This is the eighth POTUS election I will vote in. I do not believe that I have ever seen a more fervent, adamant, emotional and virulent group of candidate supporters as early as the first of Sept. as many (not all) of the Hillary supporters. Yes, I said the first of Sept. From what I have read on Kos since the first of Sept., her support on Kos has been virtually the same from then to now.
In fact, it seems (I could be wrong) a fair percentage of the Hillary supporters chose her from the day she announced she was running or shortly thereafter. The diaries when Hillary is discussed seem to me to get the most debase, angry and apolitical comments of almost any issue discussed on DailyKos.
I am disabled and have a lot of time on my hands. I spend a minimum of 3 hours in a day on Kos and up to 12 hours in a day. From 1 Sep to date, I would guess that I have averaged reading about 12 diaries a day. For the last year I have been looking for more political knowledge than I ever have in my life. I try my hardest to be open minded and "teachable", particularly since I came over from the "dark side" less than a year ago. The reasons for coming over from the "dark side" are an entire diary of their own (so is why I was over there).
I promised myself I would not decide for sure before the end of the year on my candidate of choice. I have not and I will not. IMHO it is wisest for any voter who is not actively involved in a candidates campaign (volunteering etc.) to wait until at least mid-fall to decide 100% on a candidate. So many things change during the summer and fall period between debates, skeletons in the closet and issues/items that as individual voters we were unaware of (to name only a few reasons to wait).
Probably more important, the discourse and education that can take place in venues like Kos IF a person is open minded could change ones choice if not "locked in" to one candidate. Often (not always) when someone has made a solid choice, they are not open minded or willing to change their choice. Human nature. Also, pride, ego, too much invested emotionally, time spent in defense of and promoting their choice and sometimes financially also. This unwillingness to change even if faced with numerous reasons and/or a possible better option, I believe, is detrimental to the democratic party.
For the record, honesty and full disclosure, I have leaned towards Obama for a few months. I have not decided who I will vote for in the primary as I stated above. I went to hear obama speak and I donated a whopping $50 to his campaign. I currently believe he would have the best chance of beating the republicans. IMHO this should be one of our primary qualifiers for who we choose. I believe as a "Washington outsider" he owes the least favors, reciprocity and loyalty to anyone. He has the least ties to people who do not have democratic ideals and democratics best interest at heart.
My leaning towards Obama has become less and less since August. I see some shortcomings with Obama. I am sorely disappointed in his campaign staff and the advice they have given him in several areas. I am not familiar with those on Obama’s staff (maybe I should be) but his choices and their shortcomings concern me primarily because of what you will read in the paragraph below. Maybe he chose to go with young, inexperienced, newcomers to give them opportunities in the political field. I don’t know. I do know, although that would be admirable, it would not be wise in a presidential race and even more foolish as a President.
IMHO, one of the most significant attributes common to all the "great presidents" was their ability to choose quality people around them and then rely on their opinions. The President is useless without good people around them. They are useless if they are not willing to listen to those they chose to be around them. In short, they need to be a good manager like a CEO or President of a corporation. I know some won’t like this analogy as it brings the GOP and big business to mind but IMHO it is a fact. Bill Clinton was a manager. He operated like a CEO or President of a corporation. On all of these items, the current moron called President has been terrible at and they are a large part of the reason for the horrendous mess our country is in. Having those around hime like Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove and not listening to aome of the few good people like Colin Powell & middle eastern experts he had access to.
A brief sidebar. Lincoln put his three opponents in key positions in his administration. Brilliant!
I believe almost all the candidates, including Hillary, we now have could be a good president. I believe Obama is the only candidate who might be able to be a great president. I have not yet decided if he can be. Right now, today, at this point in our history, IMHO, we need a Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Jefferson or Eisenhower type president.
Again, IMHO, it will take a 20 year consecutive string of (only) good presidents to repair the devastation the republicans have done by occupying the Whitehouse for 28 of the last 40 years. A great President for eight years could get a large part of the repairing done.
