My recent endorsement of Barack Obama for president has been the subject of much discussion and consternation -- particularly among supporters of Hillary Clinton.
While I certainly will not stoop to the low level of Mr. Carville, I feel compelled to defend myself against character assassination and baseless allegations.
Carville has made it very clear that this is a personal attack -- driven by his own sense of what constitutes loyalty. It is this kind of political venom that I anticipated from certain Clinton supporters and I campaigned against in my own run for president.
I repeatedly urged Democrats to stop attacking each other personally and even offered a DNC resolution calling for a positive campaign based on the issues. I was evenhanded in my efforts. In fact, my intervention in a debate during a particularly heated exchange was seen by numerous commentators as an attempt to defend Sen. Clinton against the barbs of Sens. Obama and John Edwards.
As I have pointed out many times, and most pointedly when I endorsed Sen. Obama, the campaign has been too negative, and we Democrats need to calm the rhetoric and personal attacks so we can come together as a party to defeat the Republicans.
More than anything, to repair the damage done at home and abroad, we must unite as a country. I endorsed Sen. Obama because I believe he has the judgment, temperament and background to bridge our divisions as a nation and make America strong at home and respected in the world again.
This was a difficult, even painful, decision. My affection and respect for the Clintons run deep. I do indeed owe President Clinton for the extraordinary opportunities he gave me to serve him and this country. And nobody worked harder for him or served him more loyally, during some very difficult times, than I did.
Carville and others say that I owe President Clinton's wife my endorsement because he gave me two jobs. Would someone who worked for Carville then owe his wife, Mary Matalin, similar loyalty in her professional pursuits? Do the people now attacking me recall that I ran for president, albeit unsuccessfully, against Sen. Clinton? Was that also an act of disloyalty?
And while I was truly torn for weeks about this decision, and seriously contemplated endorsing Sen. Clinton, I never told anyone, including President Clinton, that I would do so. Those who say I did are misinformed or worse.
As for Mr. Carville's assertions that I did not return President Clinton's calls: I was on vacation in Antigua with my wife for a week and did not receive notice of any calls from the president. I, of course, called Sen. Clinton prior to my endorsement of Sen. Obama. It was a difficult and heated discussion, the details of which I will not share here.
I do not believe that the truth will keep Carville and others from attacking me. I can only say that we need to move on from the politics of personal insult and attacks. That era, personified by Carville and his ilk, has passed and I believe we must end the rancor and partisanship that has mired Washington in gridlock. In my view, Sen. Obama represents our best hope of replacing division with unity. That is why, out of loyalty to my country, I endorse him for president.
Something of particular interest was said during a conversation I was having with a co-worker today. As happens with more regularity in our present situation, the topic of politics appeared in the conversation and she made a statement that suprised me because honestly, I forgot that people do still feel this way.
My co-worker said with some amount of conviction that the Democratic Party has no hope in the 08' election because quote, "Look, we have a woman and a black man running for the nomination, they wont' get enough votes for ethier to be President."
I was standing in disbelief because I immediately realized that I have yet to think of Hillary as a women running for President nor Barack as a black man running for the same office. I strickly view them as Democrats running for that high office. I forgot that race and gender are still playing a role in the decision-making process for some portions of the general public.
All I could respond with is that the issues we face today as whole country go way beyond gender and race. The candidates in this race, on both sides, face bigger hurdles in the form of reaching out to people and making them comfortable that they have ideas and a plan that will work for the greater good of this country.
How embrassing it is to imagine that people take their free will for granted and throw the weight of their decisions under such false pretenses. All the while ignoring the larger issue and instead focus on an archaic premise that in actuality does not even really exist and should play no role in this or any other future democratic adventure.
Unfortunately I was unable to attend the Los Angeles rally for the Obama campaign on the 20th. I know that this campaign for the presidency is only in it's infant stages but intimately feel the momentum building for something great to happen.
Obviously, the overriding issue for this entire election is the war in Iraq and the broader issues affecting America's role in the Middle East. I realized now as I understood then during the ramp-up to the war that not just our policies need to change to reflect a better future for America but our culture that breeds policy needs to drastically change as well.
On the eve of the Iraq War, when the Bush administration was galloping towards the ruination of that country I sent the following letter to my representatives in Congress, local leaders and various friends. Re-reading these short sentances now has only reinforced what at that time a small minority of the population believed was a yet to be mainfested debacle.
While the American majority eagerly anticipated the coming "shock and awe" on television I was compelled to write something, anything.
March 21, 2003. There will be two distinct sets of people at this time concerning this unecessary war. Those who are "shocked" by the total disregard for human life as the bombs fall continuously on an innocent population in Iraq and those who are "awed" by the strength in our military might and inevitable victory that it will bring while ushering in a so-called stable regime friendly to U.S. interests.
I fall in the former category. I'm overcome by sadness by what is currently being perpetrated in the name of the United States of America under the guise of world peace and justice. How can we as a country represent the ultimate democracy while innocent women and children are killed with the rationalization that these acts protect democracy?
This is the question and representing paradox that has subtlety played on our consciounsness since this country was founded. How many lifetimes are spent amoung us in a state of supreme ignorance of the outside world and the dealings of our nation? We've created a distaste for the world because the rest fo the world is not the same as us. This is the fallacy and ultimate undoing of all supreme powers because of it's undying belief in thier own superiority. This may serve it's purposes in orthodox religion but is a dangerous way to create and maintain a society built on democratic ideals. Unrestrained power is specifically attributed to the egos and personalities of those who do not recognize their limits.
Please demand of yourself a rhetorical question. What does it mean to be an "American?" It is a label not merely for us to define ourselves by but also the standard by which the world will measure us against our own beliefs.
Now in the present, I urge anyone who is undecided about their support on this issue to make a decision that will not only affect this generation but the generations to come. Support Barack Obama and his plan to withdrawl troops from Iraq immediately, support his platform of a new breed politics built on hope and not on condemnation. It's time this country took a long hard look at where it's been, what it is and where is it going.
