Saturday, March 15, 2008

Oh, and speaking of "Contemptible"


The time has come for the Democratic Party to take a serious dose of reality pills. They are now in the unenviable position of having two candidates vying for the title of standard bearer, both of whom have been irreparably damaged: Barack Obama's candidacy has been destroyed by Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton's candidacy has been destroyed by Hillary Clinton. What she did last week was - beyond a shadow of a doubt - the most reprehensible thing I have ever seen a Democratic politician do in my lifetime. When she came right out and said that John McCain was more qualified to be president of the United States than Senator Obama, she effectively sabotaged any hopes he might have had for a post-convention campaign. It was her little way of saying, "If I can't get the nomination, he won't be elected!" Count on the McCain camp to use her "endorsement" in their campaign commercials if Obama is the nominee.
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Has it occurred to you yet what a phony and contemptible bitch this woman is? I was just wondering.
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The best thing we can hope for at this stage is that the Democratic Convention in August ends up deadlocked and a "compromise candidate" is chosen. Admittedly it's a bit of a long shot. To the best of my knowledge, the last time anything like that happened was the 1920 Republican Convention which ended up nominating the hapless Warren G. Harding of Ohio. The protracted and bitter fight which led to his nomination didn't do the GOP much harm in the long run. Although described by one of his contemporaries as "determinedly mediocre" (and that's high praise, believe me), Harding and his running mate, Calvin Coolidge of Vermont, easily beat the Democratic ticket of James Cox of Ohio and (GET THIS!) Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York. Here's a little piece of historical trivia you can munch on: Harding was generally thought by most presidential historians to be the worst chief-executive in American history - that is, until George W. Bush came along. The Bush Mob are starting to make Harding's "Ohio Gang" look like the Founding Fathers. Life is funny, isn't it?
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What is it about the Democratic party? Once again, they have been presented a plate of fine caviar on a silver platter - and these idiots have turned it into donkey shit. That's only one of the multitude of reasons why I left that silly, worthless party almost ten years ago. The best thing you can say about the Dems these days is that they're not quite as dumb as the Republicans. No matter what happens, Barack Obama will arrive at the convention in Denver with the most delegates - though probably not enough of them to cinch the nomination. Should the so-called "super delegates" hand the nomination over to Senator Clinton, do you have any idea what will happen then? Two words: "Chicago 1968". Political conventions have gotten so boring and scripted over the years, the spontaneity of the good old days has all-but-vanished. The 2008 Democratic Convention is going to be the exception to the rule. Fasten your seat belts!
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As if the none-too-subtle smear campaign and race baiting against Senator Obama weren't bad enough, he's been further damaged, perhaps fatally, by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a man whom he has described in the past as his "spiritual mentor" and who officiated at his and Michelle's wedding. A videotape from the week of September 11, 2001 resurfaced this week showing the Right Reverend Wright proclaiming, "GOD DAMN AMERICA" and implying that the poor people who died that day got exactly what they deserved - or at least that's how it is being perceived by many. That's not going to do the Senator from Illinois any good either - trust me on this one, kiddies.
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Leave it to these stupid, pathetic Democrats! What should have been the most Democratic year since 1932 is slowly but surely becoming a sure bet for the Republicans. Photographs emerging of Senator McCain soliciting a fourteen year old Taiwanese prostitute just might give the Dems the edge they need to win this thing. Other than that, I'm afraid that the game is over. Eventually I think Barack Obama will come to understand this. Don't hold your breath waiting for Hillary Clinton to figure it out. Like the man once said, "That ain't never gonna happen, baby!"
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What the party of FDR (GUFFAW!) needs to do is to take a deep breath, come to their senses and realize that neither of these two candidates have a chance of defeating John McCain in the general election in November. They now must look elsewhere for an untarnished nominee who will be able to fight the good fight, run on the issues that Americans care most about and win. What they need is a person who will inspire the natural constituencies of Senators Obama and Clinton to turn up at the polls on Election Day en masse. That person, I believe, is John Edwards.
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As I have pointed out ad nausea, John Edwards (along with Dennis Kucinich) was the only candidate in the primaries who was talking like a Democrat. He was speaking to the issues that were at the traditional heart of the Democratic party. Edwards was the only candidate who understood that the lock corporate America has held on the American political process since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 has got to end. Barack Obama has publicly said that he wants to give these plutocratic corporations "a seat at the table". Senator Edwards understands the fact that they no more deserve a seat at the table than the local heroin dealer deserves a seat on the city council. Edwards is relatively young (he turns fifty-five on June 10); he's idealistic and and he's telegenic. Don't deny that that means everything in the television age (otherwise I would be supporting Kucinich). And another thing to take into consideration is the undeniable fact that the man comes with very little baggage. The most the GOP will be able to say about him is that he was a trial lawyer. Yeah, he was a trial lawyer and a very successful one at that. Do you have any idea what it is takes to be a successful trial lawyer? One has got to be a tough-as-nails negotiator. That's the kind of person you want in the White House!
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Another thing Edwards has going for him is the fact that he's one smart son-of-a-bitch. After eight years of an inarticulate asshole like George W. Bush sitting in the Oval Office, John Edwards is going to be a breath of fresh air! The second-to-last thing we need (other than a McCain presidency, of course) is another four or (Heaven forbid) eight years of a Clinton White House. While I would be the last person on Earth to deny the undoubted intelligence of Bill and Hillary Clinton, we must all wake up to the fact that they are not - and never have been - true "progressives" in the strictest sense of the word. In fact all the evidence suggests that in too many areas to count they were decidedly right-of-center. Witness NAFTA; or their so-called "Welfare Reform"; or their unwavering support of the death penalty. And as far as "judgement" is concerned: In 2002 Senator Clinton blew the most important vote of her career by giving the First Fool the authority to use military force against the men, women and little children of Iraq. At least John Edwards now admits that his initial support for this stupid fucking war was a dreadful mistake. Five and a half years after the fact, I'm still waiting for Hillary's mea culpa.
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The Democrats need to wake up. This country can ill afford another four years of Republican control of the executive. And consider the frightening reality that in order to appease the half-witted, right wing extremists who comprise the base of that party, McCain is going to have to pick another half-witted, right wing extremist to run as the second on the ticket. John McCain will be seventy three on 20 January 2009 and is not in the best of health. You see where I'm going with this, don't you? OK, I'll stop.
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Having the Democrats come together around a unifying candidate like John Edwards will be the only way to prevent a disaster in November. A McCain administration will more-than-likely whitewash the felonies that have been committed these last seven long years by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Only with a Democrat in office can we be reasonably assured that they will eventually be punished for their crimes against the American people in general and the Iraqi people in particular. John Edwards has a very good chance of defeating John McCain. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama haven't a chance in hell.
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When it became obvious to the Clinton campaign that the dream of a lifetime for so many of us of sending an African American to the White House was on the cusp of possibility, they derailed that dream with tactics so vile and vicious it must have brought tears of joy to the eyes of Karl Rove. When she told the press that McCain is better qualified to be president of the United States, damaging the Obama campaign possibly beyond repair, she stupidly destroyed her own candidacy as well. The Democratic party, the party of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (Tee hee hee! Sorry about that!) cannot win without a huge turn out of African Americans. If Hillary Clinton is given the nomination in August, they'll remember what the Clintonistas did to Barack Obama, and a whole hell of a lot of them will be staying home on November 4th - or voting for Ralph Nader. Come to think about it, I just might do the same - what the hell. A choice between Hillary Clinton and John McCain is really no choice at all.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

