Come on people now, smile on your brother; everybody get together

February 16, 2008

Guest Post by Morbo

Special note from Morbo: On Tuesday, I fell on a patch of ice and broke my left wrist. Thankfully, I live in a place where people value good government services. My 13-year-old daughter remained cool and calm and called 911. She tended to me until some EMTs came, and an ambulance whisked me off to a local hospital. (At least this happened after I voted in the Maryland primary.)

I was working on this post before the accident — a call for unity among liberals. I finished it using one hand, but I don’t plan to make a habit of that. I’m going on hiatus while I recover. To all those who have read my posts here at TCR, I can only say a huge thank you. It has been an honor to share my thoughts with you in this forum, which due to Steve’s vision and amazing amount of work, is one hell of a kick-ass progressive blog.

The Carpetbagger recently wrote about tensions between pro-Clinton and pro-Obama Democrats. We’ve seen them manifested on this blog.

I’ve written about this topic before. Today I want to stress again the need for unity in our party.

I don’t pretend to be neutral in this race. I am for Obama. But I’ll be clear: If Hillary Clinton has a reversal of fortune and wins the nomination, I’ll be behind her 100 percent. I’ll display signs and stickers. I’ll send her money. I’ll vote for her. I’ll urge others to vote for her. Furthermore, I pledge to work on a couple of pro-Obama friends of mine who keep saying they won’t vote for Clinton. I may drive all of us nuts, but I will bring them around by Election Day.

Furthermore, I won’t “hold my nose” and vote for Clinton. I’ll do it proudly and with joy. Why? Because Clinton is not the enemy; John McCain is.

In case anyone needs to be reminded, here are just a few reasons why, despite our differences now, we all need to be on the same page come Nov. 4:

* The Supreme Court: I’m just going to keep saying this until my lips fall off: John Paul Stevens, our most progressive justice, is 87 years old. It’s almost guaranteed that he will step down during the next four years. If McCain replaces him with another John G. Roberts or Samuel A. Alito (“Scalia-lite”), the high court is lost to us for a generation.

* The war in Iraq: McCain says we should prepare to be there for a long time. Clinton or Obama will work to bring the troops home.

* The war in Iran: McCain wants to start one. Clinton and Obama do not.

* Global Warming: We simply do not have the luxury of ignoring this issue for four more years. I have two children. I’m hoping they’ll have a planet to live on. McCain may occasionally pretend like he cares, but we know there’s no way a Republican administration is going to offer anything serious on this issue.

* Fiscal Responsibility: McCain will continue the Bush trend of spending like a drunken sailor without considering serious ways to pay for it. (“Tax cuts pay for themselves!”) It’s not right to stick this on our kids.

Of course there are other issues — like health care, to name just one example. Although McCain occasionally breaks ranks with the GOP leadership, he’s not nearly the maverick the media loves to portray him as. The bottom line is that our country simply cannot afford four more years of Republican rule.

Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that a Democratic Congress will rein in McCain. McCain is likely to continue Bush’s trend of an imperial presidency, and his lackeys on the Supreme Court (see item one) won’t object.

By all means, advocate with (polite) passion for your candidate today. But understand that soon we’ll have a nominee. At that point, our job is to close ranks and work for McCain’s defeat.

I’d like it to be a resounding one.

Very good column, Morbo. Good luck on your recovery. We’ll be looking forward to your return.

  • What phoebes said.

    Until this campaign, I thought that Clinton Derangement Syndrome confined itself to the Republican population. I was wrong.

    No matter how poorly you think of the “other” Democrat (whoever that is), he/she is a hell of a lot better than scary John McCain.

    This election is a historic opportunity for progressives. A favorable outcome in November could last for a generation or more. Kumbaya, y’all.

  • Thanks, Morbo-this needed to be said now, before the acrimony between Clinton & Obama hits nuclear level…and that will happen soon.

    I don’t know if my conservative friends think they’re going to trick me into something, or what, but their favorite question is, “If you HAD to vote republican, how would you vote?”

    My answer comes in 2 forms, depending on mood:

    1. With a 1-way ticket to New Zealand.
    2. A pistol on the end table with a single bullet. (Nod to Pat B)

    Why do they keep asking me that?

  • First off, do this: Take care of that wrist as if your very life depended on it. A wrist fracture that heals even the slightest bit “off-center” can be a career-ending injury for a blogger. Take care, get well—and don’t try pushing the healing process. You can always “create” onto an audiotape or a disc, send it to someone, and have your wisdom transcribed that way.

    Now, onto the heart of the matter….

    In politics, as with many other arenas of philosophical contention, it is normal to insert a measure of negativity toward the opposing candidate. This is equally true for a general election, and for a primary election. Right now, we are in a primary election—with the culminating event being a convention whereby a nominee will be selected.

    Clinton fans will, by nature, elicit reasons for not supporting Obama—some justifiable, some comical, and some downright flabbergasting.

    Obama fans will, by nature, elicit reasons for not supporting Clinton—some justifiable, some comical, and some downright flabbergasting.

    There will, of course, be many—on each side—who will say “I will not support the other candidate in the general.” There’s a very simple explanation for that—and here it is.

    Many Obama supporters are “bridge-crossers”—Indies and GOPers who want an alternative to the status-quo that Washington has become. Normally, they’d have probably voted McCain, but they see in Obama a chance to get off “the good ship Stay-The-Course” and move the nation in another direction. They don’t see this in Clinton, and they’re being given good reason not to support a Clinton presidency (the explanation of which just happens to be the very next paragraph).

