This is a great Article, Great Read.
Final Rant
By UniversityofIowaJR
CREDIT: NOQUARTER
I became interested in politics, specifically democratic politics when I became of voting age almost 3 years ago. I missed the opportunity to hold my nose and vote for Kerry/Edwards. I am on the Executive Board of the University Democrats here on campus, the largest student organization at this university.
I am also President of Students for Hillary Clinton. I first saw Barack Obama speak in November of 2006 when he was campaigning for then candidate for governor Chet Culver in Iowa City. He was a good speaker. Then in January, a funny thing happened, a woman announced she was running. Hillary Clinton announced and then she came to my state.
I first saw her speak in Davenport, my hometown, on a cold morning (negative 14 degrees). She was awesome. She hit every point that mattered to me: college costs, the environment, health care. I was very impressed. She mentioned specific statistics on uninsured Americans, college loan interest rates, and on emissions in our country. In the months to follow I got the pleasure to hear all of our candidates, and meet all but Mike Gravel. I was hooked on Hillary Clinton.
Shady things started in Iowa around the time of the JJ Dinner in Des Moines.
We traveled in a caravan of cars from Iowa City that morning, and before we departed, a car load of people from Illinois, they told us from Joliet, pulled up and asked us if we were going to Des Moines to see Barack, and we told them we were going to Des Moines to see Hillary. They said thanks and left, but this is when the trend of “bussing” began with the Obama folks. At JJ, Joe Biden said what we were all thinking when he got on stage and said “Hello Iowa!” and then turned to Barack’s crowd and shouted “and Hello Chicago!”
Fast forward to caucus night. This is where it all became clear to me about how his supporters really felt about progressive issues. And this is where it became clear to me that I COULD NEVER VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA. The night was interesting, my precinct captain and I were the first people there besides the monitor, and about 20 minutes later a bus arrived, from Chicago according to the info on the side of the bus, full of 80 Obama people.
We went in to the caucus, and there things got heated. We were in one of the toughest places in the entire state for Hillary, in a precinct in Iowa’s most liberal city and which included mostly campus housing and apartments. We had 11 strong Hillary backers, and we were not viable on the first go.
On the second round we got all of Biden’s and Dodd’s supporters, and we had 19, you needed 20 for a delegate. The Obama precinct captain came over, with two friends, and tried to get our supporters to cave. They all refused (God bless em’) and she, the Obama precinct captain, exploded yelling “your not even viable anyways!”, and she stormed off, in the process calling me a “fag”. That was the buzzword. Her friends restrained her and they went back to their corner to, I am not kidding, get in a circle and chant “Fired Up and Ready to Go”. Cultish anyone?
This is the point I realized these people are not progressive, nor do they care about progressive causes. They are a giant personality cult. They offended every gay person there that night, me most directly, and we all heard her say this because every gay person was in Hillary’s corner. This was piled up in my mind alongside the Donnie McClurkin gaybash tour of 2007, and Obama’s refusal to both get a picture with pro-marriage equality San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and his refusal to acknowledge gay rights as civil rights.
Add this together with his healthcare plan (not progressive enough), his energy record (not progressive…2005 Cheney bill), and the fact that not only has he said he would want to invade Pakistan, but he would employ people like Lake and Rice to advise him…..tells me he is no progressive,and his supporters for the most part are even less-so.
Now, Add all of this up with his unelectability in the electoral college, the shady way he received the nomination/coronation, his now sky high negatives, his shady past with figures like Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, and his gaffe-prone wife, well, he is going to lose in November. How can he win when his strongest point is that he was against the war from the beginning, while he will be debating a former POW, war hero, and a man with a son serving in Iraq? He cannot win. Hillary Clinton can win, we saw this from the election maps on Hillbuzz.
John McCain is a republican. Barack Obama is a cult leader appointed by the RBC of the DNC as our nominee. The Democrat in this race is Hillary Clinton. She was chosen by the party,and the leadership ignored this and showed their true loyalties.
I will stand by my woman and vote for her in November, however, if Iowa has no write-in slot, it will depend on how I feel that day when I walk into that booth, and how supporters of each candidate present themselves on election day. I give props to John McCain for going on Ellen and discussing his views on civil unions and his support of equal legal rights. I respect him for voting against the FMA. Barack Obama has also voted against the FMA, which I am glad for. I am also glad he is pro-civil union.
Looks like no matter who wins, gay rights will still not be included in civil rights, and that no matter who wins we will not get universal healthcare. No matter who wins we will be further engaged in the middle east, whether it be in Iraq for years, or whether it be in northwest Pakistan.
Should Clinton not be on this ticket, I will be resigning from the UDEMS, and deciding what to do with my student group. Many of the members want the endorsement to go to McCain, which is a real possibility.
Hillary Clinton 2008
