Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Day After

For me, this is like a bad hangover. I’m a Texan, and once again, my native state has let me down. I would have gone home to campaign for Barack if all my family wasn’t homophobic and racist to it’s core, and now, finally, all dead. I’m one of those old dinosaurs who doesn’t have a cell phone, so I can’t call Texans from here in Utah. My car is twenty two years old and not running at the moment, and my bank account is always just about empty. I owe back taxes on my house. I don’t even have credit cards to put a plane ticket on, charge a room for a few days of walking door to door somewhere in the Lone Star State. And I’ve held a grudge against Texas for the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Then the state voted Ann Richards out and George W. Bush in as Governor, so it’s probably just as well I didn’t go.

Once again, Hillary did not have the grace to congratulate Barack for his win in Vermont. She continues to claim Barack Obama is not qualified to be President. Truth is he has more legislative experience than she does. He is better qualified than Bill Clinton was, than George W. Bush was, than Jimmy Carter was, and certainly he is better qualified than Hillary Clinton. Her experience as First Lady is meaningless. Is Laura Bush qualified based on her experiences as First Lady? Traveling the world at taxpayer expense on Air Force One is not the kind of experience that qualifies you to be President. If she had read the classified intelligence reports that were available to members of Congress before she cast that disastrous vote to take us to war in Iraq, I might believe that she should be taken seriously as a candidate. But sadly she did not.

But the thing that keeps me saving my change and counting it up until I have an extra ten dollars to donate to the Obama campaign is his message of change and hope. I support Senator Obama because he inspires and energizes young people, who have been alienated from politics since the 1960’s. His message is inclusive and units us in a way no one has in my adult life.

Hillary has begun to run ads that attempt to scare us—this is fear mongering and puts her firmly on the side of George Bush and John McCain. I want nothing to do with a candidate who pushes the fear button. It is contemptible.

1 comment:

J McKiernan said...

Hey, Utah...

You have heard from K McKiernan...now you are hearing from J McKiernan, her lesser half.

I soon hope to take the time necessary to write a fuller response to this post, but for now, here are a few musings....

1) I feel you are obviously letting your anger taint your post, and therefore disparaging the recent successes of Hillary Clinton--successes which, due to the media's continual campaigning for Obama, should be viewed as nothing short of remarkable. Of course, I doubt you would deny that your anger is tainting your post...you would probably admit it proudly (I have, too).

2) For someone so obviously wizened and discerning (and I mean that truthfully...you write very well and know what you are talking about), you seem to easily buy into this false construction of 'Hope' just as easily as the 'young people' you mention in your post. Hope is a wonderful message, and Obama is a wonderful orator. And while I believe he would be a fine president in the future, at this time, during this election, he has brought nothing but hope to the table, while Hillary has brought substance and detailed plans.

And in reality, your past posts reveal the true reason why you support Obama: it's not that you've been swept up by the magic carpet of Hope...it's that you got angry at Hillary back in January.

3) For all of your talk about Obama uniting us all together like no one you've ever seen, he will have to work hard to sustain such a reputation since he can't even seem to bring the majority of Democrats together in Ohio and Texas. Or any other major state, for that matter.

People talk about the 'math' being on Obama's side, but how can one claim to be the Democratic party's mandated nominee without winning at least one major state? Not Ohio...not Texas...not California...not New York... Those results certainly don't inspire me (I had to take the easy opportunity...forgive me).

All that said, if you, the young people (minus this particular twenty-something), and MSNBC get their wish and Obama becomes the nominee, I will support him. I cannot stand the idea of John McCain perpetuating the atrocities of the worst administration in U.S. history.

For now, though, I will not go against the best, most deserving, and most qualified (in spite of your rant to the contrary...surely Hillary's fight for health care, children, and women's rights upstages Laura Bush's smiling and nodding) candidate.

Oh yeah, I was supposed to write the long response later...