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Tuesday, August 19, 2008

 

Please, Ohio, Don't Let Me Down Again


I heard something a little bit disturbing on The Takeaway this morning.

(Now, I need to take a moment here to confess that I don't normally listen to The Takeaway. I don't like it. It reminds me of Gogurt, in that it's a totally unnecessary attempt to hip-ify something that fundamentally does not need to be cool. NPR news programs should be a slightly dull, in-depth look at the issues of the day. They don't need to have "hi-tech" bleepity-bloopity computer noises in between each segment. I'm quite resentful that my local NPR station has taken away another hour of Morning Edition, even though that hour is repeated at 8:00. Sorry. I've been holding that in for awhile now.)

Anyway, The Takeaway sent its political director across the country to the Democratic Convention, doing daily reports along the way. This morning, she came to us from southern Ohio, I'd have to guess down around Marietta, maybe.

She was talking to residents of the county who'd voted for Clinton in the primary and, to a person, they all said they weren't going to vote for Obama. Now, they gave a variety of reasons. One guy cited Obama's lack of experience. Another guy just claimed not to like either candidate and said he'll sit this one out. A third person said she was a giant Hillary-ite and, while she hasn't made her mind up about who'll get her vote, she's definitely not going to donate money or volunteer for Obama.

Yo no entiendo. What's confusing about this? How can you look at these two candidates and not realize what you need to do? It's pretty fucking simple, actually. If you've spent the last eight years queasy and depressed; if you don't want to see the Supreme Court packed with even more right-wingers who will do their level best to strip you of your rights; if you don't want to see a continuation of the same failed policies from someone who has utterly sold his soul to ingratiate himself to the Republican base, then you cannot vote for McCain.

If you supported Hillary and desperately wanted finally to see a woman elected to lead us; if you believe in what Hillary stood for and want to have someone in office who stands for a lot of those same ideals; if you want someone who is going to protect our civil liberties, then you must vote for Obama.

Now, I admit, I did not support Hillary in the primaries, so I do not have my radar set to detect every slight policy difference between her and Barack Obama that might turn people off. So there could be a lot that I'm missing. But a lot of people's distaste for him seems (and please remember that I'm saying seems, here) to come from two areas: he's not a woman and he's not white.

Listening to the people interviewed on The Takeaway this morning, it was odd, because no matter what words were actually coming out of their mouths, all I heard was, "I'm not voting for a black guy."

Maybe I'm completely wrong on this. Maybe some people are genuinely put off by his lack of national experience. Maybe some people were actually so invested in Clinton that they just can't face a general election of which she is not a part. Tough shit.

Whatever your reasons--racism, dubiousness or sour grapes--get the fuck over them, take your fucking head out of your smelly ass and pull the goddamn lever in November or this country takes another giant step backward.

Comments:
Amen. For fucks' sake, if the whiners and racists give this election to McCain, I do not want to hear one negative word to them about anything coming from the McCain Administration. If they're going to drag us all down that rabbit hole, the least they can do is shut the fuck up about it.
 
I'm even sympathetic to those who lament there being no chance in hell for a candidate of real change, a third party candidate or the like, but we need to all face reality and do what we didn't do in the last eight years between this election and the next to make those things happen, because now is too late to think it's not one of these three alternatives: McCain, Obama, or a staged attack after which Bush declares Marshall Law and remains president.

Allowing McCain to win is idifuckingotic.
 
Agreed. Hate The Takeaway and can't understand how Clinton supporters can consider voting for McCain and I do believe - tho none of them will admit it - that it is about race.

How can you love Hillary SO much and then decide to vote for the guy who mocked her daughter in public when she was still a teenager and not a public figure, joking that Chelsea was so ugly because Janet Reno was her father. This is the candidate these people prefer over Obama?

I also think the Clintons have done a shitty job of endorsing Obama and hope that he loses so Hillary can run again in four years.
 
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