18 Comments:

At 12:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I want the documentation: Hill says McCain would make a better prez. Bottom line, I agree, and pray for the miracle of a compromise John Edwards candidacy. If McCain takes it, head for the hills!

 
At 2:07 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I didn't think even she could stoop that low. Here exact words:

"I have a lifetime of experience I can bring to the job. John McCain has a lifetime of Experience He can bring to the job. Barack Obama has a speech he made in 2002"

She's disgusting.

Tom Degan

 
At 6:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom, I don't think Hillary has permanently damaged Obama - anything she can roll out is just previews of what the Carl Roves will dish out in October. It is healthy to expose any perceived or real liabilities and exercise the responses - and better now then election day. In any event, the Canadian/NAFTA reporting that served to attack Obama on behalf of Clinton can be a reminder that the media serves their owners - not the US public. Big media has been rather consistent in supporting the most hawkish behavior.

I am in agreement in favoring Edwards over the two frontrunners (although it would be cool to live on a world that could choose Ron Paul or Dennis Kusinich). At the moment though, my question is, how could Edwards' campaign rematerialize?

 
At 8:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sadly, Obama is being "swift boated" for his pastor's ideas,
Condi has presented the State Dept. report on human rights (that conveniently ignores abuses by the leaders in this administration), and the ACLU has issues with FBI letters inquiring into the privacy (remember the good ol' 4th amendment?).
At least Dennis Kucinich is attending the Winter Soldier hearings in MD, so that he can introduce the TRUTH into the congressional record. Notice that all other candidates are silent regarding same. And with few exceptions, the main stream media fails to report.
So...where is Edwards?
Your guess is as good as mine.
W

 
At 8:36 PM, Blogger Joanna said...

Tom Degan,

You just made my day. Thank you! Thank you!

 
At 5:47 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

You just made my day as well, Joanna! Right back at'cha!

Tom

 
At 6:58 PM, Blogger PetitPoix said...

