Sunday, August 24, 2008

Shedding Tears for Hillary

Memo to disaffected Clinton Democrats arriving in Denver: Forty years ago at the convention in Chicago, as a delegate supporting anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy, I was tear-gassed by the police of Mayor Richard Daley, a supporter of Hubert Humphrey. The Democrats lost that election and Richard Nixon moved into the White House.

The internal strife will be less riotous this week, but the danger of self-inflicted damage is just as great. The passions in 1968 were political, about ending a war, but the powerful feelings of 2008 are personal, about perceived sexism and disrespect for the first woman within reach of a presidential nomination.

From the sidelines, hopeful Republicans are shedding crocodile tears for Hillary Clinton with TV commercials about being "passed over," and ardent feminists like William Kristol are bemoaning "The Democrats' Glass Ceiling."

Such sympathy is touching, coming from those whose political sensitivities have brought on a devastating war and economic chaos, but Democrats of all persuasions are faced with the challenge of not letting their own passion for fairness and justice lead to another victory for politicians whose priorities are power and privilege.

That would be cause for sadness beyond tears.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Both Biden and Clinton vociferously criticized Obama in the primaries (as should have been expected). Why would Obama pick Biden who can only deliver a few hundred thousand votes, when Clinton can deliver 18 million very enthusiastic votes?!? Obama did not vet Clinton or even consult her on the VP position. How else to interpret this other than that Obama has a personal antipathy for Hillary Clinton? But why would he not also hate Biden? The only conclusion can be that Obama is a narcissist. Despite that the logical and intelligent move would be to pick Hillary as VP, he shoots himself and the Democratic party in the foot to assuage his hurt feelings over Hillary's pushing him to the limit in the primaries.

Barack Obama is behaving like a child and will be spanked in the election for it...