After Edward's spineless endorsement, and the Democratic party trying desperately to throw Obama more bones in the hopes that, by the end of this primary, he can finally win over the moderate vote, I don't think I can write another essay. But I'll make some points, and hope that people can really stand back and be realistic:
Reverend Wright Matters. The majority of religious people take their church very seriously. I am a liberal, open Methodist, but if my pastor spoke for 5 seconds like Wright does every time he opens his mouth, I would walk out shaking. He's offensive, especially to white people. That isn't racism. It's just not how we view our Christianity. If a white church was preaching about black people, what do you think the public perception would be?
College Students - I actually am one of them, however since I was 15, I've been standing at polls with signs, t-shirts, campaigning vigorously for my candidate. I even did it with Kerry, whom I didn't support too much. I did like Edwards though. College Students a-were between 10 and 14 when Clinton left office (I'm a 24 year old undergrad, so I was 16, and much more aware of politics). They weren't aware of his administration, how much good it did for our country, or how the middle class grew large and prosperous. They don't really know what the middle class even means. They also were between 11 and 15 when September 11, 2001 came around and changed the way our world was perceived. The Iraq war started when they were between 12 and 16. They just don't know how this all came about. Certainly, they don't remember Hillary's very strong speech, about how this is the absolute last-resort, in the Senate while she cast her vote to authorize financing the war (which had already been started by Bush, without authorization). They probably don't even remember how much the Bush administration convinced everyone, including her, that Iraq was trying to develop nuclear bombs to launch against us.
The Iraq war vote is an absolutely terrible reason to vote for Obama. What most people don't realize, is that he hadn't been elected yet. He wasn't in the Senate. He didn't have the experience, or the position, to make that sort of decision. Asked now, whether (if he was under the same set of information as the rest of congress) he would've voted for the war - he's said "I don't know." The public support was over 70%. The vote was highly in favor of funding the war. After all, we couldn't go in with 51% of the vote - if we wanted to look like we were serious, we had to stand together and go in strong. We already knew it was going to pass, and I applaud Hillary for standing with the decision and voting as a gesture of solidarity in a time of war. Besides, Bush had already bombed the heck out of Baghdad, and there was no other option - we couldn't just leave, and we certainly couldn't pull all the funding. What a nightmare that would have been.
Obama's supporters have absolutely destroyed race relations. Between intimidating black people that support Hillary, calling white people without college degrees "stupid, ignorant, white trash racists," insulting the wisdom of older voters, ignoring the Hispanics, Catholics, and Protestants, Acting like the working class all live in the mountains like "Hillbillies and Rednecks" -- I'm a blue-bleeding Democrat. But I'm really insulted.
Believe it or not, the white vote has been far, far less biased than the black vote. Why don't we separate black people into educated, rich, poor, old, young. Why don't we ask them whether race was a factor? Maybe because we don't have to ask? Maybe because if you talk about black people like that, you get steamrolled by angry accusations of racism?
West Virginia was written off by the Obama campaign, and the media, because it's 94% white. What about the south? The Democratic Party is VERY weak in the south, but - out of the small minority that IS the Democratic Party down there - they consist of black people and college people, with few exceptions. North Carolina and Mississippi have huge black populations, and it dominated the Democratic Primary. In both states, the same gigantic margin of all voters, of every race, with the exception of African Americans, voted for Hillary - more and more with each passing primary. But, the black vote was solid as a rock, and states that we won't win yielded huge victories for Obama, in states that will absolutely, never, never in a million years, vote for candidate who is the a-most liberal, b-most inexperienced, and c-most insulting to rural culture.
Race isn't an issue in Hillary's camp. When you introduce the evangelicals, the staunch republicans, and the ultra conservatives - and everyone in-between, that's where you'll notice a slightly higher racial vote. Regardless, it won't be too big of a factor. Those same people would never give Obama their vote.
And if everyone that voted read his book (which was titled after a racist Reverend Wright sermon, and makes it very clear that Obama does not have any respect for white people [unless, of course, they are ultra-liberal]), nobody would be voting for him.
The primary takes place over time for a very legitimate reason. The trends speak volumes. In the very beginning, Obama pulled off a huge white vote. He made it in states that mirror a lot of states we're seeing vote right now (94% white, for example). Then, as people saw more about him, they jumped ship. His support has dwindled. He wouldn't win if everyone voted again. That isn't racism. White people were voting for him at first, just as much as Hillary. Then things like his book, his pastor of 20 years (which, I repeat, is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, especially to anyone that's religious and knows that you choose your church carefully), his remarks about the middle class and mountain folk -- everything he said was insulting and not at all Presidential. We have superdelegates for this exact reason - if someone's the front runner for this long, and the rest of the party doesn't jump on board, the superdelegates need to be tiebreakers.
This talk of an "insurmountable lead" is only when you're looking at how many delegates are left in the remaining primaries. Hillary's increasing support, depite being outspent in such a way that should have marginalized her months ago, shows that Obama's support is hemorrhaging. He's spending up a storm to stay in place. If the front runner can't win (and they're so close there is absolutely no clear "will of the people") - we know they certainly can't win the Presidency.
Swing states are important. Blue states are important. The middle class is EXTREMELY important. People with jobs (the working class), people that are worried about their paychecks, people that have voted in every election, people that will vote for either candidate - Democrat or Republican - that they think will help them the most --- they've all supported Hillary in DROVES. Not because Obama's black - because Hillary has layed out a PLAN. They know what to expect, and it sounds GREAT.
Hillary staying in this race is good for a number of reasons. First, she still has a very good shot, especially if the media stops trying to bait the public into voting for Obama and threaten superdelegates with their premonitions of "public backlash." Second, this gives Obama all the chances he can to win over the moderates of the party. Third, she knows she's going to net the most delegates out of the remaining states. Hers were at the beginning (NH, ME, CA, NY, RI, etc), and at the end (PA, OH, TX, WV, KY, PR, etc). This may be a shorter list, but the country's political map isn't going to change that much. She's the only one who can win the general against the republicans. She's strong, clear, inspiring, and can roll up her sleeves and actually ACCOMPLISH CHANGE.
And I'm still sending her money - although I don't have that much to give. I'm sorry I'm not Oprah Winfrey and can't bundle millions of dollars into his campaign.
Caucuses - ugh - obviously they had a plan. There have ben countless complaints about Obama supporters flooding caucuses. There were even complaints in Iowa that 800 people in Obama buses came to caucuses as locals, but caused such a scene that IDs couldn't be checked, and sign-in sheets were used instead. Of course, their signatures were illegible. It's also been said that these buses were coming from out-of-state. Beyond that, Obama's supporters have been encouraging people to flood those caucuses and all stand in a mob, be aggressive and intimidating. Obviously caucus states don't reflect a true "will of the people."
The superdelegates need to save our party. I certainly will not vote for somebody who a-hasn't done anything in the senate (who votes PRESENT?!!?), b- won his first election in 1997 by fighting to disqualify everyone else so he could run unopposed, c- allows his supporters to accuse any white person that prefers Hillary as racist, stupid, uneducated, poor, white trash, redneck hillbillies, d- insults and belittles how much the Clintons have done for our country, and the Democratic Party, e- writes off and insults the middle class as unimportant, f- has NO PLAN, and g- exploits the need for change after 8 years of bush.
Hillary is the only person I will vote for, and that, believe it or not, amongst everyone I know, is nearly UNANIMOUS. Correction - most Democrats I know are already joining McCain mailing lists.
She should, and still can, win.