    Many Clinton supporters, on the other hand, are “party-purists”—Dems who are adamant in their belief that a Democratic victory must be just that—a “Democrat-only” victory. They want their chance at “putting it to the ReThug” just as it’s been put to them over the past 14 years (the inception of “NOOT” and his infernal “contract”). They don’t want to let others into the tent. They’re “Carville” Democrats—and that smacks of private club elitism to a degree not much below the stench of what we’ve seen coming out of the GOP in recent years.

    I, for one, believe that the tent should not be a “closed-door event;” allowing only “the right kind of people” to participate in the activities. That is why I have supported Obama from Day One—that, and the belief that this nation must not only change course, but it must change course in a way not yet seen, nor even contemplated, by either political party.

    If Clinton is the nominee, then so be it—but she needs to understand that she cannot demand the votes of people, merely because she has a “D” next to her name. True Democracy is an inclusive beast, but a “Carville Democracy” will, in the eyes of many, many voters, be little more than a mirror-image of what we have in the WH today.

  • It’s a conservative meme that it’s better to have four years of Democrats in charge that to be ‘betrayed’ by a false conservative (McCain, Romney, Huckabee, Guiliani, whoever). Maybe they are right, because a Democratic President won’t destroy the country in the meantime.

    There is no mirror to this. Neither Obama or Clinton is going to betray us. And four more years of any Republican’t president (and they are all RepubliCAN’TS, not RepubliCANS.) is going to destroy this country.

    We don’t have the luxury of being despondent if our preferred candidate doesn’t win, no matter how they don’t win the very likely brokered convention. And because of the stupid position we find ourselves in the outcome is almost certainly going to involve some compromises that seem like shinnagians.

    I’m going to support the Democratic Nominee in November.

  • Okay, I will vote for Clinton if she is the nominee. (Of course this means if she won the nomination by winning the delegate count and the overall popular vote – and the superdelegates voted her in, as well they should if that is the case.) But I will still hold my nose. I have been SO disappointed in the way she and Bill have run this campaign.

    Your message should be posted on every blog every day – just so we can all be reminded of the “other option”.

  • Nothing I’ve seen here compares to the fights my Carter supporting mom had with my Reagan loving dad. I keep remembering my dad’s reasons for voting Reagan then, that I think should apply to Republicans today: I thought the people in charge were fired.

    My wife is an Obama supporter, and insists that I work for the next two weeks volunteering for Obama here in Houston where it could make a difference, but it seemed kind of pointless when I’ve got no dog in this fight. My dog is basically to shoot down whatever divisiveness threatens to hurt us in the Generals: threats not to back the other candidate, threatening to seat the MI and FL delegates, not backing efforts to pushback against the MSM.

    However, after reading that Atlantic article and going back through the Mark Penn commentary back when Hillary chose him, I may just try to give us a nomination before the convention.

  • Hi Morbo – Sorry about your broken wrist. In my lifetime I have had two broken wrists – one on the right and one on the left. One from falling on ice, one from clumsiness. So I know what you are going through. Just keep your thoughts on “liberation day” which is what I called the day the casts were removed.

    Re your post on Hillary – points well made. Obama is my first choice. But, if Hillary does win the nomination I would unenthusiastically vote for her.

  • Clinton or Obama say they will work to bring the troops home.

    Prepare to be disillusioned no matter which one of these good “Christians” is elected. I held my nose in 2006 and voted for my war resolution supporting Senator, after repeatedly saying that I wouldn’t, because I thought a Democratic majority would hasten the end of the war. The result: even more troops in Iraq and more lives and billions of dollars squandered. This week we seen the Senate Democrats help Bush pass a FISA bill giving telecoms immunity and approving warrant less spying. (Neither Clinton or Obama showed up to cast a vote) The house democrats will cave on this issue in a few days or weeks. Virtually every bad thing that Bush has done he has been enabled in the doing by Democrats, To think that a Democrat president, in debt to powerful corporations for tens of millions in campaign contributions, is going to be a big difference from what we have now is naive. To think that what these people say they will do is what they will actually do is naive.

  • PS: I am so unhappy with politics in this country I have very seriously considered un-registering to vote as a means of protest. But I have decided to continue voting in every election as I always have-even if it means doing as I have done before and writing in none of the above down the entire ballot. All the bastards have left me is my vote. I’m not giving it up. Just once in my life though, I would like to vote for a candidate instead of against the other guy.

  • The Dems learned this week what it’s like not to cave, and it feels good. Remember:

    Still too many Republicans in Washington.

    More and better Democrats.

    (I forgot to say, last night, had dinner with another bi-candidate couple, and another long-time ABC couple. The tension is everywhere!)

  • I am sorry to say that, though I agree with Morbo’s statement, I do not think that a Clinton candidacy is going to get anywhere, due to the fact the air is out of the balloon and I don’t see it being reinflated in any way that will get it over the wall. I’m sorry, but the thought of a slimy little backstabber like Mark Penn being anywhere near any lever of authority, the thought of Terry McAuliffe off selling sleepovers in the Lincoln Bedroom again, and the thought of another President who obviously values “loyalty” over competence, does not fill me with the energy to go out campaigning this fall. I’ll vote, on the grounds of being sure we don’t lose the Supreme Court, but I doubt the corporate halfwit shill she’d nominate to replace Stevens would be anything other than not as bad as Alito and Roberts and certainly nothing but a shadow of Mr. Justice Stevens.

    Sorry, a Clinton presidency will be nothing but More of the Same with “Democrats “committing the crimes rather than Republicans. Anyone who thinks she will give back the imperial powers Bush has usurped probably believes the moon is made of cheese and cows jump over it. All we’re doing is substituting an Empress for an Emperor. Hopefully one more like Claudius than Caligula.

