The problem with Hillary

Sunday, January 27, 2008 by Dave Winer.

It was an interesting election until the Clintons started calling Obama a nice young African-American candidate. Yeah, I lived in the south long enough to understand what that meant. When I went to Tulane I was often explained as soandso's Jewish roommate Dave.  

I should say The Old South. The problem for the Clintons is taht they truly are left behind. The country has changed, as recently as the generation that's now in its early 20s. Oddly I know quite a few of these young people, and I promise you, race doesn't mean shit to them. To them, this country is a melting pot where we've not only accepted blacks and Hispanics, but people from incredibly far away with incredible complexions and hair and names. Once again America is the melting pot. And this time around a young African-American with a funny name, is very very mainstream, so much so that the blatant appeal racism of the white-haired old man is as ridiculous as the praise Trent Lott gave to the almost-dead holdover from the Old South, Strom Thurmond.  

Problem for Clinton is actually much worse, we now saw how she'd govern. Let's say a young African-American Senator from Illiinois got in the way of some god-knows-what she wants to do. Would she argue the issues with him in a respectful way? Why bother when you can smear him into silence?  

Now do we know that Obama would be any different? We don't. My cynical side says of course he's just like the Clintons say. "Give me a break" or it's a "fairy tale." Maybe they're right. Maybe this is the last gasp of hope in America for America. Okay, maybe so. But I'm willing to give it one more try. I think it would say to the rest of the world that America ha caught up with you. Look at how we've changed. Maybe they'll put pictures of Obama in their public buildings as they did with JFK. I could think of worse things. 

What a fantastic way to recover from Bush, who so completely represented the greed and arrogance and uglyness of America, to reinvent ourselves in the image of our best.  

That's the difference. We've all been disempowered during the Clinton and Bush years. I remember when I gave up on Clinton, it was during the brightest period of hope for the web, when they passed a compromise that said that the First Amendment didn't apply here. There are some things that are so important that you can't compromise on them. It was then that I knew that Clinton (and Gore) were phonies. Maybe Obama isn't. I never thought I'd get another chance to use my vote to say, along with so many other Americans, that we still believe the bullshit they taught us in school and that our grandparents taught us, and that the flag says to us every time we think of what it means. There's a reason this country is so great. We forgot it. Let's remember. 

Bill Clinton wanted us to think well of him when he spoke at Davos in 2000. I choose to remember what he said then, Find A Shared Vision. If by any chance he should read this, I'd say it's time for you to not just say those words but to live them.