Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Hillary pisses on history


Last night was one of the most significant moments in U.S. history - a person of color was nominated by a major political party as its presidential candidate. Remember it's been a little over 100 years since, when the Constitution was ratified in 1787 most Black men were slaves and slaves were counted as only 3/5 of a person. From ratification until the adoption of the Black Citizenship Amendment Black males were allowed to vote in only seven states (Black women,of course, couldn't vote because at the time of ratification no women could vote). Despite the 1868 amendment Black male voting didn't become a reality until Black people and some sympathetic whites fought and died for civil rights. That struggle culminated in a number of voting rights laws and the possibility of what happened yesterday, when the Democrats came one significant step closer to officially nominating Barack Obama.

I spent alot of time last night listening to the pundits pontificate on yesterday's events. Most of the discussion was, unfortunately, not about this historic moment but about "What does Hillary want?" In other words, Hillary Clinton pissed on Obama's moment, in fact she pissed on American history. That, of course, shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has paid even slight attention to the Clinton's history. In their world everything revolves around them (currently the Senator), no one and nothing else counts unless it works for them. All those predictions that Clinton would withdraw from the nomination race with grace were based on the assumption that she is a classy human being. That's obviously not true and never has been. As always, it's all about Hillary and what she wants.

Instead of the question, "what does Hillary want?" I would ask: "what's wrong with Hillary?" It continues to be fascinating to watch the Senator and the former President blame everyone else for their mistakes. She also seems to be trying to strong arm her way on to the ticket. But, from what I've heard, many of her supporters including some people in her campaign are backing away as fast as they can from her mean-spirited speech last night.

It hasn't escaped my thoughts that her blatant attempt to force Obama to offer her the vice-presidential nomination and that if he doesn't and it undermines his campaign, she expects to benefit from his loss. I think that like most of her strategies the opposite will be the case. She will be blamed for undermining the Party.

The main thing, however, is to look forward to the next historic event: Nov. 4th and the election of the first person of color as President of the U.S.

A Black POTUS, imagine that!

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