(1) loyalty is a two-way street

REASONS WHY I WILL NOT VOTE FOR OBAMA (and you shouldn't, either) #1

a coalition requires give and take that works both ways.

I am not an ATM machine. If I give something, I want something back.

But Obama and Donna Brazile seem proud to have thrown the so-called "old coalition" out of the party.

So why would I - or anyone else from that old coalition - vote for him?

I used to wonder why Democrats are too dumb or lazy to figure out how to win elections. Eventually I realized - I was the dumb lazy one. They have known perfectly well how to win all along. They just don't want to.

Many, many articles have been written on what it would take to get the working class to support a Democratic President. The articles are full of accurate and useful information*. The Democratic party just doesn't care.

Now we see why - they don't want us. They want to attract Republicans instead, and permanently change the demographic makeup in ways that will enhance Howard Dean's and Donna Brazile's personal ambitions.

The Democratic party has stopped standing up for women. It sometimes talks about equality - but it doesn't put values into action, and hasn't for years. Decades even.

The Democratic party has stopped standing up for gays, if it ever really did. It has stopped standing up for Latinos. It has stopped standing up for its people. It still talks about people as if it were all about standing up for minorities, but the actions just aren't there.

And, even though right now it is making a lot of demands on behalf of the black community, ordinary black people aren't going to see anything to show for it. The "leaders" are just spending other peoples' political capital, and blacks are going to end up as burned as the rest of us or worse. Just wait & see.

The entire midwest has been thrown out, and the majority of the U.S.A. earns too little to be interesting to the Democrats now - like a bank that figured out small-deposit loans are more trouble than they're worth, the fees now outweigh the interest.

The Democratic party has not opposed the Republican dream of completely replacing the old-fashioned "reward that work ethic" social contract with a new ethic - one that completely values risk over work, one that defines productivity (and one's worth to society) solely in terms of how much capital you own/put into the economy.

And, of course, on the issues, Democrats are now eager to prove themselves Republicans, or at least willing to appease.
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* With Hillary Clinton outspent (and actively opposed by both the media and her own party, plus the rules openly rigged against her) she still managed to tie Obama, just by following the obvious strategy of giving voters a reason to vote for her.

Harriet Christian explains why the Michigan vote-gank struck her as crooked and rotten

"When they turned around and gave a candidate who opted to take his name off the ballot, was not asked to take his name off the ballot, received 59 votes - it's unacceptable."



This election is not a vote between Democrats vs. Republicans, and it is not Good vs. Evil.

This is a vote between Voters vs. the Media, and it is over who gets to choose the candidate - in other words, it is a vote between the middle (center-right and center-left being on the same side) vs. the extremist fringes (the wingnut right and, I am sorry to say, the wingnut left).

Most of America is toward the middle. There's a reason for that. Those who are out on the political fringes, convinced that they alone have Truth and those who disagree with them are Evil Incarnate - that doesn't stop being seriously disturbing, out-of-touch behavior just because the wingnut is on the left rather than the right. (Note to wingnuts: give it up and learn to care about someone other than those Just Like You. The diversity will do your soul some good.)

from the New York Daily News

Hillary: Why I continue to run

BY HILLARY CLINTON

This past Friday, during a meeting with a newspaper editorial board, I was asked about whether I was going to continue in the presidential race.

I made clear that I was - and that I thought the urgency to end the 2008 primary process was unprecedented. I pointed out, as I have before, that both my husband's primary campaign, and Sen. Robert Kennedy's, had continued into June.

Almost immediately, some took my comments entirely out of context and interpreted them to mean something completely different - and completely unthinkable.

I want to set the record straight: I was making the simple point that given our history, the length of this year's primary contest is nothing unusual. Both the executive editor of the newspaper where I made the remarks, and Sen. Kennedy's son, Bobby Kennedy Jr., put out statements confirming that this was the clear meaning of my remarks. Bobby stated, "I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense."

I realize that any reference to that traumatic moment for our nation can be deeply painful - particularly for members of the Kennedy family, who have been in my heart and prayers over this past week. And I expressed regret right away for any pain I caused.

But I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for - and everything I am fighting for in this election.

And today, I would like to more fully answer the question I was asked: Why do I continue to run, even in the face of calls from pundits and politicians for me to leave this race?

I am running because I still believe I can win on the merits. Because, with our economy in crisis, our nation at war, the stakes have never been higher - and the need for real leadership has never been greater - and I believe I can provide that leadership....

read the rest here

I particularly like this:

I am running because my parents did not raise me to be a quitter - and too many people still come up to me at my events, grip my arm and urge me not to walk away before this contest is over. More than 17 million Americans have voted for me in this race - the most in presidential primary history

Yes - the voters are supposed to be what matters. Hillary understands that. Obama fears it.

The DNC will be doing to the Democratic party (and American democracy) what Bear Stearns did to Wall Street (and the global economy) if they keep putting their own short-term personal interests over their obligations. There is such a thing as duty, and it is time we insisted upon its remembrance.