Road to Perdition

As this campaign meanders along on the road to perdition, the two candidates are tired, the campaigns are clumsy and the supporters of both candidates are making the race increasingly personal. My friend Peter, a passionate supporter of Hillary Clinton, runs a Facebook group called “Gays for Hillary.” On Saturday, he sent out an email to the group entitled, “I will not be Silenced,” where he declared, “For the good of the COUNTRY and WORLD Hillary Clinton WILL STAY IN THE RACE! Join me in rebuking the anti-democratic voices calling for Hillary to leave the race by making a contribution today!” He went on to decry Obama’s association with his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and said that it pointed to Obama’s “massive lack of conviction and morals.” As he put it, “I was starting to warm up to the idea of Barack Obama as the possible nominee. But as I learned this week how he spent years sitting silently in the pews of his church while his pastor went on anti-gay, anti-jew and even anti-Italian (lol) rants I decided enough was enough. I question the principles of anyone who sits silently while this bashing goes on and you should too. It's not tolerable. I will not be silenced.” He continued, “I believe passionately that its a woman's turn to run things and I'm not about to pass up the most qualified woman in our lifetime for the job. I'm really quite over the media trying to steer this race ... Obama's campaign has taken the bullying tactics they used in caucuses, as evidenced by countless complaints from all over the nation, and are now trying to use the voices of mildly significant people (Pat Lahey) to bully Hillary out of the race.”

To this, I responded with the following:

This is exactly the kind of vitriol that will destroy the party. Calling for the candidate who is clearly in second place to drop out of the race after 42 states have cast their ballots is a perfectly legitimate and above-board tactic of a campaign, even if you disagree with it. They were public statements which the Clinton campaign could and did easily and publicly respond to. Let's put this into perspective. Fact: Obama is leading in the popular vote. Fact: Obama is leading in the delegate count. Fact: Obama has won twice as many contests as Hillary. Fact: Hillary agreed going into the primary season that Florida and Michigan would not count. Fact: This is a race for delegates, not the popular vote and not the hypothetical electoral college vote. The primary rules, which all candidates were aware of and agreed to going into the primary season, allot delegates to all 50 states, including small and red state. That's why they hold primaries and caucuses in those states, even though they are allotted fewer delegates than more populous or traditionally blue states. Fact: Obama has not cheated or bullied; he has run an aggressive, solid, successful campaign that has simply outmaneuvered the Clinton campaign. That's not cheating, it's winning. If the roles were reversed, we would be hearing the same calls for Obama to exit the race as Hillary is hearing now. And, arguably, Obama would be right in refusing to do so.

Making this primary about Reverend Wright, questioning whether Obama would be where he is if he were white and saying that "it's a woman's turn" are grotesquely negative, divisive and personal attacks against a person who may very well be the nominee of our party, and they are arguments that have no place in this campaign when we confront issues such as war, 47 million uninsured Americans, and the immanent collapse of our economy. To be fair, "Bosnia-gate" should play no significant role in this conversation either. Everything I ever hear emanating from the Clinton campaign and it's surrogates are negative attacks against Obama. And all it does is drive up Hillary's negatives. Can you not, instead, say something positive about Hillary Clinton that would convince Democrats to support her? As an Obama supporter who happens to think that Hillary would also make an excellent president, let me help you:

She is exceptionally smart, politically adept and passionately devoted to the people of our country. She has a distinguished career as a lawyer and as a United States Senator. As First Lady, she championed causes that helped women, children and families, and she had the opportunity to interact and engage with leaders of state, science, business, education and culture from across the globe. In the Senate, she worked with Democrats and Republicans to help rebuild lower Manhattan and to provide better equipment and healthcare for our troops. She has an extraordinary grasp of the issues, and is uniquely prepared to confront the challenges that the next president will face. Obama, you could say, would be a good president, but Hillary would be a great one.

There are a lot of positive things to say about Hillary, none of which have anything to do with her gender. What's wrong with making the case for your candidate on the issues and based on her experience and ideas, instead of bashing Obama with ridiculous, petty and unfair statements like the ones contained in your emails? Has it occurred to you that your words against Obama are more hateful than any words I have heard any Democrat use against McCain? That this primary season has reached this level should make any Democrat shudder. You know, at the end of all of this, no matter who the nominee is, all of us Democrats are going to have to put aside whatever disagreements we have had in the past and work towards defeating the Republicans in November. Would you really prefer to have 4 to 8 more years of a Republican dictatorship? The stakes are too high to allow that to happen. Clinton and Obama and all of their respective supporters need to tone it down, focus on the issues, keep the bull-shit factor down to a minimum and ultimately respect the will of the voters and respect the primary rules as they were originally set up. Aggressive tactics do not constitute cheating. A person's gender does not make it "her turn" to be president. Calling for a candidate to step aside for the good of the party is not bullying, it's being smart.

Now, if you'll excuse me, this whole exchange has made me want to send another $100 to Obama.