Hillary is a big girl, and does not need to be "eased out". They are treating her like a "girl" and as a feminist I resent it.
I was at the Maine convention and I did not like what I witnessed with my 51 year old eyes. I just read a very good post that highlights a rant from a Hillary supporter to Hillary supporters. (
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6211861)
The premise was that some Hillary supporters may not be real Hillary supporters, they just hate Obama, and it is hard to tell the difference between a real supporter, vs. a
"supporter
" who is just out to trash the other candidate and might even be a troll.
I don't buy it. I wish it were so, but no sale.
At the Maine Convention Hillary supporters were noticeably pissed off and rude. In Maine, we know our candidates and our neighbors. There are no trolls in the small towns. The Hillary supporters, not "supporters" fell into numerous camps. There were the pissed off older women who I kept getting "bumped into" by, as soon as I started sporting an Obama pin. Another noticeable group were busy young people, looking for places to set up shop with printers and laptops in the restaurant we ate at. There were the HECKLERS during the Obama surrogate's speech— This camp included the bumping women plus an angry older women waving a cut-out of Hillary's face who was shouting "no preachers in the white house" over and over.
Thankfully in my county caucus the Hillary supporters were for the most part, sensible party workers who know this is just another Dem fight that will be over soon. They patiently cast their votes knowing all the rules and knowing she came in second. They were ready to move on to the next task, such as canvassing for local candidates, GOTV drives and helping all the newbies. They were subdued. Like I was when my first two favorite candidates dropped out.
I was thankful we are a tiny county.
The following story breaks my heart and I wish there would be a Wake up call to all of these Gentlewomen-Super Delegates and Gentlemen-Super Delegates who are "easing out our illustrious Senator from New York who has fought a valiant fight and whom we should honor with the utmost respect" Etcetera etcetera etcetera... tell her to reign in her supporters NOW!
Here goes...
Because of the enormous turn-out, several counties had to leave the civic center and convene their caucus at a different location, 1-8 miles away depending on your county. Most ordinary Delegates had no idea. 1800 of us pre-bought boxed lunches at $12.00 a pop because we were told there was no food and no time to leave. The crowds were so huge, as we were standing on line for our boxed lunch, I said to my husband,
"lets get out of here!"
"If we have to drive I know we can do better than a dried out turkey wrap."
Beating the crowd seemed like a no-brainer. Our Caucus was 7 miles away, somewhere we had never been and it bought us a little time.
We had heard that Hillary's campaign had hired buses to drive the smaller counties to these off site locations, and Obama supporters had been told they could hitch a ride. We were told when we arrived that there had been a change of plan and no Obama delegates were allowed on the buses. I have no idea whether it was bad info, or just a mis-understanding, but we couldn't resist a few jokes ( we're liberals for Pete's sake). Being the white state of Maine I couldn't resist saying "if i could find a black Obama supporter I could photograph him/her getting thrown off the bus!"... but then we said "what would Obama do" like good elitist latte drinking cultists.
I was not personally harmed by the bus situation, because I had a car, but I met an Obama woman in the parking lot, who I introduced myself to when I heard her talking about the bus issue. She said something about "not believing the boards about Hillary supporters." How she even "defended Hillary supporters", but she was genuinely shaken up and pissed off by what she had experienced. When she used the word "boards" and "defending Hillary supporters" I perked up and mentioned DU, and lo and behold she POSTS here.
Anyway she told me an old man who supported Obama was not allowed on the Hillary bus and they had to work to find him a ride. Some Obama staff almost had to leave their posts to drive him, but they managed to find someone to take this
old, physically disabled Democrat to his caucus. This is the bizarro world!
I started a post about this in the GDP and it dropped like a stone. I thought people might have seen it as flame bait, and I did not know the full story at the time, so I let it go. The woman I met PM'd me the info because she did not want to post this for the sake of unity.
(here is another blog about the Maine convention that has another bus story.
http://whitenoiseinsanity.wordpress.com)
I met an older man, who got tears in his eyes as he talked about some Hillary supporters in his town calling him names. He has been a party worker forever. He was so hurt.
The reason I am posting this is so we do not fool our selves. These were Mainers, these were Democrats... Not trolls, and not Obama haters. They were Hillary LOVERS. They were Hillary believers, as in—we believe your story that we are being victimized and we will fight to the death. This is important, because we are all sick of false stories over the last 8 years.
Everyone who endorses Obama is bending over backward to praise Clinton's efforts, yet Clinton's story to her supporters doesn't included a narrative about what a good campaign Obama has run, or what a tenacious opponent he has been. Her loss is never equated, by her, to his strength.
She has short-changed her supporters and so they feel cheated instead of proud.
Cornered instead of free.
Hillary has put forward a false story about who supports Obama and why. Maine is the perfect microcosm of the lie.
Let us be honest with our selves so we can be honest with others.
The Nazi movement( I lost some family in the holocaust so I will talk about the Nazis whenever I think it is appropriate) taught us an important lesson—We
all have evil tendencies. I forgot that lesson when Bush and the neo-cons took over our government. I thought the Democrats were completely different. I felt safe with Democrats. How silly!
People are all alike.
There are saints and assholes among us, and they do not come with labels.
They only come to power with the right leader.
Oh and PS
After all the delays, in spite of intermittent blinding downpours, Mainers convened from every county in the State in record numbers and we managed to send the exact same amount of Delegates for each candidate to the National Convention. Everyone showed up! That is good news for all DEMOCRATS!
Edited to say I just read Obama picked up an extra Delegate... hadn't heard that because they were still totalling everything when I left.
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