I see good attributes and bad ones in each of the candidates. In fact some of those with very low support, I believe deserve to be closer. I think the reason some are not, is largely due to the fact that people don’t think they can win the nomination. I wish I could build a candidate with parts of each of them.
At this point I do believe (regardless of polls) that the republicans might be able to beat Hillary. Whether it appears externally from the GOP that they do or they don’t, I believe they want Hillary to win the democratic nomination. I believe from their point of view, between the "big three", she has the most things she can be attacked on that would sway undecided, dem sometimes/repug sometimes and politically uneducated voters.
Remember, this is a sneaky, sleazy, underhanded, experienced machine that would employ tactics that would cause us to believe something different than their real preference or intentions.
I am sorry to say this to the women who support Hillary. I believe the fact that she is a woman effects some women’s loyalties. I am sorry to say this to those who loved Bill Clinton, and there are some democrats who revere him, I believe the fact that she is his wife effects some peoples loyalties. I don’t care what she says, what he says or anyone else says, he will be involved in her decisions. Virtually every spouse of every President has had influence over the decisions they made. Human nature, marriage and just a fact.
I could be wrong. Maybe other things truly are the reason she has such unyielding supporters and so early. Numerous things combined could be the reason for so much support so early. Positions on issues. Perceived elect ability. Supposed "Moderate" positions. Presidential "air’ about her. Her confidence and demeanor.
Additional items that could be factors in her being supported so early and vehemently could be: first time since 1928 with no incumbent in the race. The ever changing dates of primaries. The importance of this election. Other factors I have not thought of or listed.
I have no dog in this fight of Hillary bashing and Hillary defending. You can read all my comments and you won’t find a single one where I bash Hillary. I have made some jokes but if you read my comments you will find most are humor, satire and sarcasm. I have not written a diary on any candidate. The only issue in the current political realm (besides a democrat for sure) that I am truly passionate about is Veterans issues.
I am not saying I am a one issue voter. Not by any means. There are many issues that will effect my final choice: getting out of Iraq, improve Veterans care, universal health care, protection of privacy (pro-choice), some gun control, against the death penalty, support gay & lesbian rights, global warming, protection of the constitution, immigration reform, national security. To name a few and those are not in the order of importance to me.
This is not a promotion of my diaries but I will list here the 15 titles of my diaries (newest to oldest) so you don‘t have to go check for yourself to see I am NOT a Hillary basher and have never written a diary promoting or denouncing ANY candidate.
The only two I will put links to are what I believe to be the most important and best two I have written (#2 and #3 below). They are both on Veterans issues and I believe EVERY American should know all the information I have in these diaries and MANY do not and that includes Kos members.
I would be honored (I believe so would other Veterans) if you would take the time to read them. I am proud to say that I had two diaries rescued in 20 days and I have only written 19 diaries. Number two and number seven listed below were rescued.
- Respond if you are ready to call to IMPEACH
- I went to the Veterans Administration hospital yesterday. http://www.dailykos.com/...
- The silent epidemic & "signature" injury of the Iraq war. http://www.dailykos.com/...
- Do you have an issue that is a "MUST" for your POTUS vote?
- Should we have a "Kos primary" before super Tuesday?
- What is Putin up to? Dictator? Czar? More about Russia (#6)
- More about RUSSIA (#5)
8-11) No reason to list the other four. This was a series about Russia and ran for six consecutive days and were numbered 1-6.
- I believe we can gain comfort and solace by knowing George W. Bush‘s future.
- Repub candidates body language analyzed by "expert" during debate. (Satire)
- (SATIRE) I heard Bush has a speech this week announcing that troop withdrawals will start
- Do we attack or degrade too often in responses to diaries and comments?
