I went to look for the text of the Obama speech from last night on his website, then I read some of the 2099 comments that responded to it. I was going to write a different post. But now it is simpler. My political choices are not being looked at with any respect at all, as their candidate calls for unity, his followers are printing public hate and anger at mine.

There is a difference between reconciliation and support. I believe that Obama supporters do not respect my candidate, or me, and offer me nothing because they think I believe in nothing. So I guess reconciliation just means agreeing with them.

Let me see, in this race I have been told I am uneducated, or at least undereducated, racist, cynical, angry, bitter, out of touch, hopeless, a closet republican, old, old-school feminist not feminist enough, delusional, and frankly that’s just the talking points that are coming from Obama’s aides when they circulate their “counter arguments”.

Not once, not ever, have I seen this simple truth said about an HRC supporter on anyone’s speech or commentary or, God help us blog comments:

I am voting for the person I wanted to vote for in the first place. In 1992. Unfortunately she wasn’t running then.

It doesn’t make me any of those other things, it just means I wanted to vote for him later and he’s making me vote for him now. I may not get to ever vote for somebody I WANT to vote for again. And yes, I resent him for that and I probably always will.

I have specifics about the things he could tell me where I could stop feeling like I’ve been battered and attacked by his campaign and feel like I’m voting for a politician who will accomplish something, and not just a person who isn’t my candidate.That would make this post too long. And he may believe these things, and I will have to believe he does because he’s a democrat.

I’ll pull the lever for him in November, just like I did for Gore and Kerry, neither of whom I wanted to vote for either, but a least their supporters didn’t insult me and make me feel used up and invisible.

Reconciliation requires the injured party to forgive, and the injuring party to ask. Obama and his supporters seem to be forgiving me for heresy, not asking me how they can make up for the hurt, and trust me, I am hurt.

Yes, because Hillary supporters have stayed on the high road the whole time and have never called Obama supporters insults like "sexist", "cultists", "delusional", etc.

(rolls eyes)

Reconciliation begins with truth and mutual apologies. There's time for that.

What you have to accept is your candidate lost back in february when her staff lacked the foresight to plan correctly and the flexibility to change course when it became clear that they were losing.

Obama is winning because he and his staff made the right resource-allocation decisions at the right time. That argues, among other things, that in the test of skill that the primary season (among other things) represents, he came out ahead, deservedly.

If you read through comments made by HRC campaign staffers today (look in today's WaPo), you'll see that's what they're saying. Since February,for all that she appeared to have a huge institutional advantage, it's all been damage control and catchup. Unfortunately, her decision was to change the campaign by changing her message and with it her identity, and to go negative and divisive.

Your complaints now, about how you (in general, as a Clinton supporter) have been unfairly mislabeled, strike me as complete hypocrisy. The mudslinging and the labeling all started with your side. current divisions in the party are (and I believe true reconciliation will oblige you to admit this) your fault. The Clinton strategy for the last month was to so wound and deface Obama that the party would have to turn to her and the only remaining, and once again inevitable candidate.

You can't do that and then, when it doesn't work, whine about divisiveness and rough play. Clinton supporters have been all over this board recently posting that politics is not beanbag. Well, part of being a pro is, when you lose you don't snivel about it.

And look, your compensation for growing up is a vastly better candidate. Sometimes the system works.

Name calling I can handle. It's the (roll eyes) I can't abide. By rolling one's eyes at another person is a sign of disrespect and, more importantly, contempt. Actually, it says more about the person rolling their eyes than it does the person receiving the eye rolling.

"Let me see, in this race I have been told I am uneducated, or at least undereducated, racist, cynical, angry, bitter, out of touch, hopeless, a closet republican, old, old-school feminist not feminist enough, delusional, and frankly that’s just the talking points that are coming from Obama’s aides when they circulate their “counter arguments”."

I've heard a lot of this, too. It certainly has gotten very ugly on both sides. Before I could vote in the primary, my first choice was out. That left me analyzing differences and trying my best to make a sound decision, and trying to ignore the insulting comments you mention here. In the end, it's what Obama says that matter, not rabid followers.

