Sam Smith - While just about any Democrat - including Hillary Clinton - would be far better and less dangerous than Donald Trump in the White House, that Democrat still has to get there. Which brings up an issue that the Democrats are ignoring: Clinton is so far a pathetic candidate against Trump, barely above a statistical tie in an average of recent polls. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Joe Biden have far more favorability.
Further, Clinton carries some of the heaviest baggage you'll find in any presidential race. Regardless of what you think of the email issue, a Clinton techie just pleaded the 5th more than 125 times in a law suit related to it. And if there is no prosecution, one can be almost certain that there will be a number of angry FBI officials who will make uncomfortable sounds. Add to this the long list of unresolved issues from Clinton's past that will flourish during the campaign and you could easily have one of the grimiest presidential fights we have ever seen.
Part of the problem is that HR Clinton challenges her husband for unchecked narcissism. The whole idea, employed by her for decades, that anyone critical of her is a "hater" is one of the most successful political cons of our era, but it probably won't hold up during this campaign.
A decent politician, with her records, her issues, and her poor ratings with the public, might say the best thing they could do for their party is to withdraw. That, however, won't happen and so we will be left with an unnecessarily weak alternative to the gross Donald Trump.
Democrats, however, should bear in mind that the real purpose of their convention is to nominate the strongest candidate against Trump and Clinton is clearly not it.
And there is still time to do something about this. Just a suggestion.
9 comments:
"Just a suggestion" is too polite. The Hillary Problem requires a sledgehammer and even that might not be enough.
"While just about any Democrat..."
You're asking that we accept your initial premise, however, since it is so tragically flawed we can not. Enough said.
No need to read on.
"Less dangerous than Trump..." I stopped reading there.
Have you seen this woman's tragic foreign policy history and plans??
Good grief Sam...
As you say, we need a back-up plan.
This just came out today:
Because of likely compromise of Clinton's private server, her email didn't always get through to users on state systems. To fix that security on state department (not Hillary's personal) servers was intentionally degraded.
"State's IT team turned off both spam and antivirus filters on two "bridgehead" mail relay servers...potentially exposing State's employees to phishing attacks and other malicious e-mails."
"It's not clear from the thread that the issue was ever satisfactorily resolved... State's unclassified e-mail system has been repeatedly breached by attackers. An attack purported to have been staged by Russian hackers caused the department to briefly shut down all its unclassified e-mail systems in 2014 but persisted within State's network for more than a year afterward. Then Iranians spear-phished State employees in 2015, breaching the e-mail system again."
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/clintons-private-e-mail-was-blocked-by-spam-filters-so-state-it-turned-them-off/
I just filled out the form to let Bernie Sanders know what I'd expect in the Democratic platform:
https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/Democratic-party-platform?source=em160623-full
I checked all of the items suggested plus added a few of my own. A couple of the suggested items seem to only merit a half check mark, but OK...
I'm starting to contribute more to Jill Stein's campaign - she's now at 7%+ nationally...
"Feed the right wolf..." - From the movie Tomorrowland - see below...
Neither Clinton nor Trump are the right wolves...
Cheers, Tom
___________________________
Casey Newton: There are two wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. Which wolf wins?
Eddie Newton: Whichever one you feed.
Frank Walker: Which brings us to why we're here today. A year ago, it was all supposed to be over... we shouldn't even be here, but we are. It isn't hard to knock down a big, evil building that's telling everybody that the world's going to end. What is hard... is figuring out what to build in its place, and if we're going to do that... we can't do it alone. We're going to need all of you... Well, Miss Newton. You want to tell our recruiters what they're looking for?
Casey Newton: Dreamers... we are looking for dreamers. Anyone who will feed the right wolf.
Frank Walker: So, go out there and find the ones who haven't given up. They're the future.
Athena: Dreamers need to stick together... It's not programming, it's personal!
Athena: You made this yourself? (Jet pack prototype)
Young Frank Walker: Yeah?
Athena: Why?
Young Frank Walker: I guess I got tired of waiting around for someone else to do it for me?
The only thing she really has is campaign funds (42-something million to his 1.3) and an army of staffers to Trump's "30 campaign workers" (more proof that Trump's campaign was a lark that has gotten badly out of control.)
I truly think that Trump's campaign will die from fiscal starvation before the summer ends, and we will have to deal with Candidate Paul Ryan or Candidate Mitt Romney or Candidate Vermin Supreme in November.
"While just about any Democrat - including Hillary Clinton - would be far better and less dangerous than Donald Trump in the White House"
Sam, why is the candidate who wants peace with Russia more dangerous than the candidate who has never met a war she didn't like?
Why is the candidate who wants to end free trade deals that have hollowed out the middle class more dangerous than the candidate who has never met a free trade deal she didn't like?
Neither corporate warmongering party represents me. I will not lift a finger to support Hillary.
Trump has as much chance of making peace with Russia as Laurel and Hardy had of selling Christmas trees. Or that JFK had of ending the cold war on Nov.22d 1963 like he was saying before he was so rudely interrupted. Trump will be easily stopped and the hawks will run an internal coup for which he is utterly unprepared. Far better to have an overt conspirator like Clinton subjected to the kind of popular uprisings that ousted LBJ and Nixon. Clinton will be so bogged down by impeachment that she will be prevented from launching WWIII. Watch for her VP to be someone who will press the War On Russia if she can't. If she resigns, her successor would be unable to survive against a Sanders revolution alumnus in a primary in 2020. Against that successor then there will be a civil war launched to preserve the oligarchy.
What do you say to this:
Former United States Attorney General Michael Mukasey tells MSNBC that not only was Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server illegal, it "disqualifies" her from holding any federal office such as, say, President of the United States?"
If you do this, you've essentially disqualified yourself from being the leader of the free world," said Mukasey referring to the illegal server and the illegal
handling of classified materials by the former Secretary of State and Democrat
Presidential candidate.
Mukasey specifically points to one federal law, Title 18. Section 2071.
For those of us who do not have United States Code committed to memory, here's what that says:
(a) Whomever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so, takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than three years, or both.
(b) Whomever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book,
document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes,
mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his or her office and be disqualified from holding any elective office within the United States of America. As used in this subsection, the term "office" does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States of America."
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