The last couple days have, frankly, not been so hot for the Democratic Party.
The Spitzer situation is horrible. Every New Yorker I've talked to is just taken aback and somewhat mournful at this.
The Ferraro situation is just sad. This is a Democratic pathbreaker and former Vice Presidential nominee making comments that are just dripping with an unveiled racism that she apparently can't hear. That's no good for any of us.
Finally, Senator Clinton's campaign has continued down the triply mutually contradictory path of suggesting that Republican John McCain is preferable to Democrat Barack Obama, that Obama is "not yet ready" to be Vice President...but also that Obama, the clear Democratic front-runner, should accept the VP slot on a Clinton ticket!
Which makes you want to say that spin isn't just bad for your health, it's bad for your brain...
Now, I'd like to make a couple things clear here.
I do not think the Clintons are racist. We live in a society with a historical legacy of racism and bigotry. It's part of who we are as Americans; it's part of our history books and Constitution, and, for families that lived in this nation before the Civil War or the end of legal Segregation and the birth of Civil Rights, it's part of our American heritage. The Clintons have fought that legacy the best they knew how. Not perfectly, no, but clearly and unmistakeably. No one should doubt that.
I do think the Clinton campaign has been unscrupulous. And not only unscrupulous, but inept. They had the money, the candidate, the talent and all the advantages one could ask for in a campaign for the nomination; in that sense, the only people to blame for their current standing in the delegate count are the Clintons themselves. But, yes, they have been unscrupulous and that has led them down a path that I predict history will not look favorably on.
We could bury ourselves in accusations and recriminations, but I don't think that will get us anywhere tonight. The bottom line is relatively simple and clear.
Barack Obama is the only African American in the United States Senate. He is the first African American to run for the nomination of our party with a chance to win it. (And I say that as someone who volunteered for Jackson '88 when our goal was to get 10% in New Hampshire. We had no chance to win.) But above all that, Barack Obama ran a campaign from the beginning that was about bringing all of us together and getting past our differences.
Everybody in the Democratic party knows that is true.
Barack Obama's campaign was not about identity politics. He showed that in Iowa. And he won. If Barack Obama were to win the nomination the way he won Iowa, we would have turned the page into a new day in Democratic politics where we could run on the strength of our candidates not on who we are...on our god given talents (and we all know that Hillary and Barack are both blessed in that regard) and not our identities.
That's what just so sick and tragic about Geraldine Ferraro's comments. That's what's so upsetting. These aren't innocent comments. These are comments intended to drag us back to the politics of divide and conquer, of fear and resentment, of a nation divided up into 435 Congressional Districts with an ethnic label on them, of "Black districts and politicians" and "Latino districts and politicians" and, yes, of "white politicians." Ugh.
It didn't have to be this way, and it's not how any of us younger members of the party envision our future.
But one side chose this path. One side was unscrupulous. One side divided us, and history will show that it came down to decisions made by Bill and Hillary Clinton after Iowa.
That's when the entire tone of this campaign changed at great cost to the Clintons, at great cost to Barack Obama, at great cost to the nomination, and at great cost to us.
I don't think it was racism that did this. I think it was an unscrupulous desire to win. And, while on some level you can't blame anyone for being ambitious in politics, ambition does have its limits, one can go too far.
I want to be clear. On March 11th, 2008, it is crystal clear that the campaign of Bil and Hillary Clinton took it much too far.
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Madame Speaker steps in
Speaker Pelosi was clear today. She is responsible for the good of our party, for growing our Congressional delegation, for our convention in Denver and raising funds for all our races.
It may come as news to President Bill Clinton, but Madame Speaker is actually a much more relevant authority to current Democrats than Bill Clinton. She is the Speaker of the House. That is no small thing, it's actually kind of a really big thing.
And here is what Speaker Pelosi said:
Nancy Pelosi tells Boston TV that a Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton ticket is "impossible."
"I think that the Clinton administration (sic) has fairly ruled that out by proclaiming that Senator McCain would be a better Commander in Chief than Obama. I think that either way is impossible," she said.
Also: "Nothing ever resolves itself -- it has to be resolved by some outside forces," she said.
-Ben Smith, Politico
Now, I'm a Californian. I talk to people, they tell me things. Here are two things that people tell me about Speaker Pelosi. One, she has raised a ton of money for Democrats all over the USA. Not kind of, sort of. In no uncertain terms, when Speaker Pelosi talks about her responsibility to build the Democratic majority in Congress it is because she puts the full weight of her fundraising prowess behind that effort. Everyone in California and the party at large knows that. That's a big deal.
