I support Hillary Clinton for president because she is the best-qualified candidate.
I appreciate Hillary’s sharp mind and fully developed plans for our country. She is no slouch; she is tenacious and tough in the face of adversity. And certainly, in this campaign, she has faced adversity. From a negative and misogynist press to the male leaders of the Democratic Party, she has been ridiculed, criticized and dismissed. In spite of having the support of nearly 50 percent of the voters, it is she who is being asked to quit the race. But Hillary keeps going: meeting the voters, listening and sharing herself and her plans. I admire her strength and her faith.
In every debate, it is Hillary’s plans, ideas and knowledge that lead the way. She has no need to go second: She knows the answers; she has the knowledge; she understands the world we live in.
I am tired of having a second-class mind in the White House. I want someone who can think on their feet—who understands what it takes to get things done and has the strength and tenacity to stand tall through tough times. That person is Hillary Clinton.
— Kathy Skerl
Asheville
I completely disagree with Kathy Skerl’s contentions. For one thing, I think Hillary has been a terrible role model for women.
Hillary repeatedly attacked the character of the women who her husband victimized, even after he was caught lying under oath in a court of law about his infidelities.
The only message that sends to young women is don’t report your boss for sexual harassment or his wife will drag your name through the mud and ruin your career. That makes her part of the problem of misogyny, not part of the solution.
Another example is the court case where Hillary got her client off with only one year in jail for brutally raping a 12 year old girl by attacking the girl’s character. She argued that the girl had a thing for older men and was therefore asking for it.
12 year old girls do not ask to be brutally raped. The girl tried to commit suicide not long after and her entire life has been a tragedy ever since. You can read more about the case at:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-usark245589997feb24,0,2670956.story
Concerning Skerl’s claim that Hillary is the best qualified, I just don’t see it. Hillary has three years less experience in office than Barack Obama.
Yes, much of his experience was at the state level, but that is entirely relevant. Bill Clinton only had state level experience when he was elected, and his state was Arkansas, which only has a miniscule fraction of the population and economy of Illinois. In fact, Illinois has one of the largest economies in the world in its own right.
The bipartisan legislation that Obama has sponsored and passed far outshines anything Hillary has done in the senate. Obama-Lugar and Obama-Coburn are particularly impressive, but the list is extensive.
Hillary’s biggest claim to fame has been the SCHIP legislation, but she has almost certainly overstated her role. She was not a legislator at the time, and one of the bill’s two main sponsors, Orin Hatch, said she had nothing to do with the legislation whatsoever.
Now that her first lady records have been released, they do not show one single SCHIP related meeting before the legislation passed. The records show that she mentioned the virtues of the legislation in two speeches after the legislation had already passed, but that hardly qualifies as her playing a major role.
Whatever the case, she wasn’t even in the legislature at the time.
As for Hillary’s debate performance, muckraking with right wing guilt-by-association tactics is definitely not admirable criteria for a leader.
The most significant executive experience in Hillary’s life by a longshot has been this election. It is a test that she has failed miserably on multiple levels.
She has terribly mismanaged her campaign’s finances over and over again. Her campaign is deep in debt and they have been stiffing vendors across the country, several of which are taking the matter to court now. Failure to pay her bills is not a sign of leadership.
She completely mismanaged her money leading up to Super Tuesday and had to borrow 5 million dollars from herself because she hadn’t planned ahead. Again, not a sign of a person qualified to make major economic decisions.
She fired her campaign manager, and demoted her head strategist, who was lobbying for the Columbian Trade deal that she supposedly opposes. They were both people that she hired in the first place, which certainly shows poor judgement.
She has $800K in her joint bank account that her husband made for lobbying the US government for the Columbian trade deal that she supposedly opposes.
She has taken money from Washington lobbyists and was far less successful at effectively raising money than Barack Obama.
This election has been Obama’s foremeost executive experience as well. He has passed the test with flying colors. He has raised more money than any candidate in history, and he did it without taking a dime from Washington lobbyists.
He has conducted the most successful grassroots campaign in Presidential history, and he did it with donors averaging around $100.
As opposed to Hillary, he has consistently planned ahead and payed his bills in a timely manor.
The choice for the Democratic nomination is crystal clear; Barack Obama.
entropticon, if your posts are any indication of what Obama’s handlers are like, every soul in NC should vote against him. You have engaged in nothing but a constant attack against Hillary Clinton. I’m no fan of Hillary, but your tactics are simply creepy.
Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton? OR Bush, Clinton, Bush, Change?
travelah, coming from a person who spends all of his free time on a progressive weekly’s website ranting about the evils of “leftisits,” that really is quite a compliment. In my opinion, that is seriously creepy.
As the editorial board of the NY Times recently stated, Hillary’s continued candidacy only serves to hurt the Democratic Party, and help John McCain. I do not want John McCain to be pour next President, so I feel it is my duty to tell people the truth about Hillary.
entop, I spend a small amount of my free time on the MountainX and I rarely rant. It is a good place to learn the liberal and leftist argument and recognize the constant ad hominem method employed. As for Hillary, I have no intention of supporting her in the general election or Obama for that matter. I am simply observing that you have taken it upon yourself to engage in a smear campaign against his opponent. In a true sense you are very much like a small town version of Mr. Rove.
travelah, who are you trying to kid? There are blog logs detailing your rants against liberalism here ad infinitum. A small amount of time here? lol
My crticisms of Hillary have been anything but Rovian. If there is some specific critique that you think is questionable, by all means lay it on and i will answer it when I can. I won’t have much internet access this week.
entop, your point is? I spend maybe 60 minutes a day posting here, that time scattered at various times of the day or evening. Usually that time is spent while I am doing several other things as well.
Nonetheless, I think you are a fine example of the “Rovian” left.
Ahh, I see, in your world, Karl Rove is a leftist, rather than the quintessential icon of the corrupt and ruthless right. You stick with that if it works for you. Perhaps a unicorn will jump out of your computer and give you ice cream next.
Spend one sixteenth of your waking hours on a liberal website ranting your conservative libertarian nonsense about “leftists” if that makes you happy.
Seriously. Who says “leftists”? That’s very Joe McCarthy of you. Funny stuff. Watch out for the leftists, they may be in your water supply or sending secret Marxist brain signals to your children.
entop, no, Karl Rove is your imaginary boogey man and your tactics are very much the same as you attribute to him. I use the the term leftist because I was once so far to the left I make you look like just another soft Democrat liberal. In other words I already know how you think. For the benefit of Nixon’s “silent majority” which is still relevant today, identifying you as leftist is as germane to any discussion as it is for you to rant about right wingers or any other label you attach to non-leftists (even if they are of the left such as Hillary Clinton whose leftist roots stretch back to her Yale days)
Incidentally, do you spend 1/17th or 1/15th of your time posting here?
travelah, you know me so well it’s like you are a mind reader. It’s spooky. I’m such a soft Democratic liberal.
Yes, Rove, I had you pegged from the beginning.
Hillary Clinton all the way!
Question: WHY IS OBAMA AFRAID TO DEBATE HILLARY HERE IN NORTH CAROLINA OR IN INDIANA?
It’s amazing travelah. You are a lot like a clever and perceptive person, only entirely different.
It was so insightful of you to see that I am really Karl Rove. I think I will go try to fan the flames of racism by ranting about Reverend Wright now… Oh wait, I have you to do that for me.
I guess I can go back to my ultra top secret right wing communist lefty lair so I can get back to plotting about how to socialize lunch.
Keep up the good work my trusty minion.
entop, there seems to be such little difference between yourself and how you portray Karl Rove that it would be an easy mistake to assume he is your mentor. In any event, you are a classic example of how the left thinks and operates. Let’s use your racism charge against those who point out the proclivities of Obama’s spiritual adviser for 10 years, oops, 20 years. Now, aside from the fact that Obama claims to be a practicing Christian all this time which should send you into a frothing frenzy as a leftist, his pastor has demonstrated his racist hatred for whites and his disgust for everything patriotic. The intellectual mind should be reeling from the absurd suggestion that it is racist to point out the vile racism of Obama’s spiritual adviser. According to you it is racist to point out a racist’s embrace of another racist hate monger (Louis Farakan). Keep in mind that the left had no problem with the smear campaign waged against John McCain and a pastor from San Antonio, John Hagee and the reason is plain. It served their purpose albeit a failed effort.
Those who are not familiar with your tactics as one on the left need to keep in mind the strategy of leftists is to hurl as much feces as possible in the hope that just enough sticks to taint the opposition. That is what has been done with Karl Rove and Dick Cheney for that matter. If you throw enough dung, the whole air begins to stink and the audience loses sight of the truth. It is a timeless tactic of the left. Fortunately, it washes off with a good dose of the truth.
