Last August, I wrote the post below, after the Logo Democratic Debate. But because of all of the local races we had, I felt it was more important that I focus on those and not what was happening nationally. With the Iowa caucuses tomorrow, now is the time.
The “question” did it for me. But I’ve been waffling on my support of Bill Richardson for president for a while now. Not because I don’t think he’s qualified, because I think he is. No, it has to do with his performance in the debates. Richardson’s resume is impressive. I still think he’s probably the one candidate that can appeal to the middle. But the guy still can’t string a sentence together and is unable to articulate a message, not to mention that his fundraising is lackluster. I expected more from him.
So I’m going with my number two. No, it isn’t Al Gore – because I don’t expect that he will enter the race. And neither is it John Edwards. I like his wife – hell, I wish she was the candidate. But there’s just something about John that I don’t like. Never have.
Ultimately, I will support the Democratic nominee. But for now, my support goes to…
I’ve read all the reports of why she can’t be elected. At the end of the day, though, I disagree with them. Hillary is a smart woman who knows what needs to be done – not only to win the nomination but to win the election. Will I disagree with her? Yes. But except for Dennis Kucinich, no one represents my views more closely than Hillary.
Below is her first campaign ad, one that I certainly identify with. I understand all too well what it is like to be invisible.
Hillary Clinton in 2008!
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Like a good woman ought to be.
Heh.
Seriously, I had a bit of uneasiness with it for a while, too, until I realized that not only has she been “Hillary” for what, thirteen or fourteen years now? – but that she herself has embraced it and run on it – see, e.g., the graphic in the original post. Vivian didn’t make that herself 🙂
MB – Heh yourself! You seem to make quite an (incorrect) assumption about me! My wife would be very surprised (not to mention the kids). (insert emoticon here)
To be honest myself, as I posted, I saw the graphic and thought “she’s not helping make the point here”. Still drives me nuts sometimes, though. Even if she doesn’t care! She probably thinks it makes her more personable and “soft” or some garbage like that.
Hey vivian, I say your reply to my reply….just wanted to clear something up…I “never’ thought of you as “assimilated.” That surely wasn’t coming from me. Where in the world did you get that idea?
I just know that if someone joins the party, party of working together, the contract so to speak, is that everyone will support the winning candidate of the primaries. It’s one of the things that keeps a party functioning and it has it’s good and bad pts…..
buzz…buzz…
mosquito – that wasn’t directed at you. It just happened to fall after your reply. It was directed further up to other posters.
As for party members supporting the nominee – well, that really isn’t the case. While I have said that I will support the nominee, a lot of other Ds have said they will not if the nominee is Hillary. Same is true on the R side – look at the folks who won’t support Huckabee. I’ve said before that elected officials of a party have a duty to support the party nominee but the rank and file, while it would be nice, don’t have the same responsibility.
That I just don’t understand. I mean, I think there are plenty of criticisms to be made that justify supporting someone else in the primary, but to get off the bus if she’s nominated? Ridiculous.
~
And sorry, va displaced. I’ll try to be a little more skilled in future baiting.
Has anyone noticed how many men are saying that all those who voted for Obama or Edwards are voting against Hillary. I wonder if that is just their own feelings(are men that different in their perceptions)? You can choose “Rocky Road” and still like vanilla or chocolate. Sometimes you just want to see how something (someone) different will be. It offends me when people like Chris Matthews says things like, “2/3’s of the people in the Democrat Party have rejected Hillary”. That’s just nonsense!! He doesn’t say things like that about any of the men.
Back to the first name thing…Rudy is “Rudy.” The current President was “W.” or “Dubya.” Some people use those names as terms of endearment, others use them out of spite. I think the same applies to Hillary. I personally try to make a habit of referring to elected officials, both those I support and those with whom I disagree, by their titles and last names in my writing, at least the first time I reference someone in a post. I think that consistently doing so helps establish a baseline of respectful discourse. However, I recognize that other people do otherwise for a variety of reasons, not all of them bad.
Vivian,
I am rather dismayed by your support of Hillary although I understand it. The qualification issue has a lot of people hung up a bit, however, if I measure the impact of the global neo-liberalism that has destroyed the least of these in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the choice for me is clear. I want to turn the page on the Clintons because of Rwanda, NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO. I am not naive enough to believe that Obama isn’t a mainstream democrat, he is, but I’m ready to turn the page completely on the past and I cannot support her under any circumstances.
Skep – I didn’t say anything about qualifications. That was not an overriding factor for me, especially back in August when I originally made my decision.
And you’ll notice I’ve not said anything about Obama.