest of us. Obama is not a messiah, but we have all seen him growing as a person and as a politician, who is not afraid to say sorry when wrong, and who quickly learns from his mistakes. This is a quality we need in a leader.
Clinton is losing because voters have chosen Obama who has run an excellent campaign and the more people get to know him, the more they see why he would make a great president.
She is not losing because she is a woman (I’m a woman and many women and feminists support Obama), because of the DNC (whose members have overwhelmingly endorsed her and have a great relationship with her), because of ignorant young college students (being young does not equate ignorance and Obama has a wide range of supporters other than students), because of the biased media (both Obama and Clinton have had their share of good or bad press and that’s the reality), because of party elites ‘stealing the election from her’ (she was the party leaders’ darling as shown by their endorsements), and she is not losing because Florida and Michigan votes have been ‘stolen’ from her and the falsehood that Obama has prevented these votes from being counted. Clinton would still be losing even if Florida and Michigan are counted. She agreed to the rules that these states should not be counted until she started losing the delegate maths. It must also be pointed out that many Obama supporters did not vote in these fashion parade elections because they thought it would not count. Please also note that in Florida, many people voted because of a home tax issue on the ballot that would affect home owners, and not merely because there was a primary election.
Clinton is losing because even though she has a huge number of supporters, the democratic process allows voters to make their choice of a nominee, and the majority in majority of the contests, chose a different candidate. She is losing fair and square.
If you are a Clinton’s supporting who intends to vote for McCain, I am asking you to please reassess this decision. Is your personal disappointment a good enough reason to allow Bush’s third term in office through McCain? To allow thousands of innocent Americans to continue to die in a war in Iraq that America had no business starting in the first place? To allow the possibility of more wars in places like Iran because of a foreign policy that is interested in war mongering and not in reasoned diplomacy? To allow American to continue being ridiculed and hated by the rest of the world? To allow flawed economic policies by someone like McCain who has confessed to not being any good in economics? To deny your children choice by the abolition of Roe v Wade?
I know you are disappointed that Hillary is losing this election and I appreciate that you are hurting right now. I know that politics is a cruel game, especially this year where emotions are involved. Please take your time to grieve, but this time, it is far too important to make sure that you do not waste your vote because of selfish reasons or personal disappointments.
Hillary will surely work with Obama to make some of her vision into reality and that has a better chance of happening than with McCain.
Thank you
In March 2003, my sister had a baby in Atlanta, Georgia and suffered bleeding in the brain, leaving her critically ill in hospital and with a two weeks old son. My husband (then my fiancé of one month) and I went to the USA from London to look after my nephew whilst my sister was ill. We only stayed in the USA for a week or so because of work commitment. Soon after that, my mother travelled to Atlanta where she stayed until by God's mercies, my sister made a full recovery.
It was the eve of the shock and awe invasion of Iraq. All the USA media that I watched were war mongering, reporting propaganda messages and fully supportive of the war. I felt like I was in a parallel universe where people did not understand that war was not the answer. They did not understand that there were no justifications to invade Iraq, a sovereign country, especially in defiance of UN resolutions.
My interest in Iraq and the USA flexing of its muscles in Iraq started long before 2003. In 1998/99, as part of my law studies, I took a course on the Law of International Relations and wrote a project on the USA's dismissal of UN resolutions on Iraq. I felt that more than most people, my research on the subject allowed me to speak with conviction on the fact that the US had no right defying the UN (given the history of why the UN was established in the first place) and no right invading Iraq.
As an aside, it may surprise some to know that prior to the destruction of Iraq by the USA, UK and their Allies, Iraq was one of the most liberal Muslim countries where Christians were allowed to practise their faith in peace and women had more rights than in most Arab nations.
It may further surprise some to learn of atrocities done by the USA prior to the recent war, including invading convents in their quests to find the so called weapons of mass destruction which were of course never found.
The point of my blog is really to highlight the differences in the USA that I found in 2003, and the USA that I see now. Then in March 2003, my husband and I talked to a great many people, and were shocked at their limited and wrong views of not only the world as a whole, but the impending war on Iraq. We debated and argued against this war, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears that seemed to believe that the USA as a superpower was entirely justified to invade a sovereign country, and especially entitled to defy various UN resolutions.
The USA they felt should be judge and jury, and arbiter of what the world should or shouldn't do and which country could be invaded. My questions about the real reasons for the invasion, including OIL were met with the same repetition without conviction of the same argument that the war mongering media seemed to be advocating.
