Lullaby for the Obamaphiles

Heidi Li wrote the moral of the story this morning in Tragic but True: Neither Party Nominated a Candidate Worth Fighting to Elect. Heidi is just the latest bitter, paranoid holdout who is getting pressure from both sides to choose already.  I find it curious that neither side seems willing to offer us anything in return.  They just want us to make a damn decision.

Anxiety.  Hey, we didn’t start it and we’re no longer a part of it.  We don’t have a dog in this race anymore.  We tried to convince people that Hillary was the realest deal that we were likely to get but our voices were deemed to be insignificant until statistics proved them otherwise.  Funny how a bunch of old, uneducated, working class sino-peruvian lesbians suddenly became a powerful voting bloc.  Betcha the powers that be makes sure that never happens again.  Yet, some supporters of either candidate are not happy with the state of affairs.

As Heidi says:

People seem to think that whenever there are two options it MUST be the case that one is clearly preferable to the other. But do people really think that? Most mature people have had to deal with tragic choices, situations where no option is actually a good option. Students of literature know that this is the defining characteristic of tragic figures: they are tragic because neither altogether good nor altogether bad, and cannot be clearly lauded or despised – neither option really makes sense.

This year each party produced a less than stellar presidential nominee – not that this has not happened in other years – but this year it is especially troubling because we do live in tumultuous times and it would be comforting if one could have any confidence that either of the Presidential contenders are up to the task of leading the country well at the present moment.

But sometimes comfort is not available, not even when we really want it. And sometimes no good Presidential contender is running, not even when we really need one.

Well, we bitter paranoid holdouts couldn’t get no satisfaction this year.  We will never know whether we were right in our trust of Hillary Clinton.  And now it looks like a whole bunch of other people are going to be sorely disappointed on election day.  What can we say?  You seemed so used to having your own way.  Who are we to deny you anything?  Unless we refuse to reward bad behavior. Hey, you can’t always get what you want.

Conflucians Say: Topsy Turvy

Whoa!  It looks like Newsweek gets is *almost* right on why we won’t vote for Obama.  How often does that happen?  AND Bill Clinton gets it too, though I wonder if he’s trying to schmooze us a bit.  And who gave Obamaphiles permsission to call us stupid, old women?  Can you say Milgram?  And what are Credit Derivative Swaps anyway? Tune your cat channels tonight at 10PM EST for Conflucians Say on PUMA United Radio (PURrrrr)

PUMA and/or Clinton voter resistance in the polls, plus Hillary on CBS -update NBC, MSNBC & CNN

We’re not just a “shrieking band of paranoid holdouts,” or “50 people.”  We’re 42% of Clinton voters.  28% of us will vote McCain and the remainders like myself, won’t know until Election Day.  Yet we are definite in our Nobama/PUMA stance and that’s what drives the MSM bezerk.  This means a big difference especially in the big three swing states, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.  If you have 42% of Democrats not vote for the Democrat in those states, the other party wins.  IT’S THE MAP, not the math.

What’s even more startling to them is this: more than 1/2 of us felt zero impact regarding the VP choices on either side.  Meh, Biden, Palin.  Still doesn’t change the fact the DNC stole votes to push Obama across the Primary finish line.  Who”l push him across the November 4th finish line?  Not the Mountain states. 

Poll: Obama struggling to win over Clinton voters

By ALAN FRAM and TREVOR TOMPSON, Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama’s support from backers of Hillary Rodham Clinton is stuck smack where it was in June, a poll showed Tuesday, a stunning lack of progress that is weakening him with members of the Democratic Party in the close presidential race.

An Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll shows that among adults who backed his rival during their bitter primary campaign, 58 percent now support Obama. That is the same percentage who said so in June, when Clinton ended her bid and urged her backers to line up behind the Democratic senator from Illinois.

..

Clinton backers’ reluctance to support Obama helps explain why he is having a tougher time solidifying partisan supporters than McCain. Overall, 74 percent of Democrats say they will vote for Obama, compared to 87 percent of Republicans behind the Arizona senator. About nine in 10 Clinton supporters are Democrats.

The problem that supporters of Clinton, the New York senator, have with Obama seems to flow from their measure of him as a candidate, not from issues. From establishing a timeline for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq to abortion to canceling tax cuts on the rich, their views of the importance of issues are virtually identical to Democrats in general.

Yet they find Obama less likable, honest, experienced and inspiring than Democrats overall do, and have a better view of McCain. And while majorities of Clinton supporters say Obama shares their values and understands ordinary Americans, they’re less likely to say so than Democrats overall.

Wow – you mean we don’t like him because of his inexperience?  And despite we share values, we still won’t vote for him?  Maybe it had to do with all that election fraud stuff.  And the article doesn’t call us bitter racists?  Ya don’t say!  