Mr. Degan, do you type with two fingers or do you use nine?

 
At 4:08 AM, Blogger larkrise said...

How right you are, Tom! The Democrats are busily shooting themselves in both feet with two candidates who are smearing each other beyond belief. Hillary is beneath contempt. She has practically writtent the campaign script for the Republicans. Her "any means to an end" behavior will destroy not only Obama but herself and any chance of winning in November. People will say:"If the Democrats cant come together themselves, how can they bring the country together?" The vicious, mean-spirited campaign that Hillary is running makes her look like the Howling Harpie from Hell. And, as for Obama, he has made two BIG mistakes. The first one was made by his wife Michelle, when she came out with those remarks about how this was the first time she was proud of America. For the most part, the Media gave her a pass on that one, but it will come back to haunt her and Barack. The second mistake was, as you have mentioned, Obama's failure to distance himself from a hatemongering minister who preaches anger and anti-Americanism. Even I, who am not proud of our country at this moment, was taken aback by the vitriole spewed by a supposed Man of God. If Obama has listened to and tolerated this venom for many years, how can he really represent all of us? I can hope his explanations are sincere; but most Voters will not buy it. It was a major mistake to have this man as an advisor in the campaign. Coupled with Michelle Obama's remarks, the race issue will poison the waters considerably. What a shame! I wonder if it was a Clinton staffer who leaked those video tapes of the preacher to the press? If so, it is truly a despicable act; but was bound to happen. As for McCain, he refuses to release all of his medical records. I can guess it is because his prognosis for a recurrence of malignant melanoma is high. The cancer is deadly once it shows up in the liver. There is no cure with that kind of metastasis.You have about 6-9 months. McCain will deliver the coup de grace to the country given his obsession with war. We are on the verge of a collosal economic meltdown, and simply cannot continue the ones we have going nor start a new one with Iran. But, McCain is a fanatic and will refuse to recognize economic realities. With Bear Stearns going down, the economic collapse may beat everybody to the punch. Bear Stearns is the canary in the mine. Mark my words, the worse is yet to come on the economic front.
What a mess. The Dems have ruined a sure thing. The Republicans are determined to sink the ship. Congress is full of idiots and fools, crooks and spaghetti spines. I long for John Edwards, too. We desperately need a SANE man in charge.

 
At 2:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Right f*cking on!
You made my day too.
I must add, however, that I mailed in my ballot because I was going to be out of town on election day. Luckily I got to do so before Edwards dropped out.
So at least I can sleep at night. Not anymore, though. LOL

 
At 12:44 AM, Blogger Carrie said...

Hey, Beeeuuuutiful picture of the monster.
I disagree with your thought that Rev. Wright implied that the people who died in 9/11 got what they deserved. I think he was putting the blame on our government for its hateful past (and present). I really could not find anything that wasn't true in what he said, and I am a 48-year old white woman who is, let's just say, not religious.
anyway, I do agree about John Edwards. I got to vote for him, but didn't matter anyway, I live in Florida.
And that is true about McCain's melanoma. My husband died from it. It is a HORRIBLY aggressive form of cancer.

peace

 
At 5:53 PM, Blogger Hawkeye said...

I agree that the words of Rev. Wright have deeply scarred Obama's campaign but I don't think what he said was fatal.

For the record, read carefully what the media are pumping as the words. There's a lot of truth in them, like them or not and as inflammatory as they appear. We fancy ourselves a Christian nation but we sure don't act on Christian principles. The Reverend was calling us to account, like it or not.

Sure, the Repugnants will use this against Obama. They'll use a lot of other stuff too. And there will be that nagging American racism that he tried to defuse. Same old bullshit.

The concept of invading Iraq was wrong because we attacked a sovereign nation, something we seem to do with frequency, installing a regime that's far worse than the one replaced. I think here of Central and South America.

But the real tragedy is what has come to be called euphemistically collateral damage .. the deaths of innocent women and children, bystanders who only want to live out their lives as best they might, who have done us no harm and who try to weave their lives from the fabric of what they were given. Freedom is nice, so too democracy, but a little bread and clean water are more important.

With a cluck of the tongue and a shake of the head, we put their suffering and agony aside. That's war, we say and, I don't want to know or think about it. (Where are the pictures in the media, of human beings with torn limbs and bodies festering in the streets?)

Kill one of ours and the flag goes up, patriotism is shouted in your face and God is called to witness the insult. Suddenly, it becomes personal.

That stuff is simply bullshit and the Reverend was calling us on it.

Now, his method may have been wrong, too vituperative but we have heard that sort of bombast rhetoric before. We have had our share of demagogues on the left and mostly on the right and again, clucked our tongues and shaken our heads and mumbled about freedom of speech forgetting the hatred behind the words: Father Coughlin, George Lincoln Rockwell and David Duke. We shrug but don't vilify their gospel of hatred. But suddenly, a black man who has national attention and has the audacity to seek the public limelight and aspire to high public office has to apologize for someone else's inflammatory words.

