An Open Letter to the Staff and Supporters of Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama
posted on March 13th, 2008
Stop it.
Just stop.
We all know she’s a woman. We all know a woman has never been elected President before. We all know he’s black. We all know a black man has never been elected President before. You guys don’t have to keep bringing it up. And you don’t have to get mad at the other side when they bring it up. And you don’t have to get mad at the other other side when they call you out for bringing it up. And you don’t have to get mad at the other other other side when they accuse you of distorting your response when you condemned them for bringing it up. We get it. Nobody’s calling anyone a sexist or a racist. We all agree this contest is polarized by race and gender.
There’s still a general election to win, though. If you make the primary all about Women vs. Blacks and which is historically more downtrodden, then you can guarantee the general will be about Women/Blacks vs. America, and whether Americans care about the plights of women and blacks. If they do, Vice Presidential nominee Condi Rice will nullify your entire purpose, and by February we’ll be at war with Iran. If they don’t, you’ve made total asses of yourselves, and by February we’ll be at war with Iran. As a Pennsylvanian, this is the first time I get to vote in a primary that isn’t already decided. And yet all I hear about is who is going negative, whose advisers need to apologize, and whether Florida’s delegates will get seated, rather than which of you has better ideas as to how to fix the mess the last administration has created.
Speaking of Florida, despite the fact that I spent the first 18 years of my life in Florida, and my parents still live there, and my first dog is buried there, I am now proud to call myself a Pennsylvanian. How is it that you’re always the ones constantly cocking up your elections? You wanted to go early so that you would be relevant, you were told no but did it anyway, and now that it’s coming down to the last 600 delegates, you want to go late so that you will be relevant? Well, fuck off, you can’t have it both ways. The scheduling of primary elections is a giant balancing act that only works because people agree that it should. Some states get tons of early attention from absolutely everybody, some go in the middle at the exact same time as lots of other states, and some states go later, knowing that most years they won’t matter at all, but when the do matter, they will matter a great deal. I feel extremely badly for the disenfranchised voters who had no choice but to do whatever their state party chair told them to do, and I do hope that a compromise is reached so that your delegates get seated. Voting is a sacred right, and your votes should count. But that compromise better include the sacking of Floridas Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman, as well as some kind of assurance that Florida will go last for the next 800 years. But that’s a different rant.
Ms. Clinton and Mr. Obama, I urge you stay focused. Use the next 6 weeks that you’ll be spending in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to convince everyone in this swing state, not just the democrats, that either of you would make a great president. If the Republican primary has taught us anything (other than Chuck Norris Facts, of course), it is that you go to sleep on John McCain at your own peril. This election is not a gimme. One of you must win this primary, but neither of you can afford to lose the general.
This rant filed under: Political
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