The video could serve as a model for all Republican candidates, especially those working hard to get backing from Hillary Supporters.
On another blog, I write today about "My Life Among Clintonistas," talking about who those Hillary Supporters are and what they want from candidates. I work closely with Democrats and Independents in the effort called NoBamaMission. I'm one of 15 national leaders.
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Since the end of April (when I founded this site), I’ve been working closely with Hillary Clinton Supporters who are very angry at what the national media and the DNC have done to their favorite presidential candidate. I’ll be writing a lot over the next week about “My Life Among the Clintonistas.”
Somewhat to my amazement – I am after all a Republican – I’ve been amazed at the number of good friends I’ve made among the Clinonistas. Many of them are wonderful people, individuals deeply concerned about the direction of their country.
I’ve been a member of two large Yahoo Groups: (1) ClintonDemsAgainstObama; and (2) EighteenMillionHillarySupporters. I’ve exchanged perhaps 150 (1) e-mails and read perhaps 1000 comments.
Many Clintonistas -- and the number is growing -- have grasped the facts-of-life and are now (at least tentatively) backing John McCain. As an example, check out (and join) http://clintons4mccain.com/. Also, go to a key directory -- http://www.nobamanetwork.com/ -- to find 300 groups and blogs now backing McCain for President. They've recognized, to their sorrow,that Hillary is yesterday's news.
Of the 18 million Hilary voters, as many as five million -- my educated guess -- will end up voting for McCain. Of the rest, many will stay home -- or perhaps even vote for Ralph Nader. Another 5-6 million, alas, probably wil do their Pavlov's dog routine, and vote for Obama. That's a lot fewer people than the Obama campaign wants -- and needs.
A significant number of Hillary Supporters believe there’s still a good chance she will get the nomination. In that belief, they’re living in Fantasy Land. But some people can’t handle the fact that their candidate has lost. When I point this out to them, as I often do, a few people get angry – at me. Why am I being so heartless? Why am I trying to dash their hopes?
In response, I regularly cite two of my favorite quotes. One from poet T. S. Eliot goes this way: “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” The other is from poet W. B. Yeats, who observed: “Sometimes all of life is a preparation for something that never happens.”
In my case, I never want to inhabit the land of unreality, a place where some Hillary Supporters appear to reside. If they accept the obvious – that Hillary Clinton is NOT going to get the nomination, something important will go out of their lives. They don’t like “Kansas” – reality. Instead, they choose “the land of Oz.”
In the past few days, I’ve contributed to PUMAPAC, which is seeking funds for bus rides to the Democrats’ Denver Convention. I contributed because, no matter how misguided many PUMA (“Party Unity My Ass”) people are, I value their idealism. They believe they’re going to influence the Convention (and maybe produce a “Hillary Miracle”). I believe they’re wasting their time.
I may be too impatient. Many Hillary Supporters are coming to understand that there’s only one way to stop the “Obama Express.” That way is to contribute to and otherwise support John McCain.
At times, I get upset with people who think that voting for a Republican is something like committing an immoral act. Last night, I engaged in something of a rant, seeking to explain why I regard the Democrat Party as systemically corrupt. The following is my “rant” against people condemning (all) Republicans:
My criticism of the Democratic Party includes various "icons," including John Kerry, who stabbed his long-time colleague, Hillary Clinton, in the back. Gee, let's all go and vote to re-elect Sen. Kerry to his office. My God, if we don't, a (shudder) Republican -- a true warrior and a man of integrity -- might get in!
I realize many people here admire Sen. Clinton, and she's done much that's admirable. But my point to Mars [a member of the Yahoo Group] and others was that to have a Party worth voting for you really need more than one or two admirable people. I regard some of the Group's attacks on "evil" Republicans as hilarious.
Most of them translate into, "My God, that Supreme Court Justice wants to follow the Constitution rather than make it up as he goes along!" Or, "My God, the Republicans want to produce our own oil rather than buying it from Hugo Chavez." Or, "My God, let's never, ever improve education but make sure the NEA and AFT get paid off." Or, "Rudy Giuliani cut the crime and murder rates in half in NYC, but let's hate him because he's a Republican."
Hey, I was a Democrat for 14 years, so it's my fault too.
OBAMA DONORS NOT GIVING TO HILLARY
"Not a penny for THAT WOMAN . . ." (An Obama Fat-Cat Donor)
A prominent donor to Senator Barack Obama recently sent an e-mail plea to other supporters, asking them — for the sake of Democratic unity — to write checks to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to help retire her $23 million in campaign debt.Some of the replies are unprintable, given the coarse language, the donor said.
A sampling of others included: "Why would I help pay off debts that Hillary amassed simply to keep damaging Senator Obama?""Gas prices are up, the markets are in turmoil, my kid's fall tuition bill is coming soon. Writing checks to politicians I don't like is not at the top of my list.
""Not a penny for that woman. Or her husband. Or — god forbid — Mark Penn," a reference to Mrs. Clinton's former senior strategist, whose firm is still owed several million dollars for work that included aggressive attacks on Mr. Obama.
As Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton prepare for their first joint fund-raisers to benefit the Obama campaign, in New York City on Wednesday and Thursday, their two camps are straining under the weight of continued resentments, recriminations and feelings that remain raw since the long primary battle.
Mr. Obama has asked his top donors to help raise money for her debt, and so far they have come up with less than $100,000 (though more in pledges), Clinton campaign officials said — a "paltry sum," in the words of one.Several Obama donors said in interviews that they were balking at Mr. Obama's call for help because they believed Mrs. Clinton accumulated most of her debts after she had lost any mathematical chance of winning the nomination and was hanging on only in hopes of an Obama collapse.
The idea of helping her now — and lining the pockets of Mr. Penn, a reviled figure in the Obama camp — is galling to them, they said, especially at a time when they say any available money should go to defeating Senator John McCain and the Republicans in November.While no other presidential candidate has ever amassed so much personal and campaign debt en route to losing the nomination as has Mrs. Clinton, both Clinton and Obama donors say the larger problem for Democrats is that if the Obama camp is seen as unhelpful, Mrs. Clinton, her husband and their supporters could prove something less than a force for unity.
Among the complaints from Obama campaign officials is that Mrs. Clinton's expectation for help has been a moving target; in other words, it is unclear how much money from Obama supporters will be enough to satisfy the Clintons. Even Clinton officials and donors were at a loss to specify a number, saying only that Mrs. Clinton was helping Mr. Obama with the understanding that he would do more for her."
There is no lack of emotion among some supporters of both candidates, but what I think the sensible elements of good will are trying to achieve is debt relief for Hillary consistent with getting Barack elected president," said Steven Rattner, a New York investment banker and leading fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton, who is working with both camps to help Mrs. Clinton retire her debt.T
he bitterness in the Clinton camp about the primary battle is well known, but several Clinton donors and campaign officials said a deeper issue remained unsettled: The belief — or, perhaps, the perception — that Mr. Obama and his aides are half-hearted in their efforts to help Mrs. Clinton and include her top donors on his leadership team.
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1 comment:
There should be absolutely no money given to obama by Hillary donors. We must use our power to defeat this miscreant as he cannot possibly win without Hillary supporters. So we have him by the balls.
Worse than obama are his followers who obviously feel he was entitled to the nomination since they think that by Hillary acting on her right to compete in a democratic election amounted to "damaging" obama. Someone needs to remind these stalinists that the whole point of a primary is for the voters to determine who gets to become the party's candidate. The way to make that determination is by waiting for ALL of the votes to be counted and EVERY state heard from. But why concern themselves with such pesky details as democracy. As far as they are concerned Hillary should have dropped out after Iowa.
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