Well my fellow PUMA/Clinton Democrats, here’s another reason why we’re willing to sit this election out.  THIS is leadership in action, instead of hiding out somewhere in Tampa to study for a debate.  Ya think Obama is in “Uh Uh” rehab?

Here she is on CBS:

Today Show:

And on Morning Joe on MSNBC.  Yes, Joe, we want Aretha too.

H/T BostonBoomer for CNN clip, I can’t upload unless it’s Youtube, but here it is.  

Can we have Hillary back????

Was the debate schedule gamed for Obama too?

We now know that the DNC did everything in their power to make sure Barack Obama would be the Democratic nominee for President. Never mind what the voters wanted, this is the year the DNC decided to nominate a black man. Anyone who thought Hillary Clinton was the better candidate was screamed at, called a racist, and told to either stand aside or get out of the Party. The DNC even scheduled their convention so the winner would accept the nomination on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. Accident? I don’t think so.

Now I see that the first presidential debate this Friday between Barack Obama and John McCain will take place at “Ole Miss”–the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. Could there be a more favorable site for Obama? It looks like the Debate committee decided to give us another “teachable moment” on race (h/t Riverdaughter). The cable networks must be salivating at this opportunity to give their favorite candidate another boost.

Tuesday: What’s the hurry?

The problem has been building for a long time.  Mortgage foreclosures have been on the rise for a couple of years now.  But precious little has been done about it except for the sanctimonious to shake their fingers at “those people” who got in over their heads.  Sure, there have been many people who built mansions they didn’t need and couldn’t afford or got in on flips that flopped.  But there were many other average Joe Bagodonuts for whom owning a home is a part of their lives they anticipate eagerly, like a sign of being an adult.  And there’s the mortgage interest deduction that you don’t get as a renter.  And home values only go up over time, right?

Well, sure they do.  That is, if wages also go up over time.  But what if they don’t?  Eventually, the supply exceeds the demands of people who just get priced out.  Then there are the risks of an overvalued house, a mortgage that balloons, an income that does not and suddenly, everything is at risk. One unexpected illness or layoff can land people in foreclosure.

But lawmakers didn’t worry overmuch about those “irresponsible” people who financed the American Dream with mortgages that were intended to turn a profit for someone else.  When the bank wants its money, average Joes have very few ways to plead for a little time or relief.  Bankruptcy is costly and punitive these days.  So when the foreclosure is iminent, many people leave everything behind and just walk away.  It’s just the way things were.  You win, you lose.  Those people were looooosers.  Too bad for them.  I got mine.

But now that the banks themselves have fallen on hard times, the milk of human kindness is oozing from the administration.  Not one second can be spared to relieve them of their bad decision making.  Their anxiety must be relieved, quickly.  “Hurry, HURRY!  Something dreadful may happen.  Like Weapons of Mass Depression.”

Hey, wait a minute.  If we’re headed for a Depression, then don’t we need to follow more tried and true formulas to get ourselves out?  Relief has to come from the bottom up, not just the top down.  Didn’t we debunk the “trickle down” theory during the Reagan/Bush era?  Voodoo economics, remember?

So, what’s really the hurry, guys?  With the election a little more than 40 days away, what are we really being set up with?  Anglachel has some theories and scenarios in Partisans and Pigs.  It sounds like a trap.  It’s a schadenfreudelicious trap in some respects, alarming in others.  I keep thinking it couldn’t happen to a nicer Product.  The NYTimes has an article on the Republicans cranking up their righteous indignation, right on schedule.

Meanwhile, Madame President of our Hearts, girds her loins and takes her case to the American people for a comprehensive, multi-faceted solution full of wonky goodness. With leadership and compassion, she’s remembering who really needs to be spared a dime. Besides, if you don’t have the time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

Late Night: THIS is what real leadership looks like

SusanUnPC at NoQuarter caught this a little while ago:

PLUS:  Susan also posted the following schedule of Hillary Clinton interviews scheduled for tomorrow:

Just in from Hillary Clinton’s press office (she should be our presidential nominee, and I’ll never stop saying that, so get used to it):

HILLARY CLINTON SCHEDULE: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

Hillary Clinton will appear on morning shows tomorrow, Tuesday, September 23 to discuss solutions to the economic crisis.

Tuesday, September 23
New York, NY

7:00 a.m. ET
Hillary Clinton Discusses Solutions to the Economic Crisis in Morning Show Interviews
–CBS’ Early Show
–CNN’s American Morning
–NBC’s Today Show
–MSNBC’s Morning Joe

 

 Rise, Hillary, RISE!!!!

Open thread – (I’m up past my bedtime, but this video just did it for me!)