Posted By: New Hampshire thinker on Friday, August 22, 2008
Election based on merit, not identity. Interesting concept. I recall Ms. Brazille in the cold months before the NH primary and beyond saying that this primary election should not be decided by the super-delegates, but by the people. Guess we know the answer to that story, superdelegates voted before the convention and put the presumptive nominee over the top. Guess it's not about merit after all, but long hard hours put in by superdelegates who belong to affirmative action groups in the present democratic party. It would be refreshing if the committee charged with changing the rules at this years convention starts thinking about equality for all and not only for the few.Cheers from New Hampshire.
Posted By: Sara on Friday, August 22, 2008
Donna Brazile, a rabid Obama supporter, says Obama's race didn't play a role in his winning the primary, despite the fact that 90% of her fellow Africian-Americans voted for Obama and will continue to vote for Obama? Yeah, and pigs can fly. She claims "Obama won the race because people believed he could steer the ship of state in a new direction toward a better tomorrow." You have to ask what evidence they had of that other than words and more words. Nothing in Obama's background supports his empty rhetoric about being a "different" kind of politican with a "different" kind of agenda. After 8 years of Bush, the election was the Democrat's to lose, and they just may lose because they went with the least experienced and least knowledgable of the potential presidential contenders. Obama is now neck and neck with McCain in the polls.
Posted By: Chris on Friday, August 22, 2008
I have to strongly disagree with both of the two previous posters.First off, most of the super delegates (Brazile included) did not pick a side until the last votes had been cast and Obama had carried more states. Yeah they could have overturned the voters' will, and enjoyed losing the house, senate, and the presidency as every male and even many women under 40 all swear to never vote democrat ever again because they don't listen to the voters.As for Sara, Brazile was very careful not to pick sides in the primary and stubbornly refused to pick a favorite even when pushed on media shows. The only reason for anyone to think that Brazile supported Obama over Hillary is because she's black.No, this doesn't make you racist but it does show that you are subject to stereotypes. Which isn't your biggest concern given how your "words" about "words" being empty is the most self-defeating argument ever created.
Posted By: Leslie on Monday, August 25, 2008
Looks like you and Chris are trying to re-write the history of the primary season. This is just rich. Talk about rubbish this sure fits the bill.
Posted By: Good Life on Monday, August 25, 2008
I would have been satisfied with either, until now. After the constant PMS of all of the PUMA's I guess women are not ready or biologically oriented to leadership. I guess I was naive to believe all of the equality of the sexes I was sold back in the sixties. When it comes to the real world we get cat's claws and pouting. Hillary's supporters are proof positive that women don't understand that losing is a part of the world and how one takes a loss is directly related to one's ability to lead. I thought women were at that point. Obviously they are not.
Hey Good Life,Go push your psychobabble somewhere else. Women can accept a loss if the playing field had been level. When you have Howard Dean and the DNC not counting votes, Pelosi trying to shut down the process before every vote is cast and the super delegates shutting down Hillary's momentum at every turn that is not a level playing field. Ms Brazile can try to put her spin on this nominee and how he got there but that just won't work for the people that saw what was being done. Just because you Obama nuts are in a trance over him doesn't mean everyone else was blind to what was being done to Hillary Clinton and Bill as her surrogate in these primaries. I for one resent the fact that his supporters called her supporters racists just because he is black and they weren't voting for him as if that could be the only reason that they weren't voting for him. 90% of the African American voters cast their votes for Obama and that was never questioned as racism. This is a democracy and I am free to cast my vote for the candidate of my choice or not vote at all and that in the end will be what loses the election for the Dems. Maybe the party needs to learn a lesson here that the super delegate system is not democratic and needs to be abolished. It flys in the face of the principal of one man one vote. They also need to rotate the primary calendar so that Iowa, NH, SC & Nevada do not always hold the ultimate power of who the party representative will be in their hands every four years. This is not democratic since most nominees are already decided before Super Tuesday and the rest of us just have to go along. Look at how people turned out to vote when they had a real voice if you doubt what I say. Regional primaries should be held so that each region has the opportunity to be first on a rotating basis. This would be more representative of our nation than the same 2 and now 4 states always getting first pick.
Leslie--I agree that the current system is crazy. IA and NH are the least like the country as a whole and I don't see anything in the constitution that gives them superpower.I also don't like all of the rules of baseball, but the rules are the rules and when someone breaks them they suffer. (FL, MI) The playing field was "flat". Did Hillary ever say she didn't know the rules? Did Hillary ever say that she didn't know there were super delegates? Did Hillary ever say she didn't know that a significant number of delegates would come through caucus' controlled by the state party powers? What rule did Hillary not know about? What rule was specifically written (four years ago) with her in mind? What rule made the field not "flat"?I've gone to caucus's and they are even crazier and more prone to power plays. But this time they were part of the rules and no one has said that the rules were broken. I'm sure the guy that lost the gold medal in swimming by .01 seconds thinks the pool should have been 6 inches shorter, but that didn't make it unfair.All of the parties tried to get endorsements from the rich and powerful. No, they should not have extra power and I don't care who Oprah votes for but some do and that is also a part of the rules.Frankly, I didn't like either Obama or Hillary. Somehow I think those super delegates knew more about Edwards than was in the press or campaign ads. Perhaps they also knew more about all of the candidates, things that just aren't told in public. Thank God we were protected by "insiders".The point isn't "who" the PUMA's are going to vote for it's "why". I don't hear any logic or reasonable argument. All I hear is emotion, poor sportsmanship, whining, sobbing, all of the female stereotypes that women say "just aren't so". Well if you want to change a stereotype don't do it. Obama could speak jive but he doesn't. Obama could wear gold chains and have dreads, but he doesn't. He doesn't fit the stereotypes and by not following them is changing the image of what it means to be Black. If women want to someday have a woman president, they aren't going to make headway by acting out all of the PMS, crying, pouting, etc. that is the stereotypes of women that others would refuse to vote for just as they wouldn't vote for a Black man that speaks rap.
Posted By: outsider on Thursday, August 28, 2008
Voting for Hilary because she's a woman is just as dumb as voting for Obama because he's African-American. Both picked up votes because of their race or gender, but what really matters to me in the end is who would be the better leader. I think Hilary's divisive, self-righteous (and not a little vindictive) persona speaks volumes about that issue.
