Updated: How Does Obama Do It?

Jack and Jill Politics
There are superdelegates and supervoters. I am one of the latter, having sacrificed money, time, creativity and my health to volunteer for this campaign. The fact is Obama is still winning and is still the likely nominee, but I don't feel so hot right now.

Much of that has to do with the fact that I'm very sick with a horrible cough, fever and sore throat. I must have come into contact with a Hillary supporter in PA and gotten cooties from her negative campaigning and vile Deathmarch to Denver. She is poison, and I fear I've been temporarily infected.

Some of it also has to do with frustration over her destructive tactics and the refusal or inability of the party and its voters to see it for what it is. Perhaps I lack patience, but it's clear to me that Hillary Clinton is trying to destroy Barack Obama, and she does not care what the impact of that is. I've written before about how her attacks have certainly served the valuable goal of testing and toughening him up.

I think we crossed the threshold of the value of this strategy a few weeks ago, and I was worried that she would help destroy his appeal among independents and moderate Republicans by running a Republican campaign against him.

Now, I'm more worried that not only has she sabotaged him among those voters but is working to do so among the very Democrats who he and we will need in November. On Brian Lehrer this morning, I listened to an Obama supporter say she would reluctantly vote for Clinton in the general if she manages to snatch this nomination. She wouldn't be happy, but she would do it.

Then I listened, dumbfounded, as a Hillary supporter said she would not vote at all or would vote McCain. Excuse me, but what on Earth did Obama do to these people? Are they so offended by his positive message and talk of hope and massive restraint in the face of withering GOP attacks from a member of his own party? Does the fact that he has not stooped to her level cause that much rage? Really? What would these people say if he actually did attack her?

Really, if this is how people react to calm, cool, collected Obama, I actually fear what an outburst from him would result in.

Today, I am angry, but it is not the inspirational anger of being "fired up!" and "ready to go!" No, this is the short-term, despondent anger of "do whatever you want" because this country probably doesn't deserve Obama and clearly doesn't know what to do with him.

Hillary Clinton ran fear-mongering ads with Osama bin Laden. No democrat has ever done that. She said we would "obliterate" Iran if they attacked Israel with a nuke. John McCain happily sings "Bomb, bomb Iran," and I struggle to see the difference between them. What's the point of electing a Democrat who talks and walks like a Republican?

Haven't we already seen what happens when Democrats act like Republicans, especially over issues of "security?" We get an illegal war and warantless wiretapping. Why would Republicans vote for Hillary when McCain is the real deal?

I'm also bothered by Clinton's message that "Obama can't close the deal" with rural, white, gun-toting voters. That was proven true yesterday when she won 62 percent of households where a gun owner resides. So in the primary, at least in PA, these are her voters. Her message that Obama can't win them, however, has a major silent assumption: that come November, she will do nothing to help win them to the democratic nominee!

She's claiming these voters and plans to keep them, for what?

The point of all of this is that I'm tired of blogging about Hillary Clinton and her deathmarch campaign. I'm tired of pulling clips of her back-stabbin, Kamikaze tactics. I'm tired of Obama showing insane amounts of restraint (because he's better than her) and being rewarded with more of the same bullshit, being told he can't close the deal because he won't show an ad implying he won't let bin Laden walk into the country and kill little white babies silently in the night.

Hillary has to threaten Iran because she lacks the imagination and talent to envision another future. She has to stir up fears among gun-owners and religious people, because despite her priceless surname and early advantages, she's been reduced to Politicking 101: scare the shit out of the voter.

So I'm taking a break from my intense blogging of this campaign. Everything that I could say has already been said. All the arguments are on the table. Hillary is willing to do anything, not just to win the nomination, but to destroy the nominee.

My continuing down this path only hurts me and my health right now, and I simply cannot watch any more cable news. That's like turning to leeches and "bleeding" when society is in need of serious medical attention.

Besides, there are other things going on in the world that deserve my and our attention, so I'll try to shift my focus to energy and food and other issues of interest to black folks and Americans that does not have to do with this silly, silly Democratic primary.

My final thought is this:

Having these feelings has also shown me just how strong both Barack and Michelle Obama are. They are full of more fight, more hope and more faith than I can muster right now, and I say more power to them. For those of you feeling down right now, take heart that our candidate has and continues to weather so much more.

• Dear Baratunde,
  
  I sorry to hear that you are not feeling well it is my hope that you recover soon. I can hear the strain in your words, but I thank you for all the support you have given Barack's campaign. I have been feeling the strain also; yesterday I was feeling good, even in the knowledge that Barack would win PA. I can't explain why but turning of MSNBC and CNN helped. Last week I stopped TIVOing Morning Joe and I must say that been a blessing. The pass six weeks has been hard, one by one bloggers have been trying to find a sense of balance, I can't seem to get to sleep, and I can't turn off this computer. I love my Mac, its gotten so bad I now have a Iphone so that I'm never out of touch. I say all of this to let you know I understand how tired you must be and I wish there was a way to ease your burden. My desires are very selfish, I value your voice and intellect on the maters of this election and you will be sorely missed. As I watch blogger and suppervoters fall ill and then decide to take a break or stop covering or helping Barack's campaign altogether its painful. In the past few weeks I have heard a few strong supports say, "we don't deserve him" and then the killer, "just give it to her". I am growing more concern each day that the psychological abuse that Hillary is willfully infecting on 'her' party, Barack's supports and the toll this is taken on Barack. She has systematically use group psychological abusive tactics with the media and now is moving in on the voters. We can see evidence in the polling, when the race started Hillary supporters said they would support Barack if he were the nominee. With each new primary contest Hillary supporters harden their support by larger are larger percentage points. Barack who does not employ manipulative tactics, he respect and honors the voter and has said, I'm banking on good will of the American people, my fear is that his supporters maybe falling pray to " Clinton Fatigue" the polite euphemism for their mastery of emotional abuse. So before you take a need 'vacation' can you give your readers and me some insight on how to fight this poison?

Update: Once again Hillary's uses her psychological abusive tactics to intimidates ABC political reporter.

Jeb Report:

Earlier, I said I probably wouldn't be posting much if anything today. Four hours later, here I am making another post. It'll be quick.

Check out this blog entry by ABC's senior political correspondent Jake Tapper about the Clinton camp's false representation of ABC's reporting on the (irrelevant) popular vote. The thing that interests me isn't that the Clinton camp lied about what ABC had said -- that happens every day, like sniper fire on a morning run.

No, the thing that interests me is that after he posted the item, he temporarily unpublished it -- because the Clinton camp complained that his debunking was inaccurate (they were wrong, Tapper was right).

UPDATE: The Clinton campaign pushed back on this post...I took this blog post down for a brief time this morning while I was on a train and couldn't fully look into all the arguments the Clinton campaign was making. Minus this update, the above post is the same as it was before.

That gives you a sense of how afraid some reporters are of the Clinton campaign. Tapper wrote something that was accurate, they complained, and so he took it down to double-check what he had already believed to be true. If the Clinton camp is able to intimidate all reporters as thoroughly as they appear to have intimidated Tapper, the rest of this campaign is going to be something of a slog.