What I find fascinating about your campaign against Hillary Clinton is your ardent support for a candidate whose long time mentor is a “Christian” racist hate-monger and an anti-Semite. Additionally, Obama is very cozy with an admitted unrepentant terrorist bomber. Yes, it should be an interesting campaign.
Kathy Skerl,
Have you stopped to consider that one who graduated at the bottom of her class at Yale and failed the the D.C bar exam thereby dashing her young hopes for an inside the beltway career is not exactly an improvement over your notion of something better than a second rate mind?
entop, that was a freebie.
Kathy, I agree 100%. Senator Clinton is far and away the better candidate to take on McCain in November because she has the requisite experience, strength and intelligent proposals to reverse the damage done by eight years of George Bush in the White House. She also has the backing of regular blue collar folks in the Democratic party. We cannot win back the White House without the support of these hard-working Americans. We also can’t win back the White House without taking Florida, Ohio, California and Pennsylvania…all states won handily by Senator Clinton. She’s also won NM, NV, AZ, TX, OK, AR, RI, MA, NJ, TN, MI and NY. The most populous of these states are also vital to a Democratic win in November. We have no chance of taking UT, ID, MS, NE, SC or GA in November no matter who we have on the ticket. Those states will automatically go red. I’m behind Senator Clinton 110% and from the looks of the fundraising happening now for her campaign, I’m in very good company indeed! If you support her, please get involved in her campaign…make phone calls, volunteer at your local office, make contributions, etc. http://www.hillaryclinton.com for more info.
Also, why is it that Obama refuses to debate her? What exactly is he afraid of? Refusing to debate her makes him look weak & cowardly. Not a smart move at all on his part!
On Saturday, April 26th, a large group that I was a part of, made a short walk towards the courthouse in Macon County, N.C., to exercise our rights to vote in a primary election, guaranteed to us by our Constitution. We, as Obama supporters, felt it as an obligation to exercise our beliefs and values and progressed towards the early voting process to state these beliefs. During this small walk, a very negative racial slur was blurted out in the streets, by a very racist individual, towards our support of Obama and it was ignored and the group continued to the courthouse. Believe me, it wasn’t Reverend Wright, unless he is white. As a 62 year old white person and a Veteran, I found it very offensive. Why did we vote for Obama? Every day we hear the public griping about fuel prices, food prices (71% higher than last year), living conditions, schools, educational systems, electric bills, house payments, loan interests going up,etc. There is not one person that is pleased by the problems in our nation today. Who has the chance to change the goings on in Washington? Do you want the same people that are there and have been there for 35 years? No. Why is the public so scared to take a chance for a change in our government? Why does the public hang on to the same way that Washington has acted for the last eight years and not stand up for a change in the attitudes of our representatives? Why does a portion of the public think that the same Washington pundents and nationwide news knows more than we? Think before you vote. Disregard national news and the so-called experts that are trying to get a big fight going just for their own ratings. What has happened to these news outlets and our kids being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan? What about our soldiers sleeping in their cars and under bridges because they have no help? The national news just wants to talk negative about some preacher that expresses himself, instead of listening to the people. Quit believing the same rhetoric that has been stated for the last eight years. If you want something different, don’t vote for the same. There is only one choice for our CHANCE to change the way Washington works and a CHANCE for us to gather together and to CHANGE high prices of food, gas and living costs. Barack Obama is our CHANCE and we need to step up and not support what is and was, but rather support what CAN BE. Before you vote for a candidate, ask youself if you want the same or do you want to take a chance for something different. That is your choice. It is time for our country to come together before the Washington machine destroys it.
Jim McCoy
Franklin, N.C
jimi945@hotmail.com
Senator Obama has made a choice not to debate Senator Clinton. My guess is it’s because he’s already “debated” with her a zillion times. There are a lot things he might be “afraid” of–I’d be afraid of the Clintons as they have a nasty habit of getting nasty (literally, (or do regular working folks have their employees doing nasty things to them under their desks in the White House, a different kind of “working” class that regular people don’t associate with–and a nasty habit of doing whatever it takes to win. I know I’m scared of them! Getting an ethical person in the White House is going to take a lot of ethical people to donate their ethically earned dollars to Senator Obama’s campaign. He refuses to take money from the political action committees that Senator McCain and Senator Clinton do. Watch the spin–it’s got you convinced that “refusing to debate Hillary” makes Obama look weak. Makes him seem smart to me: who wants to be in the same room with “that woman?” She’s married to that sleaze!
