What'chu Talkin' 'Bout Willis?

Observant readers may have deduced that I am no ardent supporter of Hillary Clinton. Up to this point I have done my best to refrain from criticizing the senator on several issues. However, after the comments coming from the Clinton campaign following the “Basketball Primaries,” there are several items that just need to be addressed.

If I hear the phrase “until every voice is heard,” or, “until every vote is counted” I’m going to puke. And I had mushroom rice and teriyaki vegetables for lunch, so it isn’t going to be pretty. I don’t recall any other statistically eliminated Democratic candidate in any election prior to this one whining and complaining about how “every voice must be heard.” For fifty years prior to this race the nominating contest has ended months before the final primary and it wasn’t an issue. And does any honest individual truly believe that Senator Clinton and her supporters would be clamoring for every voice to be heard if the situation was reversed and Senator Obama was facing elimination?

Michigan and Florida deserve to be stripped of their delegates and be left out in the Rocky Mountain sun to wilt at the Democratic convention in August. Everyone knew the rules before the game began, those two states decided to flip the bird at the rules, and should now face the consequences. Especially Florida, which after eight years STILL hasn't figured out how to vote correctly. But of course, they won’t be held responsible. Still haunted by the events of the convention in Chicago in 1968, the Democratic National Committee has no stomach for enforcing the rules. You see, the DNC is like the parents who tell all the children, If you throw your pizza on the floor you won’t get any more pizza.” The two bratty kids in the family (Michigan and Florida) throw their pizza on the floor and the parents take away the pizza. Well, the kids start to cry, telling all their friends and neighbors that their parents are trying to starve them to death by not giving them the fresh slices of pizza they deserve after willfully dumping theirs on the floor after being told not to. The parents don’t want people to think they are starving their useless bratty kids, so they capitulate and give them fresh pizza. Now all fifty kids can throw pizza all over the place because they know all they have to do to get more pizza is scream bloody murder claiming that mommy and daddy are starving them to death.

What qualifies someone to be president? According to the Constitution, one must be a U.S. citizen by birth, over the age of 35, and a resident within the country for 14 years. Everything else is gravy. But you wouldn’t know that listening to the “experience” banter in this primary. The definition of presidential experience seems to be eight years living in the White House as First Spouse. The truth is, experience is over-rated. Name one administration with more combined experience at the highest levels than the current one. How well has that worked out? How much experience did George Washington have? Abraham Lincoln? John Kennedy? Sometimes, a lifetime in spent in Washington in precisely the type of experience a president needs to avoid.

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright has been a thorn in the side of Barack Obama since video of his sermons appeared on YouTube six weeks prior to the Pennsylvania primary. Obama immediately and has consistently made it clear that he certainly does not share the extreme views of his former pastor regarding race relations and the actions of the United States. Yet many individuals refuse to believe the senator, or give him the benefit of the doubt. Their reasoning? One cannot be in the presence of a charismatic figure like Wright two hours a week for twenty years and not become a clone of that figure. There are several flaws in that reasoning, but I’ll limit myself to one example. I like to be informed. I like to know what everyone’s thinking. So, three hours a days I listen to/watch conservative talk radio/television. Three hours a day, five days a week, for at about eight years, comes to 6,240 hours, perhaps minus a few hundred hours for vacations and cleaning the cobwebs out of my ears. If he actually attended church every Sunday for the past twenty years (which he hasn’t) and Reverend Wright preached fire and brimstone sermons excoriating America every single week (which he didn’t), Senator Obama has spent about 2,080 hours in Wright’s presence. According to the math, I have spend three times as much time listening to conservative talk radio than Obama has spent listening to Reverend Wright, and I am LESS conservative now than I was eight years ago. If merely being exposed to an idea for a length of time is all it takes to influence someone, “The Mark Factor” would be the number one primetime news analysis program on cable. When Obama says he doesn’t share Wright’s extremist views, it’s pretty easy to believe him.

Some people are upset that 90% of black voters cast their votes for Senator Obama. Funny. None of those individuals were complaining when 100% of ALL voters cast their votes for whichever white male happened to be on the ballot.

Finally, a troubling statistic emerged in the exit polls as this race dragged on. At the beginning of the primary season, Democratic voters claimed they had two candidates (three for a while) whom they liked very much and would be happy to vote for either of them. However, now, near the end of this train wreck, over a quarter of Obama supporters polled say they cannot/will not support Clinton is she is the nominee, while closer to half of Clinton supporters polled claim they cannot/will not support Obama if he becomes the nominee. Senator Clinton has seized upon these numbers to suggest that even though this primary race is likely to end with her trailing Obama in delegates and in popular vote, she should be given the nomination because her constituents are far more bitter and irrational than those of her opponent. I’ve covered this before, so I will try not to belabor the point, but I have to say this. I would hope that a political party claiming to be progressive and inclusive would be beyond the type of thinking that would lead to those exit poll results. But if there truly is a significant segment of the Democratic electorate who would rather vote for the white man with a viewpoint completely opposite to theirs on nearly every issue, (supreme court justices, pro-choice, health care, trade agreements, etc...) than vote for the black guy who AGREES with them on nearly every issue, then perhaps the Democratic Party deserves to lose this election.