  • “Anyone who thinks she will give back the imperial powers Bush has usurped probably believes the moon is made of cheese and cows jump over it.”

    This applies to all the candidates not just Clinton.

  • From SF Gate Politcs via TPM:

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who may be the most super delegate of all as chair of the Democratic national convention in Denver — gave an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Al Hunt in which she laid down the law for super delegates:

    Don’t veto the people’s choice.

    “I think there is a concern when the public speaks and there is a counter-decision made to that,” she said, adding quickly, “I don’t think that will happen.”

    She said the governors, lawmakers, DNC members and others picked as super delegates are chosen through a grassroots process and are accountable to the party’s voters.

    “I do think that they have a respect — it’s not just following the returns, it’s also having a respect for what has been said by the people,” Pelosi said. “It would be a problem for the party if the verdict would be something different than the public has decided.”

    That message will be music to the ears of Barack Obama, who’s building a lead in pledged delegates and is urging the super delegates to follow the voters. He now leads 1,133 to 996 in pledged delegates, while Hillary Clinton has a 242-163 edge among super delegates, according to the latest tally by RealClearPolitics. Obama holds the overall edge, 1296-1238.

    Pelosi had one more stunner in the interview: She said the Florida and Michigan delegates should not be seated if those delegates would decide the nomination.

    “Well, I don’t think that any states that operated outside the rules of the party can be dispositive of who the nominee is. That is to say they can’t make the difference because then we would have no rules,” she said.

    Pelosi added, “But I do think that the best outcome for us is if one of the candidates pulls ahead and this issue is disposed of long before we get to the convention. We certainly don’t want to ignore Florida and Michigan, but we can’t ignore the rules which everyone else played by.”

    For a play-it-safe speaker who’s pledged to stay neutral, these are sharp words. And she will be one of key referees if this fight isn’t settled before Denver.

  • “smile on your brother; everybody get together…” “Clinton is not the enemy; John McCain is.”

    I just absolutely love how peace loving and friendly the “progressives” really are at election time.. perhaps “enemy” should have been replaced with the word “opponent?”

  • This week we seen the Senate Democrats help Bush pass a FISA bill giving telecoms immunity and approving warrant less spying. (Neither Clinton or Obama showed up to cast a vote) The house democrats will cave on this issue in a few days or weeks.

    I could be wrong, but I thought Obama was there? Or am I getting telecom immunity mixed up with the torture ban?

  • Grahh, fine. I’ll vote for Hillary in the general election if she wins, since you told me to.

    But her lies really really rankle. I have so much less tolerance for lies than I used to, because it’s been a way of life for the presidency for the last 8 years.

  • This has been a terrible winter for ice. We still have a fair amount of ice around from a big wet snow in early Decenber, where it then rained, and the temperature plummeted leaving us with 3-6 inches of concrete snow-ice hybrid base. Every step has to be asssessed. Everyone walks around with their heads down, scanning. A tip to all. When you feel yourself start to fall, don’t fight it, just collapse in heap. It looks dumb and sometimes you go down when you might not have to, but when you jerk and fight it, you add more kinetic energy to the process and often make it worse.

    Good luck on the recovery, Morbo. I always enjoy your posts.

  • Morbo, thanks for the good post… I am also a Obama supporter, but would vote for Clinton. Both candidates have their strong and weak points, but both are vastly superior to McCain or any other Repub that has been in the race. The Supreme Court is a huge factor as several of the justices are getting up there in years. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them (Stevens in particular) are waiting for a competent person in the WH before retiring. Let’s ensure that Justice Stevens gets one (a retirement, I mean) that he can enjoy!

    I hope your wrist heals quickly and straight. Both of my boys broke a wrist. One has no problem, the other has a small tip of a bone still floating around that occasionally bothers him (could be removed by surgery at some point). Anyway, take the time to let it heal and do a good rehab program.

  • I hope your recuperation is speedy. We’ll miss your posts.

    I concur with your sentiments on the Democratic nominee, that whoever prevails is infinitely better than any Republican. I wish the American public would think about policy rather than likability when they elect a president. But they don’t. They think it’s an American Idol competition. So it’s absolutely crucial that we wholeheartedly endorse the nominee, even if it is Hillary. The current acrimony and bitterness will hurt the cause in the general.

    As one of the very few on this site who leans toward Hillary, I’ll say I have no problem at all supporting Obama and will do so enthusiastically in the general. At this point, I don’t think she has much chance, Mark Penn is a disaster, and I’m quietly hoping that this thing is over with long before the convention. It is disappointing to me that the inexplicable phenomenon of blind HIllary hatred seems to have defeated her in the nomination process, but better that than in the general election.

    Republican ideology is destroying this country. That is my primary motivation. We must defeat them.

  • JRS JR., the Bush/Cheney administration is absolutely the “enemy” of the American people. Using the term “enemy” in this context is entirely proper.

    This administration’s disregard for the truth, for the rule of law, and for the Constitution itself (which they swore to protect and defend) is the greatest threat America has faced since World War II, if even then. Anyone (like McCain) who intends to continue those Constitution-shredding policies is helping to destroy the essence of America. For example, Mr. Bush tells us that letting the “Protect America Act” (sic) expire endangers our safety, when renewing it would be the real threat. This is one of hundreds of examples of what I am talking about.

    I am more than ready to Kumbaya with my fellow Democrats. Hard-core Bush Republicans are going to have to show an ounce or two of goodwill towards the Constitution before they get to join my group hug.