So I listened to Obama's speech last night with an open mind. What struck me the most was when he spoke of choosing not to be a country that only rewards wealth, but respects the worker as well. I wonder how many people found that a little scary?

Now it's time to get scrappy. He's right, it's been done before, it can be done again.

Blue Heron:

Name calling I can handle. It's the (roll eyes) I can't abide. By rolling one's eyes at another person is a sign of disrespect and, more importantly, contempt. Actually, it says more about the person rolling their eyes than it does the person receiving the eye rolling.

Yes, it says I'm sick of the self-righteous hypocrisy coming out of the Hillary camp.

It must be rough being you when you judge everyone that supports Hillary the same. Hopefully, I am not seeing people who support Obama as in the same light as I see you. Both sides can say the same thing about self-righteous hypocrisy. It does not change the fact that I still support Hillary. To move on, we must stop the tit-for-tat because if we don't we will never get very far. That being said, I still won't abide eye rolling.

I have said it before. Some day when we are older, we can all laugh about what is going on now. The younger generations will remind us of our follies and beliefs, but, hopefully, will be more respectful. (Nah! Won't happen!)

If you believe that I have been disrespectful, I apologize. I can't speak for the other Hillary supporters, only for myself.

It's those crossover Independents and Republicans that we've lost and guess what - without them we get McCain. Oh well, 4 more years of the same might reunify the Democratic Party.

Poor, poor you - and poor Hillary, too - you just can't get no respect! But, you know, it's like everything else - if you treat others with respect, you get respect back. When you use the kind of old school, kitchen sink politics that Hillary used, you lose!

Well put all around Heron. I can see why you would be upset having been on her side since '92 and seeing this last chance (probably) slip away from her, and I respect the honesty you show.

There has been plenty of name calling going around, and eventually the first cause stops mattering.

Last night I really wanted to gloat for a while, and there is still a part of me that does. But as you pointed out, that would really just demean me and inspire further anger. (And why do I want to gloat? Because i've seen so much anger, insults and spin.) So, thanks for illustrating the value of getting past those base reactions.

Cheers to getting out of unhelpful, unwinnable war and getting universal healthcare.

Good point. Republicans were totally going to vote for Hillary. If I've learned anything in the past 16 years, it's that Republicans just can't wait to vote for Hillary Clinton.

Now all is lost for these hardy souls. I guess they'll have to suck it up and vote for their second choice, John McCain. It's too bad Hillary didn't run in 2000 or 2004. I'm certain she would have racked up those Republican votes and be our current President. Damn you, Obama!

Let me see, in this race I have been told I am uneducated, or at least undereducated, racist, cynical, angry, bitter, out of touch, hopeless, a closet republican, old, old-school feminist not feminist enough, delusional, and frankly that’s just the talking points that are coming from Obama’s aides when they circulate their “counter arguments”.

And we have been calles robots, fools looking for a messiah, kool-aid drinkers, misogynists, racists,etc. etc.Everyone has been calling names and throwing fits..on both sides, and yes it is ugly, and no it's not nice. And yes, as a democrat I'm really sorry that it ever came to this. And I'll apologize if you will. We need a democrat in office this time or the whole country may be down the toilet.

I have specifics about the things he could tell me where I could stop feeling like I’ve been battered and attacked by his campaign and feel like I’m voting for a politician who will accomplish something, and not just a person who isn’t my candidate.That would make this post too long. And he may believe these things, and I will have to believe he does because he’s a democrat.

We all tend to listen more closely and hear more positives from OUR candidate, and hear more vagueness or controversy or negatives from THE OTHER GUY. I freely admit that I do. I'm going to assume you do too, it's just human nature.

Please, tell me what it is that you need to know or are unclear on about Obama. I've been researching all of this since January. I certainly don't speak for the candidate, but I can speak about him with reasonable cerainty.On the other hand, please don't, if and when I try my best to address your specific concerns, imply that I'm "just saying what you want to hear". That's the meanest double blind, and has been used a lot lately.

