That does it. The final, frakking straw.
I have five main political interests, as things go; climate change, agriculture, women's rights, war and corporate power. All of the major presidential candidates have entirely worn out their welcome with me on one or more of them. Or started off bad and have failed to convince me that they're truly reformed from their positions of a few years or months ago. And let's not even get into healthcare. National insurance plans with private sector partnerships, my donkey.
Partisan leanings? Eh. I've long said I'd vote for the Democrat. Also that I'm not inspired by any of them like with Dean in 2004. They don't do IT for me. If I'm supposed to pick someone because I just like them and am really motivated by them, or their policies, well, I've got a pretty high threshold for that. My only honest reaction is 'why can't I pick Gore, like I wanted to in the first place?'
My presidential primary strategy has been to ignore the candidates as much as possible unless they do something that annoys me. I listened to them at the DNC winter meeting, at the Yearly Kos debate, and then at the last debate. Really, I've had other things on my mind and I don't live in an early primary state, anyhow.
Yet I do know that, because I tried to listen to it like a voter instead of a blogger hoping for a story, Clinton was the only major candidate I remember at all from the Yearly Kos debate. She was the only one who had the guts to be honest about telling us something she knew would be hideously unpopular, and did the hard thing instead of insulting our intelligence to avoid getting booed.
And while I've mostly been able to tune the candidates out, I haven't been able to get away from the persistent annoyances of their attackers. OMFG, a millionaire lawyer who doesn't go to Supercuts, even though he gives a damn about people who've seen the business end of a food stamp! Jumpin' Jehoshaphat, a multi-ethnic lawyer who went to a funny school in a foreign country and has a name that doesn't just scream One White Guy! Holy Cannoli, Batman, a female lawyer who's gotten high dollar campaign contributions from the lobbyists of the industries whose executives just give to her opponents directly!
Unfortunately for me, and for you if you're not a Clinton fan, some of the most annoying critiques of Clinton come from the blogosphere. That, I can't tune out, which is probably why they annoy me so much. Everyone notices the pebble in their own shoe. Alternately, there's the rank sexism, though that mostly comes from the pundits.
So, because I've already included her in my blanket endorsement of whatever Democrat wins, and because it may give people like David Mizner and Chris Matthews screaming fits of high-pitched apoplexy, which will greatly comfort me when stupid Democratic policies are driving me up a wall; I hereby endorse Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president in 2008.
You know how much good my endorsement will do for Clinton? I predict, none. You know how much good it will do for me? Negative. Now, when I bitch about candidates, as I've always done, people will say I'm doing it because I've endorsed Clinton, instead of because her opponents tick me off. And when I criticize her, they'll probably just say that I'm doing it to preserve the illusion of balance, instead of because she ticked me off. And I'm probably going to have to put up with crap from readers, with whom she's about as popular as she is with me, or worse, saccharine pats on the back from her supporters for finally coming around.
What will people say when I still bitch about candidates being attacked unfairly? Hopefully, they will be justly confused, if they're that sort. I will do a little dance of joy.
This is a proposition with no tangible upside for me. But the same goes for the alternatives. At least this way, I get to annoy people who deserve it. Sorry if you oppose her and don't deserve my ire, but sometimes a person just has to take what they can get and call it a day.
At least she has a decent energy plan. That's not nothing. Sigh.
Anyway, a big thanks to all of Hillary Clinton's detractors for helping me make up my mind about this. Fences make for uncomfortable seating, and just imagine how much time you've saved me sitting there poring over all the policy programs which haven't a chance in hell of making it as-is through our Russert-whipped, telecom-purchased, twitchy as a cat in a rocking chair factory Congress. Now I can continue putting exactly as much attention into the primary process as I had done before, while getting maximal return on the irritation factor of my writing.
x-posted at pacificviews.org