Right on Katydid. I mean seriously, how many more total waste of time debates should Obama engage in? The last one was such a pathetic display – really tackling those non-issues. Complete with George Stephanopoulos kissing Hillary’s butt and hard hitting questions about believing in a pin?? It’s a pin!
On Saturday, April 26th, a large group that I was a part of, made a short walk towards the courthouse in Macon County, N.C., to exercise our rights to vote in a primary election, guaranteed to us by our Constitution. We, as Obama supporters, felt it as an obligation to exercise our beliefs and values and progressed towards the early voting process to state these beliefs. During this small walk, a very negative racial slur was blurted out in the streets, by a very racist individual, towards our support of Obama and it was ignored and the group continued to the courthouse. Believe me, it wasn’t Reverend Wright, unless he is white. As a 62 year old white person and a Veteran, I found it very offensive. Why did we vote for Obama? Every day we hear the public griping about fuel prices, food prices (71% higher than last year), living conditions, schools, educational systems, electric bills, house payments, loan interests going up,etc. There is not one person that is pleased by the problems in our nation today. Who has the chance to change the goings on in Washington? Do you want the same people that are there and have been there for 35 years? No. Why is the public so scared to take a chance for a change in our government? Why does the public hang on to the same way that Washington has acted for the last eight years and not stand up for a change in the attitudes of our representatives? Why does a portion of the public think that the same Washington pundents and nationwide news knows more than we? Think before you vote. Disregard national news and the so-called experts that are trying to get a big fight going just for their own ratings. What has happened to these news outlets and our kids being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan? What about our soldiers sleeping in their cars and under bridges because they have no help? The national news just wants to talk negative about some preacher that expresses himself, instead of listening to the people. Quit believing the same rhetoric that has been stated for the last eight years. If you want something different, don’t vote for the same. There is only one choice for our CHANCE to change the way Washington works and a CHANCE for us to gather together and to CHANGE high prices of food, gas and living costs. Barack Obama is our CHANCE and we need to step up and not support what is and was, but rather support what CAN BE. Before you vote for a candidate, ask yourself if you want the same or do you want to take a chance for something different. That is your choice. It is time for our country to come together before the Washington machine destroys it.
Jim McCoy
Franklin, N.C
jimi945@hotmail.com
Excellent post Jim McCoy.
It is pretty outlandish for people to keep making an issue of the fact that Obama doesn’t want to debate this week since Hillary already refused a NC debate a couple of weeks ago.
There have already been more debates than any primary in history, so it is time to drop the manufactured indignation. We don’t really need to hear Hillary scraping the bottom of the barrel with her Rovian guilt by association attacks any more.
People need to realize that John F. Kennedy and Nixon did not debate until after November. There were no debates before. Also, Carter and Reagan did not debate until after. There have been 21 boring debates so far. People have learned about the candidates through personal appearances and sit downs. The debates just enhance the NEWS agencies GREED for ratings. These moderators ask questions that we, the people, could care less about. Let the people control the debate and then you will see them agree. I agree with Obama in not having another one. All he does is get asked again and again about a renegade preacher and the idiotic relationship. There are no good questions asked at all. What about the price of bread, fuel, insurance costs, electric bills, the profits of CEOs in the U.S. ($150,000 A week with ammenities), (food 71% higher than last year), jobs not available, etc. I don’t think a moderator knows the price of milk today. Those are the important questions….NOT A DARN FLAG PIN…Why was Clinton not wearing a flag pin? Why were the moderators not wearing a flag pin? Why has John McCain not worn one? SEE! Stupid questions. Let’s get on with the face to face with the people. To heck what Hillary wants on a flat bed truck.
You can make all the excuses you want for Obama, but that won’t change the fact that he finally got tough questions and was asked those questions FIRST for the FIRST TIME in any of the debates held thus far. He stumbled badly, which made it clear to me that he is a novice and far from being ready to lead this country. We all know why he refuses another debate, even a Lincoln-Douglas style debate as Hillary suggested…one with no moderator. He won’t do it because he knows he will get beat badly. Simple as that. He does not want to have to answer questions specific to the needs of folks in North Carolina, Indiana, Oregon, West Virginia, Kentucky, South Dakota or Puerto Rico. I can only think it is because he either does know enough to answer questions or perhaps he doesn’t care to know. Either way, it’s cowardly and not becoming of someone who wants to lead this nation.