Fie on Hillary and her pouting supporters
July 11th, 2008 at 03:41pm Pat Cunningham
There was a time not very long ago when I wouldn’t have been disappointed with either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee.
That sentiment changed however when Clinton waged a primary-season campaign against Barack Obama that nauseated millions of Americans, including a lot of loyal Democrats.
Hillary repeatedly made unfavorable comparisons of Obama with the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain. She and her surrogates (most notably Geraldine Ferraro) employed thinly-veiled racist rhetoric and fostered whispering campaigns about her rival. She and her mouthpieces continually tried to move the goalposts when it became apparent to almost everyone else that she no longer had a chance to win the nomination.
When Clinton finally bowed to the inevitable and gave up the race, a considerable number of her supporters childishly refused to face reality. They ranted and pouted. They said Hillary had been cheated. They wrongly accused Obama of sexism. They demanded that he choose her as his running mate. They threatened to vote for McCain in November, no matter that his positions on most issues are dramatically at odds with those of the Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, Hillary and her top lieutenants have been demanding that Obama help retire the debt she incurred in the course of her disgusting campaign — including the millions of her own dollars she loaned to the effort. Never mind that Hillary and Bill Clinton are sitting on a personal fortune of more than $100 million to which they can always add with a book here and a speech there.
How’s that for chutzpah? Obama’s supposed to help pay the bills for the garbage that was thrown at him. In a just world, he would tell the Clintons and their die-hard backers to go to hell. But, of course, he can’t. The cause of party unity demands amnesty and graciousness.
As for the threats of certain Clintonistas to back McCain in the fall, it’s not likely that many of them actually will do so when they’re confronted with names on a real ballot.
Michael Kinsley has FURTHER THOUGHTS on all of this.
Entry Filed under: John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama
10 Comments Add your own
1. Menlo Bob | July 11th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Whiny supporters. Rhymes with whiny reporters.
2. Leatherneck | July 11th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
You should not have included the parenthetical statement about Geraldine Ferraro because you yourself agree that what Ferraro said was right on target. Not to rehash that, but come on now. If he were an ordinary Caucasian social worker, would he be where he is today, with 95% Black support and the nomination sealed up?
3. Pat Cunningham | July 11th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Leatherhead: You’re full of crap when you write: “(Y)ou yourself agree that what Ferraro said was right on target.” Four months ago today, I had this to say: http://blogs.e-rockford.com/applesauce/2008/03/11/with-friends-like-geraldine-ferrraro-hillary-clinton-doesnt-need-enemies/
4. Leatherneck | July 11th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Oh, sorry- I thought that a journalist of your caliber would have known better. Regardless of whom you supoort, I guess I am surprised that you did not acknowledge that Mrs. Ferraro’s point was a valid one indeed. It was four months ago, but you can change your opinion.
I suppose, there was just as much chance that Chris Dodd or John Edwards would have had 95% of Blacks on board and with just as much enthusiasm. And sure, turnout among Blacks will be increased 30% in the fall, but hey that would have happened anyway, right? Obama’s ethnicity is just incidental, right? Blacks were just as excited about John Kerry, right?
I used to listen to you on WNTA every day; I respect your opinion, Pat. But don’t tell me that Obama’s race has not worked to his advantage or that it has not separated him from the pack. That is what Geraldine Ferraro was saying and any rational person could see that. But again, it was all taken out of context and Hillary made to look like the “bad guy”. Then we went on to the RFK remark, etc. Again, Obama’s camp “re-interpreted” it and a few people actually bought this baloney.
He will win and I wish him well as I would any POTUS. The Blacks will feel like one they elected one of their own and I hope that Obama will be a role model and uplift the aspirations of the young Black males. (I want to see them to “go clean for Barack” and get haircuts and wear belts). And white liberals can feel good by voting for Obama and purging themselves of their white guilt. You feel “safer” voting for him than you would have Jesse Jackson or Shirley Chisholm. When Obama wins, I hope, as you do…that just maybe we can all turn the page on racist paranoia. Will the Civil Rights movement have come full circle??
5. Pat Cunningham | July 11th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I never worked at WNTA. It was WROK. And I got canned for low ratings. Good thing, as it turned out.
6. Menlo Bob | July 12th, 2008 at 12:32 am
Lemme see…Rush gets a fat contract and you get canned for low ratings on the same station. Have you considered taking up cigar smoking?
7. Pat Cunningham | July 12th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Bob: Actually, Limbaugh wasn’t always on the same station. I can’t recall that he was ever on ‘ROK while I was there. For a while in the ’90s, he was on WNTA. And, for a while, my show went head-to-head with his — and I beat him in the ratings. At one time or another, I worked virtually every time-slot except for early mornings. But my ratings steadily went from so-so to not-so-good. Talk radio, with isolated exceptions, is a conservative medium. I was never really comfortable in radio — mainly because I almost always had to work alone. It’s tough monologuing for long periods when there are no callers. But the relatively few times my show overlapped with Bruce Butler’s were great, I thought. We had a good chemistry and similar senses of humor. But I mostly worked alone and didn’t like it. When I got fired, I gladly went back to newspapering, which was a more natural fit. And I did some commentaries for several local TV stations. I even hosted a weekly talk show on WREX with panels of guests — “Cunningham & Company.” That was kind of fun.
8. Pat Cunningham | July 12th, 2008 at 8:44 am
If I might belabor this radio thing, I’ll tell you one funny story. Probably the best time I ever had on radio was when I pretended to have had an epiphany and had become a right-wing religious extremist. I stayed in character for three hours, arguing that religious and political tolerance were nonsense and were offensive to God. Why, I asked, should we tolerate religious and political views we know to be wrong? For the good of mankind, why should we tolerate heresy? If we know the truth about God and godly morals, why should we allow others to spread beliefs that we know to be false? I quoted the Bible at length and denounced the liberal interpretation of the First Amendment. Well, the phone board lit up like a Christmas tree. I was even able to sell my phony sincerity to some callers who said I was pretending. One woman was in tears of joy at my miraculous conversion. I dueled impressively with people who called to argue against the philosophy I seemed to have adopted. I felt like Elmer Gantry. For a moment, I was almost intoxicated by the exercise. It was Fun with a capital F. At the end of the three hours, I dropped the veil and warned against such extremism. I wish I had a tape of that show. Anyway, as I recall, the station got a few complaints about my cruel charade.
9. Menlp Bob | July 12th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Early Colbert eh?
10. Q Jordon | July 13th, 2008 at 1:19 am
If it is any consolation, Pat. Hillary has only been able to get ninety seven thousand five hundred and some odd dollars from Obama supporters to date.
The knife cuts both ways in the supporter camps.
Some of the comments I read from Obama supporters range from them saying “they would not give a cent to that woman and her husband” to “I have a child in college, a mortgage, and energy cost are at an all time high. She thinks I have money to give to her campaign debt”?
I have to agree with the prevailing answer - Hillary brought a lot of debt onto herself by staying in this campaign longer than she needed. She could have bowed out and saved herself from the financial and emotional toll.
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