i will not support hillary clinton for president

For what it’s worth, I agree with 100% of what Molly Ivins had to say in her Columbus Free Press editorial yesterday. Here, in case you haven’t seen it, are a few clips:

I’d like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It’s about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.

If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, “Look, the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.” Bobby Kennedy — rough, tough Bobby Kennedy — didn’t do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.

What kind of courage does it take, for mercy’s sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do “whatever it takes” to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?…

You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I’m telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven’t got enough sense to OWN the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely.

Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I’m serious as a stroke about this — that is the only reform that will work, and you know it, as well as everyone else who’s ever studied this. Do all the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: embrace redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes, the whole package. Put up, or shut up. Own this issue, or let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town…

Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can’t get up and fight, we’ll find someone who can.

Who supports Hillary? I don’t know of one (non-Republican) person that’s excited about the prospect of her running, and it’s got me wondering if it’s just her, the corporate media and the Republican noise machine that are behind all the talk. If she does have the popular support of Democrats across the nation, I sure as hell don’t see it.

This entry was posted in Politics. Bookmark the permalink. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

12 Comments

  1. mark
    Posted January 22, 2006 at 12:16 am | Permalink

    I know it doesn’t really fit here, but I just got a spam email containing the following phrase and I had to share it with someone:

    Wow her when you plow her

    Isn’t that brilliant? It’s like poetry.

  2. Stella Magdalen
    Posted January 22, 2006 at 7:50 am | Permalink

    Mmphf I wouldn’t support Hillary Clinton to walk me to the corner

  3. trusty getto
    Posted January 22, 2006 at 10:46 am | Permalink

    Middle? You mean there’s a middle? Where? I can’t see it anywhere . . . .

  4. mark
    Posted January 22, 2006 at 10:50 am | Permalink

    Trusty, I know it doesn’t really fit here any better than my first comment, but I just wanted to saay that I was sorry to hear about your divorce. (And please, if the blog was in any way responsible (either mine or yours), don’t tell me.)

  5. chris
    Posted January 22, 2006 at 12:22 pm | Permalink

    I too agree and have no intention of supporting Hillary. I have been appalled at her waste of her free ticket. Here are my many WTF’s? for her: Israel, “plantation”, prayer, Iraq, and her silence on: Katrina, women’s right to choose, nationalized healthcare, children’s rights, mother’s disenfranchisement etc etc.

    But MORE importantly she doesn’t have a chance, not even in historically democratic states. We will never win unless we have the South. In order to have the South we need a southern candidate which pragmatically could never be a woman.

    And that fuckin’ hair!

    Really, she and Chuck bother me. They are both cut from the same piece of cloth.

  6. Shanster
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 9:58 am | Permalink

    OK, chris, I’ll bite. What about ‘the one who must not be named’ and prayer? For the record, I don’t plan on supporting her, but I’m waiting to hear from Pat Robertson before I make any decisions.

  7. E. G. N-B
    Posted January 23, 2006 at 1:37 pm | Permalink

    Hillary = Cthulhu? ??

    Personally, I think she is unelectable. Those on the right will never let go of her college admiration of Saul Alinsky. That seems to have led her to pander to the right, to appear “centrist.” I suspect the Dems will still choose her to head the ticket, thus proving that they learned nothing from the last 6 years.

    Just a little disillusioned, here.

  8. Anonymous
    Posted January 24, 2006 at 3:00 am | Permalink

    John McCain will be our next president.

  9. Tony Buttons Esq.
    Posted January 24, 2006 at 11:17 am | Permalink

    That must be it!

    The sound that’s been keeping me up at night!

    It must be Saul Alinsky spinning in his grave.

  10. Posted October 17, 2007 at 7:08 pm | Permalink

    I just came across this goofy site. It’s worth a glance.

    http://bushclintonforever.googlepages.com/

  11. Demetrius
    Posted January 21, 2020 at 11:55 am | Permalink

    NYT: Hillary Clinton Says ‘Nobody Likes’ Bernie Sanders and Declines to Commit to Backing Him

    One might think, after having run one of the most disastrous campaigns in American history (and consequently handing the presidency to Donald f’ing Trump) one might choose to retire quietly from political life … but no.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/us/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders.htm

  12. Demetrius
    Posted January 21, 2020 at 11:56 am | Permalink

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/21/us/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders.html

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Connect

BUY LOCAL... or shop at Amazon through this link Banner Initiative John Maggie