  • First, Morbo, I echo all the good will and warnings to take care that the other commentators have made. A number of the commenters here — most definitely including myself — would fit on Koko’s list “and they’d none of them be missed.” You don’t.

    To Moses and others who criticize Reid, Pelosi amd Congressional Democrats:

    We don’t have a Paliamentary system, where the majority can more or less pass anything they want (and, in passing, this is one of the GOOD things about our government. The last time we tried that it was the Gingrich group. Imagine if they had an automatic vote from every Republican and all the Democrats could have done was orate.). We have to get votes from people of both parties, representing districts and states with wide ranging attitudes. Sure it is annoying that we can’t just call up a vote, in the majority and get it passed, but we have to negotiate with members of the other party, and not alienate members of our own who won’t go as far as we will.

    We’ve had a ONE vote majority in the Senate, and not that solid a one in the House — for now. On the other hand, anyone who has looked at the country’s changing attitudes (or even the simple math of the number of Republicans in the Senate coming up for reelection) knows we will be much stronger in Jan. 2009. THEN we hold their feet to the fire.

    (This is why I have entirely agreed with Pelosi that impeachment was ‘off the table.’ Yes, Bush has committed impeachable offenses. But — especialy after the Clinton farce that probably won him more support than it cost him — if we tried it, we would have had no chance to get anything else important done or even started — and there have never been 16 Republicans who would have voted for it if Bush were shown loading the rifles of the freeway snipers.)

    We’ve had to deal with vetoes, filibusters, and the attitude among Congress members that ‘if you push this through and make me vote for it, it will hurt me so badly at home that I’ll never get reelected — and that means you’ll have to deal with a Republican/more conservative Democrat who will NEVER work with you.’

    This is NOT a bad thing — though sometimes this sort of caution goes too far, as it did with the Clinton administration. It may keep us from getting everything we want, but it also kept the Republicans getting everything THEY wanted as well — and none of us would want to live in a country where that happened.

    So yes, despite my hatred of Penn and (for me) even more for McAulliffe, I’ll vote for Hilary gladly against McCain — or whatever candidate they put in his place if his growing physical and mental problems become too obvious before the convention.

  • I just absolutely love how peace loving and friendly the “progressives” really are at election time.. perhaps “enemy” should have been replaced with the word “opponent?”

    enemy works fine for me. People like Limbaugh and Gingrich declared war between parties 14+ years ago. After a long time of not taking them seriously, it is hard to ignore the eliminationist rhetoric at this point. Just ask Ann Coulter and her many followers, a good liberal is a dead liberal and all of that crap. “Peace loving” doesn’t have to mean perpetual victim of aggressive assholes.

    As for Hillary, her campaign uses alot of the same tactics and rhetoric that Republicans do though not to the same extreme, so it is easy to go into defense mode for many of us where she is involved. I will probably hold my nose and vote for her in the general election but I think it will be bad for the country if she gets the nomination.

  • Morbo I’m with you. I’m for Obama, but if Hillary wins the nomination, I’ll gladly vote for her. I am very pleased we have two very viable candidates to offer voters this fall and I’ll be happy either way (a little more with Obama, but whatever). Speedy recovery!

  • In agreement with Morbo for all the reasons he lists and more. I don’t think this nation can afford to reward the Republican party for what they have done to this nation over the past eight years, hell, since Gingrich and his cronies began their voodoo in 1994. It’s time to begin another era and send the Republican Party on a soul-searching mission.

  • My best wishes for a complete recovery, Morbo. Like others, I really do enjoy your posts. It’s interesting that you write this now as I just had an experience which I believe bodes well for us in the upcoming general. My wife and I are fortunate to live in a neighborhood where we actually hang out with our neighbors. Every Friday we gather to play pool, drink beer, discuss the week’s happenings, and more often than not, talk politics. This neighbor and his sister who lives down the street are big Hillary supporters. So, last night I jokingly congratulated the Hillary supporters on the win here in New Mexico. (Yes, our party here is an embarrassment. I need to get off my butt and volunteer.) I was secretly looking for a spirited debate where I could employ lines from the “yes we can” video. I was, however, frustrated in my attempt to engage in such a debate. The reason…everyone agrees that this competition is a good problem to have. I had to admit that I would in fact vote for Hillary, and they were more than ready to agree that Obama would have their votes. Upon reflection, our host said, “this is the problem for republicans. About 3 seconds into any conversation, most people don’t care who is nominated.” I actually disagree, because I really want Obama to get the nomination, but I certainly agree with sentiment of these statements and of this post. Once more, best wishes for a speedy recovery.

  • Rather than describing this as a unity call among liberals you should have limited it to Democrats. While partisan Democrats might agree, Clinton gives little reason to support her for many liberals, depending upon the issues which are most important to us. On social issues, civil liberties issues, and foreign policy Clinton is far too conservative. Her economic policies might be considered liberal, but they have so many faults that I don’t see them as advantageous over McCain’s. This is seen in the Washington Post’s grades of the candidates on their economic recovery plans. Obama received an A-. Clinton received a C-, barely beating McCain’s D+.

    In one of the debates Clinton avoided the liberal label. This was one of the more honest comments she made in this campaign.

    When I compare Clinton’s views to Obama’s on issues such as the drug war, cluster bombs, Iraq and Iran I don’t find her particularly liberal. Clinton’s views on executive privilege and the power of the president are to the right of Obama’s and perhaps even of McCain’s. Clinton is to the right of both Obama and McCain with regards to transparency in government. I certainly don’t see a liberal when I consider Clinton’s views on banning flag burning and censoring video games.

