Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Suicidal Democrat Base

I watched the Democrat debate last night and was a bit put off by Hillary's efforts to once again misstate Obama's statements about Reagan and about his "present" votes in the Illinois legislature since they show that Hillary will lie to win - NOT what I want in a president, particularly after seven years of the Chimperator's endless lying. Andrew Sullivan has posted an e-mail from one his readers that largely sums up my reaction to the Democratic primary to date. It likewise sums up the views of some of the party goers from the other night when we were talking about the presidential race. I continue to fear that the Democrat base is acting like the GOP base - focusing on who they like or feel they owe pay backs to rather than who can win in November. Every Republican that I know continues to salivate at the thought of Hillary as the Democrat nominee because they know with her as the opponent, their fractured party will come together under the mantra "Anyone but Hillary." Here's Andrew's quote from the reader e-mail:
The Clintons are like the arsonist firefighter in the movie Backdraft -- using their political skills to create divisive and destructive fires in an attempt to dominate their opposition, and then immediately promoting themselves as the only firefighters that will put them out. They did it in the White House by making Bill's indiscretions a partisan issue, and now they're doing it with the gender and race issue. And it baffles me how willing Hillary supporters are to continue to participate in this cynical and destructive mechanism.

I'm a very politically interested Dem in a large family of moderate to conservative Republicans and Independants. I can, and have, made a good case with them for Obama, but there's no way I can justify a Hillary nomination to myself, much less to them. If the Dems are short-sighted and suicidal enough to give a Hillary the nomination instead of seizing the opportunity with Obama to create a once-in-a-lifetime historical political realignment in this country, they can count me, my family, and many of my Dem friends out this Nov.

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