In her clarion-call to the Democratic convention, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton reminded ALL of her supporters, “You haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership." She also said to her supporters, "No way. No how. No McCain." So, listen to her.
In a previous column blasting McCain for his Swiftboat tactics, I included Senator Clinton’s remarks to the convention when she asked, “I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me?" That touched at the very heart of all of us since an election is more than just one person, but our shared future. The AP reported, “She urged them instead to remember Marines who have served their country, single mothers, families barely getting by on minimum wage and other struggling Americans.”
Even after she said this, one of her supporters who I have been in contact with for years refuses to listen Senator Clinton when she continues to send out anti-Obama material. How is that honoring Senator Clinton?
McCain’s campaign has exploited those still upset that Clinton did not become the nominee by airing a commercial where a Hillary supporter switches allegiances and says, “It’s really okay to vote for McCain…Really.” I then asked this supporter this question, “May I Ask if You are Voting for McCain?” I was shocked, but not really, when I read her response, “It pains me to say this but I am voting for McCain. If Obama had selected Hillary I would have voted for the ticket but he didn’t.”
In her speech to the convention Clinton used the operative word, ‘suffer’ to describe how many have felt during the past eight years, and it is time to end this suffering felt by millions, and far greater than the 18 million who voted for her in the primaries.
While this Clinton supporter states that it will ‘pain’ her as she votes for McCain, there are millions more out there feeling true pain and are suffering at the hands of the Bush administration and will continue to suffer and feel this pain under a McCain presidency.
These are precisely the people who Hillary wanted to help and, in no uncertain terms, has told all of her supporters that this help will only come by electing Senator Obama in November when he will become president-elect, Obama.
Last year, I appeared on CNN international to speak of a little Iraqi boy named Youssif who was badly burned by masked mad-men after they doused him in gasoline. Thankfully, Americans opened up their hearts and wallets to bring him to this country so he could be operated on and not be scarred for life. This is the war that McCain backed and still backs, whereas Obama has been an outspoken critic from day one. Is the pain that any Clinton supporter feels far greater than Youssif’s?
Is the pain she is feeling far greater than those forced to go to food pantries here on Long Island? Such as the case of the DeRosa family? According to this article, “Food and gas costs so much, and with everything else — rent, electricity, car insurance and car payments — we’re just not making it,” Mrs. DeRosa, 36, said while picking up a week’s worth of groceries at the Food Action Center in Englewood.” These are the people who have been hurt by the Bush administration and his twin McCain who has voted 95 percent of the time in favor of his policies.
As a new hurricane, Gustav makes its way towards New Orleans, remember it was the Bush administration who ignored those devastated by Katrina. As cited in a recent article, I wrote, “According to FactCheck.org, when it came to voting for independent investigations after Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast, “McCain actually voted twice, in 2005 and 2006, to defeat a Democratic amendment that would have set up an independent commission along the lines of the 9/11 Commission.” What about the pain of Katrina victims. It is their pain that should and must count more.
In my email in which I asked if she was going to vote for McCain, I wrote, “This race is far more important than just the Clintons and the Obamas. It is about my neighbor who I will use as an example who does not have any health insurance, who hurt his back last weekend and summoned up the courage to go to the ER knowing he couldn’t pay. His wife had to wait for her paycheck in order to go get his meds filled at the pharmacy. Don’t they deserve at least a chance for change, or will they get more of the same as Bill Clinton alluded to tonight? Will McCain help my neighbor? Oh and by the way, they lost their home due to foreclosure.” In speaking with my neighbors each and every day, while they are proud people who do not like to complain, they are feeling the same pain that millions more around this country are. They need relief.
I will even use as an example that many like me fear the winter season when the cost of filling our tanks with heating oil will break us. For my next delivery, which will be on Saturday, I asked that only 100 gallons be delivered since I cannot afford to fill my tank. The price of oil has sky-rocketed under the Bush administration as he has paid off his friends in the oil industry. Where exactly has McCain been as millions of Americans suffer and feel the financial pain?
What about the true pain being felt by military families all around this country? Michelle Obama referenced the empty seats at the table the other night in her speech, and thanks to Bush and McCain, over four thousand of those seats will forever be empty. What of their pain and suffering?
On March 15th, 2007, my son became one of my biggest heroes since he captured the true pain and suffering being felt by our military and innocent Iraqis in this feed titled War. This is the madness that both Bush and McCain support, and a madness that McCain will continue to support. My son, like Senator Obama and Senator Biden, gets it that we must put an end to tragedies like this and bring our men and women in the military home to their families.
Senator Hillary Clinton, to her credit, has been outspoken on the health care crisis facing this nation for decades. Presently there are 47 million people who do not have it, and those numbers should count more than the 18 million who voted for her in the primaries. She has graciously stepped aside so that these people who do not have health insurance can have a chance at getting it under an Obama administration.
Do these Clinton supporters such as the one I emailed think McCain will hear the battle cries coming from those who have only felt pain during these past eight years? No, it will be more of the same. Isn’t it up to those Clinton supporters even thinking of voting for McCain to end the true pain and suffering felt by their fellow Americans?
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