    Most likely Clinton would appoint better judges than McCain, but many good moderate judges were appointed by Republicans. While partisan Democrats might claim this, most do not buy the argument that all Republicans are like the extremists in the Bush administration. Simply saying McCain will do nothing on global warming because he is a Republican will only fly among partisan Democrats. It might take a Republican to get bipartisan consensus.

    I think the chances of prolonged war might be greater under Clinton than McCain. Both are currently speaking to their party’s bases. Clinton’s overall foreign policy history is quite conservative, and she is only opposing the war now that it is politically safer. With Clinton’s history of wanting to show she is tough, along with the way in which she has used fear of terrorism in stump speeches and has given 9/11 as justification for the Iraq war, I see no reason to believe she will be any better than McCain. In contrast, it is often people like McCain who are able to compromise and achieve peace. Richard Nixon, despite his many other faults, is the one who went to China. Reagan put aside his cold war rhetoric to negotiate with Gorbachev.

    Then there’s the character issue. John McCain is certainly not the straight talker that the media portrays him as, but he has far more integrity than Hillary Clinton. At least McCain will help move the Republican Party away from the religious right and some of their more extreme views, plus we’d have another chance in four years. Hillary Clinton would move the Democratic Party in the wrong direction, and with her views on party unity would probably destroy it as a force for liberal change for years to come.

    As an independent, should Obama win the nomination I will vote for him. If there is a race between McCain and Clinton I see primarily negatives in each candidate and would be tempted to stay home. If I do vote, my vote would be up in the air and either candidate would have a chance. However, should Clinton proceed with her attempts to steal the nomination by taking the votes from Michigan and Florida, I would consider defense of the democratic process more important than any of the areas where I disagree with McCain and I would vote for him.

  • Unity for the sake of unity?
    Where have I heard that before?

    For other Obama supporters, I have a single (fairly unpersuasive) reason to vote for Clinton:

    Get this “first woman president” crap out of the way.
    Then when the next unimpressive candidate with two X chromosomes and enough money to compete comes along, women won’t feel obligated to support her just for solidarity purposes.

    I live in Maryland. If Hil can’t win HERE without my help, she’s going to be the next Walter Mondale. I have the luxury of voting third party and telling the Dems: “Wrong AGAIN!”

  • Heal well and quickly, Morbo. I shall miss your postings. I agree and will vote for whomever gets the Dem nomination in Nov. Honestly, I’ve had to boycott some of my favorite progressive websites, and it wasn’t because they were adamantly pro-Hillary, it was because they became vehemently anti-Obama, and I knew one of them would get the nod and we’d have to vote for the eventual winner and I couldn’t see how you could walk that backwards, hating on either so much. So, I really appreciate the way Steve has kept TCR above it all. (I have no idea who he favors, and like it that way) And dammit, I miss Anne and Zeitgeist!

  • So—someone doesn’t like it when someone else calls McCain “the enemy?”

    Fine. How about “Anti-Christ,” Jr.? Would that one work better for you? “Spawn of Beelzebub,” perhaps? Or maybe “Satan’s Chief Minion?”

    Hey—the term “enemy” is looking pretty mild right now….

  • May you heal quickly.

    Following the primaries has been like watching the world series and sumo world tour all wrapped into one. People have choosen sides, and the vitriol has been thick enough to cut with a knife. I am sure republicans amuse themselves by spotting the posts where (insert candidate here)s fans proclaim that they will stay home, or worse vote for a republican come november out of spite. I don’t think America wants to end up with a president who believes that we will enjoy 100-1000 peaceful years of war in Iraq.

    Although Barack and HIllary have a very diffferent history and ways of seeking to enact change, neither has policy positions that would be worse than the Republicans. Neither as president will be able to bring our fighting men and women back as quickly as most of us would like, and are more centrist than the other candidates, but that maybe is what it takes nowadays to get some moderate Republicans and Democrats to get aboard. I am sure that neither will appoint a cabinet and AG as incompetent as Alberto Gonzalez.

    Also, the meme that somehow John Mccain is “more honest” in comparison to candidate a or b is silly, he has had the largest flip-flop ever in the issue of torture and has thrown his “maverick” credentials out the window to pick up conservative votes.

  • Hey Morbo, I’m a big fan of your work too, and like so many others I wish you a perfect recovery. But being someone who pays a lot of attention to health care issues, your description of the event got me to wondering: Why did you have your daughter call 911 for a broken wrist? Was the bone sticking out or something? Or are you the only one who could drive (no wife or available friend available) to the hospital? Just curious, because usually I would think wrist breaks are usually treated more directly by the victims than involving the authorities with a 911 call. I’m curious how the cops who responded reacted to that, especially if you were sitting at home when they got there (I don’t know if that’s where it happened).

    I’m not trying to be insensitive here, just curious. I’m sure you’re a big boy and can handle it, though whether you’ll see fit to bang out an answer with one hand is questionable. Good luck with your recovery.

  • Steve #4 you absolutely nail it for me. I am inclined to vote for Obama if he is the candidate in the general. I will vote third party before I vote for Clinton. Yup, I am not a Democrat and talk of party unity is totally wasted on me. As for Morbo’s concern regarding supreme court appointments, Democrats enabled the appointments of Roberts and Alito. Perpetual war and faux homeland security has become the new economy (read Klein‘s Shock Doctrine). I crossed party and voted for Salazar who subsequently voted to give retro-immunity to telecoms. Don’t even waste bandwidth pointing out that Democrats are better than Republicans. So are Klingons.