Is this guilt by association?

Did Nixon apologize for Billy Graham's anti-Semitism or any Republican object to Pat Robertson's and Jerry Falwell's ugly and untrue statements that 9/11 was brought on by AIDS and homosexuals?

Now, suddenly, Obama is expected to prostrate himself amid a sea of mea culpas because he insists on disowning the man's words but not the man himself. What would satisfy the white community? For Obama to shoot Wright with a 9 mm pistol in Times Square?

As much as I agree with what you usually write, Tom, I think your rant has missed the point here.

The issue is not about Wright nor is it about Billary, it's about racism. That's what Obama was addressing. Jesse Jackson tried so also Dr. King. And we marginalized them as we are Obama when we persist in pointing to Wright's words rather than Obama's message.

As a nation, we pull down any black who tries to rise above racial innuendo and then we immortalize them with a shake of our head when they are killed. When we should be outraged, we are at best disappointed. That’s the best we can muster.

They shout because their voices are not heard, and yes, because they are angry and frustrated for not having a seat at the power table or a share of the dream, a share that we deny them.

Why do we expect more of a black than a white? Here we have a man who is neither black nor white, who has had to seek his identity in a world that divides along racial lines, a world that snub “tans.” Who of us would have the character, the audacity, if you will, to willingly stand before a hostile public and say: I'm ready to rule. Overlook my color, be not racist, and vote for me because you believe I have the courage to lead.

We set the bar higher for a black … unfairly. And when he reaches it, or looks as if he might, we raise it. Same on us.

Obama is giving us this chance to prove to ourselves and the world that we are more than we have been, that a black candidate doesn’t have to be more perfect than a white candidate.

Yes, life Michelle, I, too, am proud to be an American ... for the first time in a very long time.

Obama did not list black grievances, he simply pointed out that blacks need to put their anger aside because whites can make the same claims today of unfairness and that in their mutual discontent, they should find a new unity. Blame never solves anything. And in those words, he repudiated his friend and mentor, his ideas. Wright is a man of the fifties, like me. Obama is a man of the 21st century.

Edwards is not the answer. He doesn't have the appeal or the toughness. It has to be Obama and we have to roll up our sleeves and work like we've never worked before for a candidate. This is not the time to walk away from a fight. Because if we do, when, then, I ask, will we even make a stand if we truly believe.


And we will do it if we care about our beliefs and our country. We will do it because our country deserves better. And for me, I want to stick my chest our to Europe, Asia, South American and all else in the world and say: By God, it's good to be an American.

Jan Marfyak

 
At 6:17 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At 6:24 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Jan,
You're absolutely correct. I did not mean to say that Rev. Wright was saying that those poor people on 9/11 deserved to die. It's just that that was how it appeared. Quite frankly, a lot of what he said in the short clip made perfect sense (twenty seconds out of a twenty minute-plus sermon) On 9/11 the chickens DID come home to roost! Jello Biafra put it well. On that day, Amerikkka got a little taste of what it has been dishing out against brown-skinned people for decades.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me....

Tom

 
At 7:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jan,
Your words speak truth and come from your heart.
Thank you.
The power of Barack's speech regarding racism in America comes from seeing those false ideas that need to be abandoned, that justify anger, and lead to seeing the past as necessary to directing continuation of a future course of wrongful actions, as opposed to seeing the hope we share in a common future that is built by our common efforts, when at last we all look not at that which emphasises our differences, but rather demands recognition of our commonalities.
Peace be with you.
W

 
At 7:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dream on Tom. This campaign has not even started. Wait until the tape rolls on McCain saying he doesnt know that much about the
economy, and his most recent Al Qaeda in Iran gaffe. He looked like a little kid with Lieberman having to whisper in his ear. I live in Arizona, which is 50th in
education, out of 50 states. Don't kid yourself Barack will expose all these weaknesses. We will be in a full blown recession/Depression by the time of the election. The Real estate market has already collapsed, as well as the stock market. Both will continue to go down, as the snowball effect of foreclosures dooms the economy. The Democratic turn out has been double the Repubs in most primaries. All those people, less a few, will be voting for Barack. Keep the faith, less we think you
are a republican troll in sheeps clothing.

 
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At 11:04 PM, Blogger Vanessa von Hessert said...

Your thoughts are interesting, but I disagree with your assertation that Edwards has a better chance of beating McCain than Obama or Hillary. If that were the case, he would've been nominated.

The last several months have been rough, but I still believe that Obama will win this election. He is just too good to beat, even with the attack machine on full force.

 
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