(This diary is cross-posted at MyDD)
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I've been asked repeatedly: "Would you vote for Obama in the general election?"
Until this time, I have held back, not made a firm commitment one way or the other.
On the one hand, I have been beyond disgusted with his campaign's cynical, destructive use of the 'race card' to appeal to African-American voters, and to strong-arm superdelegates. Though the contemptible strategy started before, it really began to flower when Jesse Jackson, Jr. wondered to a national audience why Hillary Clinton hadn't cried about the victims of Hurricane Katrina after Team Obama's devastating loss in the New Hampshire primary. That was when the "South Carolina Memo" strategy really took flight.
As enraged as I was by these repeated, calculated tactics by Team Obama, still I reserved judgment.
No more.
For those who aren't aware of Barack Obama's electoral history and the lengths he will go to in order to win, I refer you to this article:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
Now, I've known the story of Obama kicking off his would-be challengers from the 1996 Illinois State Senate ballot for some time. It's not news for me. I know that he left popular state senator Alice Palmer out to dry, not having the guts to let the voters decide whether they wanted Ms. Palmer instead of himself as their representative.
Still, I held back. You can't make hasty decisions, especially as regards voting for a president.
But it's over now. There is no going back for me. I will not vote for Barack Obama for president, period.
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Yesterday, I heard rumblings about the Florida Democratic Congressional delegation wanting to not have a revote of any kind. It was obvious to me that Obama supporters among the contingent were attempting to block the move for a new vote, and as I listened to Congressman Wexler and his insipid attempts at rationalizing the decision to render his own constituents meaningless, my suspicions were confirmed.
That is, THE state which cost Democrats 8 years of Dubya was being thrown into the trash can by partisan pols for the sake of one candidate. Forget that the GOP legislature helped lock-in the primary date and the DNC went along with handing out even more punishment to Florida (they took the remaining half of the delegates which were going to count away from the state after the GOP-controlled legislature's move -- idiotic). No, this was Dems thumbing their nose AT THEIR OWN CONSTITUENTS for partisan reasons, and with totally ridiculous 'reasoning.'
And then I read this article:
http://www.talkleft.com/...
It says that the only decision on MI that the Obama camp will accept is a 50/50 split.
So, two of the largest, most important states in the country were being tossed aside. The voters are being told they are irrelevant, expendable. We're talking about nearly 2.5 million voters here. We're talking about losing the presidency here.
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Leadership is the ability to make decisions which are the correct ones to make even when they are not personally beneficial. It's about doing the right thing.
What Barack Obama has demonstrated to me, both in 1996 and now, is that he does not care about the spirit of fairness, does not care about the will of the voters.
He only cares about himself, and will use any and all 'letters of the law' (and arbitrary rules, such as the DNC punishing MI and FLA when they did not punish other states for similar breaches) for his own aggrandizement. Everything else is secondary.
You have lost my vote, Senator Obama. You have shown repeated disrespect to voters throughout the country by you and your team's actions. You have failed the leadership standard test with me.
That's it.
I hope that you are not our nominee. But if you are, I will not cast my vote for you. I cannot, in any good conscience, do so. To me, you are a fraud.
Whether or not I cast my vote against you remains to be seen. Hopefully you will not be nominated, and I won't face that choice. If you are nominated, whether I vote for one of the other candidates will be determined by your actions from here forward. It is up to you whether I cast my vote against you, should you be nominated.
Today I am ashamed for my Party. I am a lifelong Democrat and have never in my life voted for a Republican. Not one. And when this election is over, I will still be the Democrat I have always been.
But I will not vote for Barack Obama for President in 2008. With his cynical maneuvers regarding FLA and MI -- particularly in light of what happened in 2000 -- he has forced my hand.
If you seek to disenfranchise millions of people cavalierly and for your own gain, I will not support you.