Why Hillary and I Are Done

Having never in my entire life voted for a Republican (an honor I was able to maintain through the last NYC mayoral election by voting for Mike Bloomberg on the Independent line!) I figured that I was destined to vote for whomever wins the Democratic nomination. So I pay really close attention to the primaries, since it is my major chance, both to educate myself and to do my part to make sure I have someone to work and vote for in November. Until this weekend, I was a fervent supporter of Barack Obama who nonetheless had a certain empathy for Hillary Clinton. BB (Before Barack), I would have gone to the polls in November to vote for her, not with any particular enthusiasm, but with a sense of resignation that comes with having to settle for the lesser of two evils.

But that was before last Sunday, when Clinton decided that Obama’s affirming and optimistic call to America would best be answered by mocking sarcasm. Perhaps I was so offended because I am in the inspiration business. As a liberal religious minister, I spend a lot of time working on ways to help people see in themselves a glimpse of God’s face, and then to act on what they see. I know firsthand how important it is to show people what it might be like to live committed and powerful lives. And I know how cranky I get when cynics and some atheists tell me that I am essentially wasting my time.

I don’t want a president who derides either the power of dreams or the power of a person who can inspire those dreams. As a citizen, I am just plain tired of being called names by people who are supposed to be providing national leadership and expect me to support them blindly while they abuse my trust. First I was a traitor because I thought the war in Iraq was wrong. Then I was ignored when I protested and wrote letters. Now I am exercising my right to choose our next leader, and all I get is desperate whining by someone who thinks she’s more qualified than Barack Obama because she is married to the former President of the United States. (I’m a minister who is married to a financial writer. Within the boundaries of confidentiality that mark our respective careers, Bob and I have always talked with each other about what we do every day, and we’ve done that for all the years we’ve been married. But all the pillow talk in the world won’t make a financial writer out of me, and it won’t make a minister out of Bob.)

I support Barack Obama for all kinds of reasons: because he’s wicked smart; because he knows that, as a superpower, we have to talk to everyone if we want to create a just and peaceful world; because his very presence gets our two sons (14 and 11) to sit down and watch the news with us EVERY night, just to get a glimpse of him; because he was an Illinois State Senator in the Chicago district where my mother and sister still live, and my mother still remembers how often he came to speak and to listen to senior citizens like herself; because he’s a black man who loves and honors his wife, and shows it; because when he spoke at a book signing in New York (before he decided to run) and I asked him a question about how people of progressive faith could talk about religious matters in a way that didn’t divide people, he stood there and looked me in the eye and gave me a gracious, coherent and thoughtful answer; because he stood against the war in Iraq while everyone else was rolling over for the Republicans–including Hillary Clinton.

I felt all these things pretty early on, but didn’t have any special animus for Clinton. I even shared the sense of some of my friends that Hillary, preparing to run all these years, had been doing just fine until this brash young guy showed up and stole her thunder. But that was before Sunday, when she opened her mouth and promptly lost her mind. Never in a million years would I vote for her now, and that decision makes it even more important that Obama moves forward to win the nomination; the idea of having to vote for Ralph Nader makes me nauseous!

4 Responses to “Why Hillary and I Are Done”

1. mskitty says:

   February 27, 2008 at 11:53 pm

   Amen, sister. I am so disappointed in how Hillary has conducted this recent part of the campaign. I feel that she has done herself and her supporters a disservice by her behavior, mocking Obama, getting so defensive and whiny, scolding America for wanting hope and inspiration. Sorry, Hillary, that’s not how I want my President to be.
2. revrose says:

   February 28, 2008 at 12:03 am

   Hey, Ms. Kitty! Nice to see you here! I’m disappointed in her too. She’s nothing like the Hillary Clinton I met 20+ years ago when she was First Lady of Arkansas and on the board of Children’s Defense Fund; I was at a conference with her. She and I rode in on the airport shuttle bus together and she was warm, smart, funny and open-hearted. If that Hillary Clinton were running now, I’d be very torn. But she is long gone….
3. jcullinan says:

   February 28, 2008 at 1:06 am

   Amen.

   I’ve been really upset this past month over the whole, “It’s only words,” meme — probably because, yes, I’m in the inspirational words business myself. The problem with policy wonks (and the people who rely on their advice) is that they see changes in policy as the be all and end all. But, changing policy only changes policy. Changing a culture requires changing hearts. Both are required, but the latter is the really difficult work.

   John
   Los Alamos
4. Kim says:

   February 29, 2008 at 3:33 am

   You late to the “off Hillary” train. It happened to me when somebody let Bob Johnson get up on that stage in SC and talk about what Barack did as a teenager.

   Anyway….I think Bob would be a good minister; he’s got the voice for it. The real question would be how you would do as a financial reporter. And since you didn’t like being at the WSJ, I have some serious doubts.