Second, Speaker Pelosi puts party above everything. She is at the end, middle and beginning of every day, a partisan Democrat who puts the interest of the party first, period, end of sentence.
You may disagree with her. We all do sometimes. But the other reason she is Speaker of the House is because she is completely and totally invested in the Democratic Party. Unity is important to her. It's so important that we progressives and netroots democrats don't always see eye to eye with our leader.
But here's what I best can guess based on those two realities.
When Speaker Pelosi said that Senator Clinton has "fairly ruled out" a unity ticket by "proclaiming that Senator McCain would be a better Commander in Chief than Obama" those who know her best within the party heard it loud and clear.
This is, number one, a woman who would have supported a Clinton nomination 100%...if Clinton were to win. It is also, a woman who values out party, and our party unity above all else. When she says Hillary Clinton blew it, she's not making a little statement.
That was the real news today. When Speaker Pelosi publicly chastises Senator Clinton, that means something huge for all of us.
Number two, for Democrats, for super delegates and party insiders all over the nation, there is one person who has raised the money, moved the mountains and made the effort, more than any other, to win the Democrats their majorities in Congress. Her name is Nancy Pelosi. (You think they'd vote a liberal woman from San Francisco to that spot "just because"? Think again.)
I wrote about the Judgment of Solomon in a recent diary. It's the famous story of how when presented with two women arguing over who was the true mother of a baby, King Solomon presented a sword, and the true mother recoiled in horror at the thought of her child perishing.
What Nancy Pelosi just did was bring a sword. She is our Solomon. There will be no joint ticket. Democrats, electeds, party officials will have to make a choice.
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This is, believe it or not, a diary about unity.
I am most concerned about how all of us get along, about how we heal this party when this process is over.
There is no love lost from my end for the Clinton campaign for President. It was, sadly, just too unscrupulous. I would welcome Senator Clinton's return to New York and her influence there in the long work that will be involved in healing the Democratic Party of the Empire State.
If she chooses to go on, however, in this divisive manner. (And it's her right. It is clearly her right to do so.) I will work, like millions of others, to defeat her in state after state. With no acrimony, but with a heavy heart at what the Clinton legacy to our party has become.
However, from my end, right now, I would like to offer a hand of friendship and collaboration to supporters of every candidate in this process. I may not be perfect, but I will try to be fair and a friend to all.
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What all of us can do
Here are a few things we can do.
First, we can recommend well written diaries that aren't about the nomination.
Second, we can uprate fair-minded comments from people we disagree with.
Third, we can give to the DNC. (I just did and tacked on .01 cents to show I was from DailyKos.) This is really important. Just critical.
All three of those things will help heal our website and our party going forward.
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How you can help end this nomination process and support Obama
There's a couple things you can do if you support Barack Obama
One, you can Share your Story with a Super Delegate. I did, and I can't tell you how good that felt. This program allows you communicate your story directly through the Obama campaign to a relevant Super Delegate. I've talked to some folks inside the campaign who say that these stories are powerful and moving and effective.
SHARE YOUR STORY.
Two, you can register voters in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana. Or you can pass along this link to information about voter registration Anywhere in the USA. If you are anywhere near these states, enter your zip code, that is the task at hand. That is how we can help Barack Obama and help our party, period.
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Conclusion
I know that there are some who will find my take on the Clinton Campaign unfair.
I'm sorry, I won't change that viewpoint. I stand with Speaker Pelosi. Something changed fundamentally when Senator Clinton mechanically repeated that argument about how John McCain had a "lifetime of experience" and all Barack Obama had was a speech.
If Tom Daschle, Patrick Leahy, Ted Kennedy, Christine Gregoire, Claire McCaskill, Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Ben Nelson, Tim Walz, Patrick Murphy, Carole Shea Porter, Janet Napolitano and Russ Feingold all agree that Barack is ready to be President then Senator Clinton should not be saying that.
That's wrong.
I do think Speaker Pelosi's comment today was huge. As was Barack Obama's wins in Wyoming and Mississippi and his delegate pick ups as the voters are counted in California and Texas and perhaps, even in Ohio. What I'd like to point out is that for as scary as that story about King Solomon is, biblical scholars have pointed out its inherent historical truth.
The writers of that story were explaining, metaphorically, how Solomon unified a people by bringing a sword at a crucial moment.
Madame Speaker just did that.
The Democratic Party is listening.
Kudos to the Magnolia State.
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And while you're at it read and recommend THIS, and read this too.