Would you please go now!!!
18 years or so ago the United States entered into a new era (so some would say). We were ushered into this phase by a smooth talking southerner and his too smart for her own good wife. It was the first time in my life that I was voting for a candidate more because of whom he was married to and less than any real qualifications he may have had on his own.
I don’t mean to suggest that I didn’t think Bill was qualified. Quite the contrary, he was, and remains, extremely qualified. He was, however, overburdened by personal controversy. Plainly put, we knew what we were getting when it came to his “personal dalliances”. For me this was acceptable. I was electing them to run the country and really didn’t give a flying fig about where he put is “Willy”.
Look Ma – I made a funny!
I, and others of the same mindset, found ourselves rewarded with 8 pretty good years. There was a budget surplus (I honestly didn’t realize that our government could do that). The world actually looked to us for answers all the while trusting that they’d be good ones. It really was a time of prosperity in a lot of regards. I won’t belabor the last 7 years or stir up too much of the angst that most of us have as a result. Let’s just say that the administration that followed the Clintons played Bizzaro to their Superman.
So here we are 18 (give or take) years later with an opportunity to relive the past or move into a new era yet again. The world has changed quite a bit and we ‘Mercans have become quite cynical. In my hometown gas is at $3.78 a gallon for the cheap stuff, ($3.75 with my Safeway discount). We have lost well over 4,000 U. S. Soldiers in the Iraq “war”. Housing costs have skyrocketed. The Fed can’t cut rates fast enough. The list goes on. We are cynical with good reason.
This election someone has attempted to raise our spirits. Barrack Obama has attempted to crash through the protective wall we’ve all built up. He’s asked us to join him in a bit of a nationwide revival. He’s almost dared us to dream again. Some of us, myself included, were slow to answer the call. We’ve heard this song and dance before. Too many before him have said, “Trust in me and I’ll make it all better”. We’ve been burned before.
I admit that it feels different this time around. Apparently, I am not alone.
Today, May 12, 2008, is the day that Hillary Rodham Clinton officially finds herself trailing in all categories, including Super Delegates. Thanks to Representative Tom Allen (ME), Dolly Strazar (HI), Senator Daniel Akaka (HI) and most recently Keith Roark (ID) – Senator Barrack Obama has eclipsed Hillary in every Super Delegate count out there.
I state it this way because different news sites show a different count. CNN shows her chasing 4, the Associated Press has her chasing 7, MSNBC shows her trailing by 2.
Hillary, we all admire your fortitude and your strength. But there comes a time when you are simply talking just to hear the sound of your own voice. You’ve gone from being the reason I trusted your husband to run the country to being that guy that comes over to your house drinks all your beer, farts in your favorite chair and falls asleep clutching the remote long after the rest of us have gone to bed.
We all know why you entered the race. Much in the same way it did 18 years ago the country needed help. You and yours led us out of the woods back then and it seemed appropriate that you do so again. I get it. I really do. You got in the race for some pretty good reasons. What I can’t seem to reconcile is why you’re still in it?
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