  • Holy crumb, guys, of the two, Clinton has actually worked across the aisle and has centrist positions. Her supporters are not ‘purist’ Democrats, by a long league.

    When you paint Clinton with this and other brushes – She’s a DNC purist, she’s a liberal, she’s just like McCain – you’re walking into a Republican, Conservative trap.

    Sure, she voted for the congressional bills authorizing threats – but as a President, she’d use those tools in negotiating, not as a blunt weapon. Obama would do the same, most likely.

    Neither are liken to a Republican on anything but social issues. And even so, both have far more liberal positions – ones I can live with – on social issues. Some movement is better than going the wrong way!

  • …And Chopin is the reason why party loyalty isn’t rewarded.

    Why have strong chops when instead you can be weak and get elected anyhow, using fairweather friends like him?

    A tool of the conservatives, Chopin is happily eating their talking points and lying to themselves about it.

  • I proudly cast my vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton. In reading some of the comments here, and on other so-called progressive blogs, it’s clear that racism is unacceptable (as it should be) but sexism is apparently fine. That’s crap.

    Sen. Clinton has repeatedly said we should support whoever wins the Democratic nomination. Sen. Obama has all but threatened Dems with ‘I can get her supporters, but I’m not sure she can get mine.’ What he SHOULD be saying is “we should support whoever wins the Democratic nomination.’ Someone in the Obama camp needs to clue him in.

    BAC

  • Marbo, take care of your wrist. No more Banjo plucking for you. You’ve got 6 weeks of unscratchable itch ahead. I do not envy you.

    As for the substance.

    Well, this is a nice sentiment, and I wish I could agree with you. Unfortunately I do not. I do not believe getting Hillary over McCain is the lesser of two evils. I cannot imagine anything worse for the Democratic Party than electing Hillary Clinton to POTUS. She is the gift that keeps on giving to Republicans. She animates the ugliest parts of their party. She gets them howling, writing books, Op Eds, puts Republican Butts in voting booths and worst of all. She raises bajillions of Republican Dollars. I see Hillary as Bush’s evil Democratic twin. Bush represents to me, everything I loath in the Republican Party. Hillary represents to Republicans everything they hate about us.

    There is no chance that Hillary in the White house can be considered a good thing for America. There is no chance that her leadership will allow us to strengthen Democratic control of the Senate and Congress. There is no chance that she can unite America to find a graceful way out of Iraq.

    That is no way to run a country, nor to find consensus for the many difficult challenges ahead. It is my belief that America is in a stale mate, and it needs a “Game Changer” to make progress.

    Thanks to Bush extraordinary incompetence we have an opportunity to sweep all three branches of government. We cannot afford to waste this opportunity on Hillary.

    So, if she is the nominee, I will vote for McCain, send my cash, volunteer, canvass and what have you, for McCain. I will plan to run Obama in 4 years. The tail wind in 4 years will not be less for Democrats. It will be greater. Its not like McCain is going to fix the deficit, pull out of Iraq, or glide through the growing financial crisis in America.

    Of all the issues you raise, The War In Iraq, Iran, Global Warming and Fiscal Responsibility. For me there is only one issue would have serious unfixable long term consequences, the Supreme Court. Thankfully, I’ve followed McCain’s long career. I’ve parsed his stump speeches and public comments. He hates the religious right, no matter how much he’s kissing their ass to get elected. And I’m confident that he will not appoint a crazy right winger if a Supreme Court Judge seat opens in his 4 year term.

    Sadly, in light of these feelings and observations I cannot in good conscience vote for Hillary. She would not only be regressive for America, she would be regressive for the Democratic Party.

  • Perhaps I should add that I do not hate Hillary. I hate the effect she has on Republicans, and the amount of support she would garner for their cause, if allowed to become President.

    I sincerely hope she will carry on as the distinguished Senator from NY. Her extraordinary policy knowledge and competence in working Washington will be much needed in the Senate. Furthermore, I look forward to meeting the “Real Hillary” once she is no longer grooming her voting record to become POTUS. (It’s not entirely clear to me that she would remain Senator from NY if is no longer running for the presidency.) But if she keeps the job and stops triangulating her Senate Votes I believe she could be a real powerhouse in the Senate. I hope her Senate seat was more than just a stepping stone to the White House.

  • Good advice from the grave. Molly Ivins’ last column before she died:

    I WILL NOT SUPPORT HILLARY CLINTON FOR PRESIDENT

    by Molly Ivins

    I’d like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I
    will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

    Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever
    straddling, enough not offending anyone. This is not a Dick Morris
    election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on
    the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to
    speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on
    flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

    The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long,
    long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It’s about political
    courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There
    are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those
    times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth
    can provide relief.

    If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and
    say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior
    senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it. In 1968, Gene McCarthy was
    the little boy who said out loud, “Look, the emperor isn’t wearing any
    clothes.” Bobby Kennedy — rough, tough Bobby Kennedy — didn’t do it. Just
    this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.

    What kind of courage does it take, for mercy’s sake? The majority of the
    American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we
    should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want
    single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The
    majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum
    wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing
    Bush’s tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority
    (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending,
    but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.

    The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do “whatever it takes” to
    protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies
    are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the
    center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

    I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining elementary
    politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway (“First, you have to win
    elections”). Can’t you even read the damn polls?

    Here’s a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes, “There
    is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is between those
    who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist left base of the
    party and those who are attempting to prepare the party for successful
    elections in 2006 and 2008.”

