Former Clinton Supporter Sighs With Relief
by litigatormom
Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 12:55:12 PM PDT
"Did you see it?" my friend J., her eyes wide and horrified, asked as she opened the door to her apartment last night at 7 pm. "Did you see it?" She was talking about Sarah Palin being interviewed by Katie Couric. I hadn't, but I'd seen enough video clips on YouTube to know why she looked so terrified.
My husband and I were going to eat dinner with J. and her husband T. and then watch the presidential debate, armed with cabernet and several tubs of premium ice cream. All four of us had been Clinton supporters, J. and I most passionately. Like many professional women who came of age in the late 70s and the 80s, we had seen ourselves in her, and we were infuriated by the way Clinton had been treated by the press, the DNC, and yes, some Obama supporters. And now we faced the first presidential debate in a state of high anxiety.
litigatormom's diary :: ::
As some of you might remember, I used to be a fairly frequent poster on this site, but I left in March after I found that it was impossible to make even a mildly positive comment about Clinton without being overwhelmed by tidal waves of negative and sometimes vitriolic responses. Perhaps because of my long history on the site, I didn't get as much of the really abusive comments as other Clinton supporters did, but there came a point when I could no longer be part of a community that tolerated such behavior. I swore that I would never return. And between March and about a week ago, I didn't, not even to lurk and read. I simply didn't want to know what was happening here.
I had started out with Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson as my second choices, but they soon disappeared from the race. I had a positive view of Obama, but he was farther down on my list of preferences because I had questions about his relative lack of experience and his tendency to underplay the achievements of the Clinton administration and to praise the administrations of Republicans. I thought he was long on inspiration and short on implementation. Still, I started out thinking that he would be an acceptable nominee. That view dimmed, however, as the discourse on this site deteriorated.
When Obama clinched the nomination, I was heartbroken and angry. I was furious at the DNC. I was frustrated by what I viewed as gloating and a lack of graciousness towards both Clinton herself and her supporters. "Where else are they going to go?" was the refrain of many Obama surrogates on television, in print and in the blogosphere, and I for one did not like my vote being taken for granted. I never for a nanosecond considered voting for McCain, but it took a while for me to reconcile myself to voting for Obama because I live in the safest of blue states, New York. He didn't need my vote, I thought. Even when I decided I would vote for Obama, I felt unenthusiastic, and felt no inclination to contribute time or effort to his campaign -- something that I had assumed I would do if he won before I became so disenchanted last winter.
After McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, my sense of outrage overcame my reluctance to support Obama's campaign and I agreed to help host a fundraiser. My husband and I maxxed out for Obama less than a week ago, even as our anxiety about our financial stability grew. The events of the last few days only made me more afraid of the consequences of a McCain victory, as he decided to play chicken with the bailout for purely political purposes, all the while proclaiming that HE was the candidate who always put country first.
Last night, as I arrived at J's house, my support for Obama was still fueled by my ever-increasing belief that a McCain presidency would be catastrophic, perhaps even more catastrophic as the reign of King George II. I still was not supporting Obama out of a belief that he had the capacity to be a good, if not great president, despite a stirring acceptance speech in Denver that finally claimed the achievements of the Clinton administration as something to be built upon instead of dismissed. I still worried that he was long on inspiration and short on implementation.
As the debate began, J and I were tense. How would Obama do on what all the pundits asserted was McCain's strongest turf? Would he be aggressive enough? Would he be concrete instead of vague? Obama had never impressed me in the Democratic primary debates, and despite my contempt for McCain's hackneyed reliance on talking points, I feared that Obama would get lost in nuance, and would not attack when necessary. We drank our wine and consumed mass quantities of the ice cream to calm ourselves.
But slowly, we relaxed. I can nitpick and critique some of Obama's answers. I wish he had been a little more agressive in some of his responses. But finally, at long last, we saw the Obama we had needed to see. Strong, confident, at ease in his command of the details. Someone who was not put on the defensive by the grumpy McCain's contemptuous claims to greater experience and wisdom. Someone who could rebut McCain's misleading talking points and turn them back against him. Someone capable of learning the lessons of history and explaining them in terms that anyone could understand, instead of getting lost in nuance. Someone whose commitment to helping working families, and whose ability to explain why it was so important to the health of the overall economy that we do so. Someone whose judgment I could trust to take action wisely and well.
Finally, I feel that I can support Obama affirmatively, and not just as the better of the alternatives. Finally, I feel like I WANT him to president. He already had my vote, and he had already gotten my money. But at long last, he had my head and my heart.
Some of you may say, big deal, what took you so long? You may resent my criticism of how many on this board dealt with folks like me last winter. You may still not respect anyone who could have preferred Clinton to Obama. But I'm not apologetic about my support of Clinton, and I still believe she would have made a great president.
I started posting on this board because I was so overwhelmed with fear by the economic crisis, and no other board offered as much information in real time. A few of you remembered me and welcomed me back. I'm not writing this as the prodigal daughter who has finally repented and returned home. I'm writing this to let you know how two women skeptical of Obama have finally been convinced by him, and not our fear of McCain, to support Obama's election wholeheartedly. I'm still skeptical about Obama being a transformational figure or the reincarnation of Jack Kennedy, and some of the other hype about him. I had already decided that a roll of the dice on Obama was better than guaranteed snake-eyes with McCain. But I no longer feel like I'm rolling the dice. A President Obama will face problems graver than those faced by any new president in over 60 years. He may not be able to solve them. But I have a confidence in him that I never had before, and I am glad to have it. And I strongly suspect that we were not the only ones Obama won over last night.
Thanks for listening.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/27/145024/378/684/612585
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