I MUST add this. It does relate to this diary. The poll on this last diary (#15) was questiong if people on Kos "attack" too much. 71% said yes, to varying degrees, from: A little too much (11%), Too often (30%), Strongly agree and believe it detracts from Kos and deters some from commenting (30%). I believe this should be concerning to all Kossacks.
I believe it happens from both sides more often on diaries regarding Hillary than on the average diaries and that is why I make special note of it here.
I know from some lurkers themselves that this is part of why BinPM’s poll showed 59% are only lurkers on Kos and NEVER comment or diary. That is a shame because I am sure that those 59% have many good points, opinions and views that we never hear. The rebuttal of: "Well, you must be thick skinned to be on a political blog". Well, apparently 6 of 10 are not thick skinned enough, which puts us in the minority.
The rebuttal of: "This is nothing, you should have been around when blah blah blah". Yeah, when the membership was about 38. When almost nobody was being reached. When the power of the movement was nill. Well with that analogy, the next time someone says "man, there are a lot of asshole around", maybe I should say, "oh this is nothing, you should have been around when neanderthals were here".
That is 6 of 10 out of people who are politically involved enough to look at DailyKos. Imagine if also the uninvolved and people of "average" political knowledge came on Kos. I bet it would be at least 8 of 10 that would only lurk. My poll showing 71% believe there is too much attakcing with 30% saying it hurts Kos would be 85%+ if the uninvolved and people of "average" politcal knowledge came on here.
IMHO, regardless of what some on Kos think, the "average" political knowledge of most Americans is far below Kossacks or those lurkers. Most on Kos and probably their friends are far more politically knowledgeable than the average American. I will bet anyone/any amount and give them 5 to 1 odds that if a proper poll were taken across the nation, over 50% of Americans have never even looked at a political blog, watched C-span or gone to hear a politician speak in person. Oh shit, I got off on a tangent for a few paragraphs.
Sorry, the issues of increasing intelligent diagreement, constructive criticism, efforts to educate others versus ridicule, attacks and many Kossacks overestimation of the "average" Amerericans political knowledge are two pet peeves. At least attacks relate to the Hillary issue (rationalize, justify). Back on track now.
Wow, let's step back numerous paragraphs. That’s it. All my diaries. I wrote four before these from the beginning of Sept to 20 Sept. but deleted them. They were terrible, rambling, mind drain, drivel and had nothing to do with any candidates. They were so bad that I was embarrassed by them and that is why I deleted them.
I find the high number of people who chose Hillary so early to be interesting. I find it even more interesting that many (not all) defend their choice and Hillary with the ferocity of a lioness with her cubs . IMHO, amongst some, there is almost a paranoia and a defensiveness when responding to those that have not chosen Hillary already or dislike her. Some come across as if all non Hillary backers are out to get her and destroy her.
I bet if you are in this group, your reaction to the last paragraph was: MOST ARE!
I do not know yet who I am going to vote for in the primaries. I do know for sure, that in the general election next November, I will vote for whichever democratic candidate is chosen. Yes, Hillary, no ifs ands or buts, if she is the choice of our party.
I hope all who read this will comment and vote. All my diaries of course were posted on the regular place as all us "regular" diarists post. They were posted at different times on different days. The series probably drew more readers as they often do. I promote all my diaries on open threads for 24 hours and more on some. I am interested to see how many comments this diary gets with this title.
I think it will be telling. I trust that no Hillary supporters will refrain from commenting or voting to "fix" the numbers I am about to tell you. On the 15 diaries I have (two were rescued), I averaged 18 different people who commented and had a poll on every diary and averaged 35 votes. Let’s see what we get here on a diary posted on a Monday morning.
In anticipation of comments regarding separating male and female on the choice of Hillary, I will address it here. It should be obvious that this is a natural being that she would be the first female president and that I have posed the question, if part of her loyalty comes from her gender and I am interested to see the facts on this. If I wanted to separate this out for each of the candidates, there are not enough spaces to do so. If there were, I would have done so to avoid this being an issue.