Hillaryous?

I’m With Us

Philadelphia, PA
July 29, 2016

It is indeed an historic albeit disgracefully long overdue moment – finally a woman has risen to the level of presidential nominee. Not the woman I would have chosen, but then it is clearly not up to me. I am not a Clinton fan (neither of them) though I think it is safe to say that Hillary is not an overtly sexist, ignorant racist, neo-fascist and accomplished swindler who got where she is by ripping people off with innumerable scams. Sure the Clintons are consummate, truth-tormenting, up-to-their-eyeballs-in-dirty-money politicians, but each has some redeeming qualities and has spent at least of their time doing good for the many. Chrump’s every waking moment has been devoted to one thing – himself. The most important thing Hillary is not is Donald Chrump. That is a yuuuuuuge deal in 2016. Right now little else matters. But I still find myself constantly nauseated and on the verge of tears.

Badly Berned

Sanders fought a good fight. He stood outside, probably above the party he ran to lead. Despite the fact that the DNC was always working to stop him, Sanders is wise enough to know what really matters right now. Even though he was fervently opposed to Clinton, he cares enough about the big picture to now stand behind her. It hurt to see Bernie do this but: CHRUMP.

It does seem that Bernie Sanders is being taken seriously. The party platform was noticeably Bernie-fied. At least for the campaign. I am not ready to trust Clinton to carry that into the White House should she manage to stumble across its threshold come January. I hope I am wrong. She is obviously qualified – she has extensive hands-on experience, she knows the game as well as anyone and she is tough as nails (the exact opposite of her oddly-tinted, morbidly inexperienced, clueless, thin-skinned opponent) – Hillary is also uniquely qualified to come in second to a demented cheese curl on November 8^th.

The extremely accurate Nate Silver (the most glaring exception was writing off Chrump early on, but everyone did that) says that Chrump would win if the election were held today. Silver’s numbers give the Orange One a 57.5% chance of winning the presidency compared to a 42.5% chance for Clinton. This was before the DNC so with any luck these numbers will return to something approaching sanity soon.

The two most unpopular presidential candidates. Ever.

Sleazy Is As Sleazy Does

Yes another Clinton is qualified to run the machine. One Clinton was more than enough for me. The bigger issue is the machine itself. We don’t need someone to keep running a broken machine. We need someone ready to build a new machine. Is Hillary Clinton that person? I’m not ready to make that leap. Sure Hillary is a hard worker. She has fought for those less fortunate for decades, while her opponent has scammed them. One other thing she continues to work very hard at is being disliked; to be fair, this might just come naturally. Hillary also seems intent on being distrusted; this might also be a very natural thing for Hillary, but she clearly puts a great deal of effort into making certain to maintain her air of sleaziness. Earning huge paychecks for speaking to Goldman Sacks, lying about her damn email, acting like she agreed with just about everything that made people feel the Bern and now…

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is now officially working for the Clinton campaign, as opposed to barely surreptitiously working for Clinton while head of the DNC. Schultz was diligent in her efforts to stifle the Bern. While it is true that Schultz has stepped down as DNC chair, she was immediately hired by team Clinton as a senior advisor.

I did not like Hillary even while she was pretending to be Bernie. I like her much less when she pretends to be herself. It just seems that the more I see her the more I like her less. But, as several wise friends keep reminding me, there could well be at four vacancies on the Supreme Court in the near future. If memory serves, there is one right now. Whatever else I might think, I remain certain that I would rather have Hillary Clinton making those nominations than Donald Chrump…or Mike Pence. That is the only reason I need to cast my vote for Clinton in November. Then I will take a scalding hot shower, (think Silkwood) but I suspect it will take much more than that for me to ever feel clean again.

I. Mangrey reporting. YIPPIE!
                                                                                                      Mad in USA