    This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, emboldened
    by “a string of bad news from the Middle East … into calling for
    premature retreat from Iraq,” versus those pragmatic folk like Steny Hoyer,
    Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman.

    Oh come on, people — get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at this
    war — from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they continue to dump
    on us daily.

    You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican
    machine you have no idea what people are thinking. I’m telling you right
    now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington
    haven’t got enough sense to OWN the issue of political reform, I give up on
    them entirely.

    Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I’m
    serious as a stroke about this — that is the only reform that will work,
    and you know it, as well as everyone else who’s ever studied this. Do all
    the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: embrace
    redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes, the whole
    package. Put up, or shut up. Own this issue, or let Jack Abramoff politics
    continue to run your town.

    Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as
    long as you let them. I’ve said it before: War brings out the patriotic
    bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds
    that dachshunds were “German dogs.” They did not, however, go around
    kicking German shepherds. The MINUTE someone impugns your patriotism for
    opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving
    your country really means. That, or you could just piss on them elegantly,
    as Rep. John Murtha did. Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on
    the war in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless “string
    of bad news.”

    Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as
    Republican-lite. If the Washington-based party can’t get up and fight,
    we’ll find someone who can.

  • Hey, BAC:

    Being an asskissing corporate triangulator has nothing to do with gender or race (see Bill Clinton for proof). I don’t dislike Hillary for being a woman. I can think of ten good women I would vote for for for President in a heartbeat. Hillary Clinton isn’t one of them, because I refuse to vote for an asskissing corporate triangulator who never had an opinion that wasn’t 10 days behind what was reported by the Gallup Poll on where to go to lunch.

    “Lead” means get out in front and say “let’s take this hill!” and take the fire. It doesn’t mean, “hey, you and them go take that hill”.

  • Moses writes: ‘Just once in my life though, I would like to vote for a candidate instead of against the other guy.#

    I hope you get the chance, someday. But please don’t let that hope get in the waz of voting for the less unpleasant candidate in the meantime. The desire for perfection and purity is so tempting, but history makes it clear that it’s a path to perdition. Mvotes in MOST presidential elections are for “the lesser harm”, and that’s quite appropriate for a democratic system. In a complex, plural society like ours, it is almost always true that only a minority will find any candidate perfect on the issues and totally exciting. Most of us judge the candidates according to a multiplicity of positions, and almost every candidate will be better on some, worse on others.

    Voting for the better candidate… even if you judge the candidate only ‘less bad’ makes a huge difference. What if the purists who voted for Nader in 2000 had thought about it, held their noses, and voted for Kerry? It’s hard to deny that it would have made a huge difference over the last 8 years, no? Less bad is sometimes the best choice, and less bad IS better.

    As I said — I hope you get the chance to vote FOR a candidate with enthusiasm soon, and often…but until then, PLEASE don’t stop voting for the better candidate. I hope Obama goes all the way too, but I will vote for Clinton, and support her as best I can, because better is better, and she’s better than McCain.

  • I both agree and disagree with you.

    Democrats have a history of not supporting their own Presidential candidates thus losing winable elections, and then not supporting their own Presidents even when they do get elected, thus not getting their agendas passed into law. The result for democracy is that the Democrats do not support the wishes of the electorate who put them into office. But of course neither do the Republicans represent the electorate, win or loose.
    That the Republicans close ranks is a part of being Conservative control freaks, That the Democrats don’t is a part of being less Conservative and lesser control freaks. The latter is more in line with freedom and democracy.

    I am an independent voter. As all Americans should, I try to choose the best candidate.

    To say that any candidate, based on party affiliation, is the “enemy” is to attack freedom itself.
    It is Bush’s theme song “My was is the only way. My way is God’s way. My way, or I’ll destroy you.” Loyalty is to party, right or wrong, and not to laws, Constitution, electorate, freedom, equality or any of the most noble of our Founding Father’s aspirations for this nation.

    John MaCain is not “the enemy”, he is an American and should be respected as such. I personally think he would be a disastrous President, but that still does not make him “the enemy”.

    That sort of attitude of intolerance and animus that has become the reson d’etre of the two Political Parties, – which now own almost every electable politician in this country – is this Nation’s greatest “Enemy.”
    The Democrats and Republicans wage a religious war of intolerance, hatred, and stupidity within this country, which denies the concept of equality, fair elections, equal representation in government, equality of legal rights, and seethes with disrespect for the citizens of this country. That war is far more of a threat to this nation than any that has been posed by a foreign enemy.

  • I totaly agree with Ron Chusid. I’d add that even if we all bite the bullet, as Democrats, and vote for Hillary in the general election, that may not be enough to put her over the top. Obama’s support is coming from the full spectrum of American voters. Hillary has considerably less support from independent voters and no hope for cross-overs.

    Take the Supreme Court concern out of the equation and I’m sure many of us who say they’ll vote for Hillary would find it much harder to vote “enthusiastically” for her. If she wins in Novemeber, I’m afraid her presidency will be little more than an acknowledgement that Justice Stevens is old.

    I’d also like to add that Hillary was my first choice when this whole thing started. Her campaign has completely turned me around. Before the first candidates started to drop out, she had already become my last choice. (I suppose I would have chosen her over Gravel.) This is NOT Clinton Derangement Syndrome.

  • >Hey Morbo, I’m a big fan of your work too, and like so many others I wish you a perfect recovery. But being someone who pays a lot of attention to health care issues, your description of the event got me to wondering: Why did you have your daughter call 911 for a broken wrist? Was the bone sticking out or something? Or are you the only one who could drive (no wife or available friend available) to the hospital? Just curious, because usually I would think wrist breaks are usually treated more directly by the victims than involving the authorities with a 911 call. I’m curious how the cops who responded reacted to that, especially if you were sitting at home when they got there (I don’t know if that’s where it happened).

