Flip It Quick! Could Somebody Please Give Howard Dean A Coin?

[boston bean]

by Kristen Brietweiser:

Second, some thoughts for the Hillary Haters--those who would never vote for Hillary under any circumstances, even a unity ticket:

1. Some of you are supporting Obama because Hillary is divisive. I find this ironic, given the fact that many Team Obama blog comments sound even more aggressive and nasty than many Republican comments. You should read your own words!

2. Some of you are supporting Obama because he was opposed to the war in Iraq. Yes, Hillary voted to give President Bush the authority to go to war. Yes, she was dead wrong. But the reality is that since Obama has been in the Senate, he has had virtually the same voting record on the war as Hillary. My view? If you fund it -- you support it. They now have similar timetables for the withdrawal of our troops. And, most important, compared with the "open-ended" Republican commitment to staying in Iraq for 100 years, any remaining differences between Obama and Clinton on this issue are marginal.

3. Some of you are supporting Obama because you fear a potential war with Iran. Newsflash: when it comes to Iran, Obama is just as much of a hawk as Hillary. Check out Obama's speech to AIPAC last spring. It is chilling. Furthermore, when the opportunity arose for Obama to vote on the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment, which advocated many of the positions he took in his AIPAC speech, Obama "no-showed" on the vote. Both Obama and Hillary's positions on Iran scare me, but at least Hillary is transparent about it.

4. Some of you are supporting Obama because he is anti-establishment. Well, if you think Barack Obama came from relative obscurity in the Chicago suburbs to speaking at the Democrat Convention in '04 to running for President in '08 by shear luck and on his own wings, then I have a bridge to sell you. The fact is that Barack Obama was hand-picked by the DLC. So please do not think that a vote for Barack is a vote against the Democratic establishment.

5. Some of you are supporting Obama because he represents change. It would seem to me that a true candidate of change would not choose Joe Lieberman to be his mentor in the Senate. Yet when Barack Obama arrived in the Senate, he did just that. Joe Lieberman does not represent "change." Ned Lamont represented change when he ran against Lieberman. Yet Obama chose to support "his mentor" in that election.

I mention these things simply to remind people that no candidate is perfect. They all have flaws -- heck, by definition, they are politicians. The most important point is that after eight long years of Republican rule, the Democrats MUST win back the White House.

That is why Obama and Hillary must come together now.

Anybody got a coin?



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-breitweiser/flip-it-quick-could-some_b_85694.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I don't like either one

as I don't see much difference between them, and hope for a brokered convention where someone else will wind up leading the ticket. But whatever happens, I'll be voting D in the GE. That being said, I do wonder why supporters of these candidates aren't focusing on these things:

1. Finding weaknesses in John McCain, who is likely to be our opponent. THAT's where the fight is.

2. Looking seriously at the flaws of your own candidate (NOT the other one!) and come up with arguments that help minimize those flaws. (Remember the parable of the mote and the beam? Same idea here.)

3. Look for ways you can work TOGETHER, not on the Presidential race (yet) but on local races. Say you're from Ohio. Have you gone to the Ohio group and seen what is needed to insure the votes are counted? Have you donated to Democratic hopefuls in Congressional Elections?

4. Remember we are all Democrats. Our job is to win in November. We can do this best by making sure we spend time coming up with ways to convince people who don't go to DU to vote our way. Following the three steps outlined above is a constructive way to do this.

[Straight Shooter]

2. I don't need to flip a coin. One of the sides of the coin is two-faced already.

We went through that with bush. We don't deserve to be punished again by another smooth operator who charms the masses.

But thank you for pointing out what Hillary supporters already know, and Barack's followers refuse to see.

[Armstead]

3. She messed up her own point by slamming one candidate

She was making some sense until she decided to go after the "Hillary haters." It wasn't lessened by her disclaimer that she was just pointing out that all candidates are flawed.

The fact is many of us don;t want Hillary for a variety of totally legitimate reasons. And many of us don't "hate" Hillary, but strongly disagree with what she represents and her basic underlying agenda.

[elixir]

4. Great post, thanks for it! excellent comments.