I therefore find it rather astonishing that in this climate of a seemingly popular war, and the flushes of patriotism accompanying it, coupled with the politics of fear that linked the war to the September 11 attacks, a young politician hoping to become a member of the senate that voted for the war, dared to stand with others who also had the foresight to protest the war, and speak out against it.
Clinton likes to deride Obama by alluding that he merely made a speech against the war in 2002. Merely just a speech? Just words? I don't think so. At the time when Obama and others were in the minority against a popular war, standing up to be counted and speaking against it were not just words!
I apologise profusely for any offense my views in 2003 might cause, but I thought the American government and the majority of Americans who bought into that view that the war was justified were stupid and dumbasses. The same view my American PA and I had, shell shocked, the on that day in 2004 that Bush was once again voted as president.
Yes, there have been many since then who have come to recognise the errors of the war. It is now sexy to oppose the war. But Obama opposed it from day one, whilst Clinton cited her experience as the reason she voted for the war, and until this day, has never apologised for that vote.
One of Clinton's supporters made some unintelligent comments about Obama milking the war issue. I disagree that he is milking the issue. It is the most important foreign policy issue that has faced the western world in recent years. It is the reason why my own country the UK has now had Islamic terrorist attacks with young people, born and bred in the UK, willing kill innocent people and to die in the name of Jihad because Tony Blair instead of standing up against an unjust war, by some warped logic and warped sense of loyalty to its ally the US, and the same lies and propaganda, committed the UK to this war.
I say Obama and others who had the fortitude, foresight, courage, wisdom, judgment, and character to oppose the war, should milk it till the sun stops shinning.
But the stupid dumbass America that I saw in March 2003 is no longer the America that I see today. I remember last year, when I was boring anyone who would listen about this guy Obama who is running to be the democratic nominee, I would sigh sadly that even though I believed he was the best of all the candidates, that I didn't think Americans would vote in a black man.
I would also sigh sadly that Clinton was the darling of the party's leaders and would definitely win the nomination.Now, who is the stupid, dumbass? How wrong was I?
What I see today is an energised country where many people think for themselves, research and choose for themselves regardless of what the media might choose to broadcast.
What I see in an American where people are not merely supporting Obama because he is black, or not a woman, or not a Clinton, but are willing to compare and contrast, question and judge his policies, and decide that irrespective of a sad and racist past, someone can be given the hope of leading the USA based on merits alone.
What I see today is an American that should be proud to once again call itself a superpower, and an American that can be proud.
As rightly or wrongly, where America goes, the rest of the world follows, win or lose this election, by embracing Obama to do as well as he has done so far, the American people have given racial discrimination a big fat RED card.
As an outsider, I am proud of the USA!
Dear all,
I remember the first day I discovered the Obama site and read the blogs, it felt so amazing to think that I had finally found a place with people of common interests, and such positive energy who understood what I saw in this man long before it became popular to support him.
The day Caroline Kennedy endorsed Obama, I was crying not only because of her endorsement but the grateful and positive responses from this community. I was moved beyond anything I had ever felt for a political process.
What has happened to us?
The negativity, harsh criticisms of the campaign and Obama that I have read in previous threads have left me very depressed and extremely concerned.
We should all be proud of our achievements so far, and even though we had a couple of losses last night, it is not the end of the race.
Some people debate whether Obama's popularity will last until the general election and I am troubled by the fact that so many people are prepared to lose the battle, give up, unfairly criticize him and his dedicated team, and admit defeat at the first real test of this campaign.
Yes, we won 12 in a roll and that has come to an end but if we believe in this candidate, like I think we do, we must take things in perspective. The last week has been tough for Obama and visibility was absent partly because the media would not get their ratings by objective reporting. It is just not the sexy thing.
I am not calling for censorship of comments, but this is what I would like to see happen:
Stay positive;
Send constructive criticisms directly to the campaign using contact us below the home page and keep the blogs positive;
Make the blog a place where we can be positive, encourage each other, our candidate and convert new users;
Channel your anger, frustrations and negative feelings into positive actions like canvassing, making calls, donations and prayers; and
Follow Obama's message by being a community of people that love and respect each other and can disagree without being disagreeable.
Nobody said any good thing comes easy and we definitely should not fall at the first hurdle.
Please stay focused and we will surely win this battle. I know it is a cliche but we are so much stronger together than tearing each other apart.
Take care my Obama family.
Lots of love and positive energy,
Linda
