Political Thoughts and Musings

For starters, respect is due to Barack Obama for making history in officially becoming the first black person to be the Presidential nominee for a major political party. He further solidified his place in history by delivering a marvelous acceptance speech that proved why he should indeed become the next President of the United States. The purpose of this piece, though, is not to discuss the obvious. There are a few non-Barack related situations that need to be brought to light.First and foremost, why are the staunch Hillary Clinton supporters so fucking stupid? I wanted this piece to sound as professional as possible, but my anger with her die-hard supporters prevents me from being able to find any other way to describe them. Where does one begin? My problems with Hillary Clinton's campaign are numerous. She stayed in the race long after she should have withdrawn. She selfishly dragged Obama's name through the mud, saying that McCain would make a better President than he would. She put herself and her foolish pride ahead of the Democratic Party. Despite all of this, many of her supporters stood by her side, claiming that they would not vote for Barack, and may even vote for McCain. They claimed Barack had yet to "win" their vote, and needed to prove to them that he would make a good President. Apparently, for these so-called "democrats," McCain had done just that.Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton took the stage at the Democratic National Convention. We all knew she was going to implore all of her supporters to vote for Barack, it was only a matter of how passionate she would be about it. While the speech was good, it seemed as if she spent more time outlining how awesome of a President she would have been, rather than building up Barack's credentials. She did the bare minimum. The funny thing about it was all the respect she got after the speech, respect that, to me, was not deserved. She did what she was SUPPOSED to do. What did they expect her to say? "You know what? Fuck Barack!" She didn't say that, so now she deserves praise? Anyway, I digress. I do not hold this against her. I understand why she did it. I just felt that this should have been enough for the Hillary supporters. I was wrong. It seemed to have had the effect that I was hoping it would not. The first person they interviewed after the speech was a black woman. She was a delegate and Hillary Clinton supporter, who was near tears. "That was a Presidential speech! Tell me that was not a Presidential speech! And we're supposed to just SWITCH!?!?!" She said she would no longer vote for McCain, but that Obama still needed to win her over. She added that her entire voting life, she had been a die-hard voter. She voted every year, and implored her friends to do so as well. Now, she was considering not voting. For real? Really?? Just because your candidate didn't win? I don't understand her supporters. What is going on in their stupid, tiny, and feeble minds? This is important! This is no time to act like a child! Our country's future is at stake! How can they treat this as if it's a minor decision? They're acting like it's a family squabble in which being petty will have no serious repercussions. To have no better than reason to vote for McCain than "My guy didn't win" is petty, stupid, and insulting to all intelligent women because it plays directly into the idea that women think with their hearts, not their brains. To top it all off, when I watched The Daily Show later that night, he had on a bunch of Clinton supporters who are trying to start a "Vote McCain" movement. Don't believe me? Check out their websites:

http://www.democratsformccain.com
http://www.hcsfjm.com

The letters in that second address stand for "Hillary Clinton Supporters For John McCain." Disgusting.
After Obama's historic speech last night, I feel that Clinton's supporters should be won over. He did everything right. He told them about Barack Obama the person, not the politician. He gave them a glimpse into his life and the people who molded him as a person. He directly outlined all of his plans and policies, while comparing them to (and tearing down) McCain's. Only time will tell if it worked, but the Clinton supporters have given me no reason to believe that they have the mental capacity to, well, think and chew gum at the same time.
Then there is today's big announcement. John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. To me, this could not have been a much worse decision, or a much better decision, depending on your outlook. We all know that the number one criticism of Barack Obama is that he is too young and inexperienced. McCain then goes and undercuts his own message by selecting a running mate who is younger and more inexperienced than Barack. People have also questioned Barack's foreign policy experience. Obama then went and selected the head of the Foreign Relations Committee as his running mate. What did McCain do? He selected a woman who has probably rarely been out of her state, much less out of the country. This was all done in an attempt to win over the female Hillary Clinton supporters. It is now completely obvious that John McCain is not only senile, he is also painfully stupid.
This decision shows that he thinks very little of not only the Clinton supporters, but the average woman as well. Does he think he will win over votes merely because Palin is female? Palin has some credentials, but Hillary Clinton she is not. This choice may or may not sway the women, but it is blatant pandering and, if I were an intelligent woman, I'd be incredibly insulted that this old fart thinks he can win me over by selecting any old woman as his running mate. Now I know some people may say that she is not running for President, she is merely the VP. Barack is running for the highest office. This would be a slightly credible argument if it were not for the fact that McCain once played foosball with Jesus' step daddy. McCain has a history of health problems and would be the oldest President ever to be voted into his first term, should he win. If something were to happen to him, this woman with far less experience than Obama, would then be President. How would the Republicans look then? Additionally, they are using the same arguments to support their decision that they would refuse to accept to support ours. They are talking about how even though she may not be experienced, she is tough, and has kids, and blah blah blah. Would they have accepted that if we used those same reasons to justify Barack's so-called lack of experience? I doubt it. The funniest thing is, they want to act like what Barack says about Bush and McCain being the same isn't true. But doesn't this remind you of when Bush named Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, just because they were buddies? She had not even served as a judge before! Now, McCain goes and does the same thing, naming an inexperienced woman as his partner for a high office.
All in all, it has been a very interesting past couple days. Many speakers at the DNC were excellent, and have got my attention, should they choose to run in the future. Clearly, after such a great convention, the Republicans are throwing up that last Hail Mary pass in a desperate attempt to win over anybody they can. Ironically, they may win over some Clinton supporters, but will probably lose far more of their current supporters in the process. To me, this is a move that shows that the Republicans feel their chances are slimming. They are doing everything they can to eek out every measly vote possible, but they know their time is up. As Barack said, it is time for the Republicans to own their failures.

Obama/Biden 2008!