Reconciliation requires the injured party to forgive, and the injuring party to ask. Obama and his supporters seem to be forgiving me for heresy, not asking me how they can make up for the hurt, and trust me, I am hurt.

I do not need to forgive you, you've done nothing wrong. And you don't need to forgive me, I've done nothing wrong. All either of us have done is support our preferred candidate. Ok, so maybe it's gotten a little unpleasant, and both sides should be sorry for that. But I suppose it just shows that we really care.

Democrat '08

oxboggle writes

Your complaints now, about how you (in general, as a Clinton supporter) have been unfairly mislabeled, strike me as complete hypocrisy. The mudslinging and the labeling all started with your side. current divisions in the party are (and I believe true reconciliation will oblige you to admit this) your fault. The Clinton strategy for the last month was to so wound and deface Obama that the party would have to turn to her and the only remaining, and once again inevitable candidate.

You can't do that and then, when it doesn't work, whine about divisiveness and rough play. Clinton supporters have been all over this board recently posting that politics is not beanbag. Well, part of being a pro is, when you lose you don't snivel about it.

And look, your compensation for growing up is a vastly better candidate. Sometimes the system works.

Informing me that I am now "growing up" and telling me that "your side started it" is indicative of the lack of respect I was talking about in the first place. As does telling me that I am whining. You don't like her campaign fine, but you are still dismissing me as a voter and a person.

My point wouldn't be that Hillary supporters are pure - however I would point out that Hillary supporters never claimed to be.

The initial racism comments I heard came form the New York Times and Senator Clayburn, not the Clintons. Accusations of him being an "Empty Suit" are really the worst I've heard from the official campaign.

As opposed to a murderer ( obama's aide indicated that she was responsible for Bhutto's assassination in Dec and he wasn't let go), a monster, and willing to day anything to get elected therefore immoral. People who believe that he is a Muslim are idiots no matter which side they belong to (although that was started over by the religious right not the Dems) and frankly it wouldn't matter if he were, we're not a theocracy. I don't support them either.

However since you automatically assume that I agree with the negatives from my candidate's supporters you prove my point. Perhaps I am voting for Hillary when she "lost it in February" because I support my candidate. I'll vote for her until she's not there to vote for. I'll vote to make a political statement that she still has my support and that the opposing candidate might want to respect that when he wins, and maybe find out why so he can support it too.

These are policy issues I care about and governing concerns that he hasn't addressed. If I vote for her and he wins maybe he'll address them because he needs my vote too. That's democracy, not delusion or diminishing the other candidate. Ron Paul took 15% of the vote in PA, when the nominee was already decided. That's a message to McCain about the war. Same thing, if she's got 48% of the national vote maybe he should look at universal health care instead of partial subsidies.

But mostly, it's not hypocrisy if I didn't personally bash the other guy. And I haven't. But you feel free to bash me. How is that unity?

It isn't, you do prove my point - You don't respect me or my choices. You feel free make assumptions about me, conflate me with what you already believe about her but want me to automatically throw in with you because you won, not because you have any middle ground to offer me.

Thus I am invisible to you, and how are you going to reconcile with someone who you can't see?

Your candidate is a good man, I just like mine better. But how are you going to call me to donate to him in the GE if that's the way you feel about me? And why am I going to give you money or active support and not just my grudging vote when you thought I was a mere child for supporting my candidate? Don't you want my same level of loyalty for him? Your position in this post is probably not the best way to get it.

Obviously, reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, but let me try again:

I'm not saying that the supporters of Obama haven't engaged in namecalling, I'm just sick and tire of hearing Hillary supporters claiming that their hands are clean when in fact they are just as guilty.

remember the economy under the other Clinton would have. There Independents who represent a whopping 30% of the electorate were very much likely to vote for Hillary over Obama. It's primarily the Indpendents I'm concerned about. Hey, stick your head in the sand if you want to, but ignoring the problem won't make it go away.