Neither Hillary or McCain are fit to lead this country, they both seek to polarize us and distort...

wndycty

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Sat Apr-12-08 11:08 AM
Original message

Neither Hillary or McCain are fit to lead this country, they both seek to polarize us and distort...

...Obama's comments for political gain. What type of leader would they make? One of the most important things a PRESIDENT must do is to unite this country, to lead this country and move this country forward. For Hillary and McCain to exploit Obama's words is beyond despicable.

Hillary supporters who will defend her reaction to Obama's words will defend her by claiming that she is not doing anything that the Republicans wouldn't do to Obama in the general and he better get used to it. I say FUCK THAT, Hillary is supposed to be a GOD DAMNED DEMOCRAT, she needs to live up to the standards of the Democratic party not the live the down to the divisive ways of the Republican party.

Hillary needs to understand she is running for the fucking nomination of the Democratic party and better start acting like a Democrat. For her to make this an issue, for her to promote and parrot Grover Norquist is absolute treason to the Democratic party.

To show you how fucking shameless Hillary is being lets look at an excerpt from the speech on race that Obama gave in Philadelphia on March 18, then let's look at his allegedly offending statements from this week and then tell me why he is being praised for the speech and then criticized for the comments. Call it political opportunity:

March 18:
-snip-
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
-snip-

Recent comments from fundraiser:
-snip-
"The places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people are most cynical about government ... everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class don't wanna work -- don't wanna vote for the Black guy.' ... There were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today -- kind of implies that it's sort of a race thing.

"In a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. They feel so betrayed by government that when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama, then that adds another layer of skepticism," Obama said to laughter.

"So the questions you're most likely to get about me, 'Well, what is this guy going to do for me? ... we'll give you talking points about what we're proposing -- to close tax loopholes ... roll back the tax cuts for the top on perent. Obama's gonna give tax breaks to uh middle-class folks and we're gonna provide healthcare for every American.

"Our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

"Now these are in some communities, you know. I think what you'll find is, is that people of every background -- there are gonna be a mix of people, you can go in the toughest neighborhoods, you know working-class lunch-pail folks, you'll find Obama enthusiasts. And you can go into places where you think I'd be very strong and people will just be skeptical."
-snip-

It seems that any honest assessment of Obama's words would include a comparison to the speech he gave in Philadelphia, and that assessment would probably show what he said last week in San Francisco is not much different than what he said in Philadelphia. Obviously if he should be criticized for what he said last week he should also be criticized for the speech, you know the speech which many called one of the most important statements on race.

With the media, with Hillary and with McCain we should expect consistency, especially on matters of race and class, but instead we see folks who are willing to polarize and distort to get ratings, sell papers and get votes. Neither Hillary or McCain are fit to be president.