Living Out Loud with Darian

Openly gay filmmaker and loldarian.com favorite Maurice Jamal recently penned this piece about the destructive Hillary Clinton campaign on his myspace page. It's no secret that I'm an Obama supporter (hence the logo at the top of my page). But I have to say that Maurice took the words right out of my mouth. I'm sure this piece will get all of the Clinton supporters quite upset, but it's okay, the truth usually hurts. Obama 08!
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The unfortunate truth that Sen. Clinton's campaign isn't just a losing campaign for her, it's a bad campaign period. At the same time that Clinton want to assail Obama on issues of credibility and fluff over substance, their is a clear problem with her candidacy and the public polls and voting trends reflect this. While Clinton certainly gives her share of policy speeches there is not a clear sense of what her vision, ethics, perspective and guiding principles are.


This new "win by any means" campaign (which means Democrats lose) has truly shown the cracks in the Clinton machinery. Obama continues to inspire people and has rebounded back in the pools because average Americans feel as if they have an idea about the qualities and principles of this man. Americans are judging him fair, honest, real and with a principled sense of justice that guides him. The same just can't be said for Clinton. She consistently ranks the lowest in the race with regard to honesty and trustworthiness.
And while she's not as bad as Bush, do we really want another president that we don't feel we can trust "from day one"?

Every major analyst has said that Clinton cannot win the nomination by ANY of the standards and measuring tools used in every previous election. An increasing number of party officials (in particular local candidates worried about her dragging down Democrats in smaller races) are saying she needs to drop out since she cannot earn the nomination. She has also lost by every measuring tool that HER CAMPAIGN has asserted was the standard by which to judge her. So their response has been to change how they feel the American people should look at this race. It's not just unfair, it's bad politics which point to an administration that will have bad policies.


The reality of American politics is that Presidents rarely get through Congress a majority of the platform issues they campaigned on. At the end of the day, a President governs by their ability to create consensus, inspire people here AND abroad, and to use the bully pulpit to rally people to a common cause. We've experienced what happens when a president feels their perspective overrides the will of the people.

Can we truly hand a nomination to someone who clearly feels the same?

In my previous posts, I have made it clear that while I support Obama, I have always respected the work Clinton has done. Yet in the last two months, she and her campaign have engaged in a race that that is increasingly self serving. In today's New York Times, Maureen Dowd writes an op-ed called "Hillary or Nobody?", that speaks to the campaign engaging in a destructive campaign to hurt an Obama Presidential campaign in a general race against McCain, so she can run in 2012. The implication: that what's bad for Democrats and bad for the country is good for her.


The fact that people are beginning to see her campaign in that light, truly speaks to the inadequacy and shameful spirit that her campaign brings. If a campaign and the way it being run is the best indication of the way an administration will be, a Clinton administration becomes more and more clear. And the picture isn't pretty. We've had enough self-serving government over the past eight years. The time has truly come for a different view in the White House.


I am adding my voice to the many who realize that the time has come for Senator Clinton to end her race.


Maurice Jamal.