    I was lying on the floor unable to move my left arm. In extreme pain. Daughter is 13. Wife was at work. Had I been able to, I would have driven myself to the hospital. The local volunteer fire dept/EMS crew, who responded to the call, will soon be getting a big donation from me.

  • Let’s hope that Obama wins the Democratic nomination so that no one has to choose between Hillary Clinton and John McCain. But I must strongly disagree with those who argue that McCain is somehow preferable to Clinton.

    Let’s take the Iraq War, for instance. Clinton (like Obama) has promised to withdraw troops expeditiously, while McCain talks about having soldiers in that country for a hundred years or more. While Obama and Clinton both agree that the Iraq War has hurt the U.S. in the war on terror, McCain continues to strongly defend his pro-war stance. While both Democratic candidates seem to understand the importance of diplomacy in solving international problems (including the situation in Iraq), McCain seems to believe that military force (or more troops) is always the answer.

    We have had eight very long years of neo-conservative Republican domination in the White House. Can we really afford another four years with a President who is more of war hawk than Bush?

    McCain certainly has his redeeming qualities, but he strikes me as way too unpredictable and temperamental to be Commander in Chief. His highly bellicose rhetoric on Iran leads one to conclude that he would be looking for an excuse to start a war there too.

    Being the flip-flopper that he is, he now supports the highly regressive Bush tax cuts and even seems to be reversing himself on immigration reform and the water boarding issue. He’s been kissing up to the Religious Right in recent years, which leads many to believe that he would appoint extremely conservative judges to the federal bench. The Supreme Court is in an extremely precarious political position at the moment and any more Republican appointees would almost certainly tip the balance in favor of an even greater authoritarian usurpation of our civil liberties. After all, McCain is under pressure to “prove” his socially conservative credentials and will likely do so by nominating arch-conservative theocrats to the Court.

  • Morbo: Ouch! ‘Nuf said. Hope it’s feeling better today. Along the lines of what happened to you, I once had a serious bike accident just a block down from my neighborhood fire station. Woke up in a CAT scan machine, not remembering a thing about what had happened. But when I found out that the fire department guys had come down the block (for all I know they walked) to get me bundled off into an ambulance, I went over there to thank them and talk to them about it. They do, indeed, appreciate donations, but whether volunteer or city (this was not a volunteer unit), they, like any of us, like to know that they’re appreciated for their skills and efforts on behalf of the public. It’s the kind of thing that suddenly needing them makes us pay attention to, when usually they’re just there in the background. Like you, I consider myself fortunate to live in a place where such aid is (not always literally, as in my case) just around the corner.

    Well, look at the bright side, Morbo. You’ve had another bonding experience with your daughter. Times like that get deeply imprinted in the memory. You’ll remember her caring for you that day and she will too, from her perspective, for the rest of your lives. Family interactions in times of intense injury are like that (I’ve been through my share). One of my most tender memories I have of my father, who was not a warm person, was of how he took care of me when I got seriously burned at the age of four, over half a century ago. As far as my bike accident is concerned, the only thing I remember from just before the accident to the CAT scan awakening—a period of about half an hour or so—was sitting on the ground and looking up at him as he put his hand on my shoulder, saying, “I think you’d better let them take you to the hospital, Daddy.”

    Get better soon, Morbo. We love your stuff.

  • was sitting on the ground and looking up at him as he put his hand on my shoulder

    “Him,” in this case, was my teenage son, who had arrived at the scene after the EMTs while I was confusedly trying to tell them I’d be okay and just had to go home and lie down (I’d gotten a very serious concussion). Sorry, I forgot to proofread. Sounds like I was talking about my dad there or something. Hey, no really, my brain is okay! I just fail to proofread sometimes before going orange.

    Heck, as long as I’m here again, for those of you with teenage kids who crave bonding experiences with them that are less painful, might I strongly suggest one-on-one international travel? Placing yourself in completely alien situations together can be a very revealing and intense way of learning about how each of you deals with the unknown. You find yourself watching your son or daughter in these situations, often with great pride at their maturity and/or sudden awareness, while at the same time they’re looking at how you react in challenging situations. If you do such trips pretty much “on the ground”—backpacking, buses, hiking, cheap (or no) hotels, globalfreeloaders.com, etc—you end up directly confronting very serious issues like poverty and classism and such real up close and personal, which inexorably leads to both penetrating and continued discussion of the state of the world and a deeper understanding of these things that they’ll bring into their adulthood.

    While it may be an instinctual reaction to dismiss the idea because of the cost of long-distance plane fares and the like, when you think about what you spend (or will spend) on college, it becomes quite apparent that in terms of bang for the buck there is nothing like this, and the memories for both of you will be precious for the rest of your lives. Being your child’s traveling buddy is an opportunity that presents itself for a very short time. I urge those with teenage kids to grasp that chance and enjoy it to the fullest. Oh, those trips will make their resumé stand out among their peers, too, believe me. Just in case that little added benefit might factor into such a decision.

  • obama is a smoker, it’s evident in his sunken chest, his raspy, coarse voice, the deep lines around his mouth and the circles around the eyes. He will give big tobacco anything they want, Clinton has twice the experience, she is to be commended for staying the woman she is, the wonderfully steady, serious, yet compatible lady she is and the way she has climbed out of having a husband who could ruin her–just as many lady politicians were ruined by their husands–e.g. Geraldine Ferrero and others.

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