I read that people are overreacting to Hillary Clinton’s comments on RFK and that there will be a division in November created by those of us who support Barack Obama.
We do need to be engaged in healing. I am willing to take part of the blame as an Obama supporter. And I keep seeing attempts by people here at Daily Kos to begin this healing. But every time we do, Hillary Clinton signals that she isn’t.
When Hillary Clinton said that she didn't understand why people were upset that she is staying in the race until June and then cited her husband and RFK as examples of others who did, she once again signaled her failure to understand how vulnerable people are feeling about the November election. Remember this is now about Obama's campaign, not about hers. For all intents and purposes the nomination process is over. He has won.
Maybe people went overboard around RFK, but they didn't go overboard about the fact that she was once again distorting the truth about the primaries...lying. ... and holding up the process of beginning the campaign for November.
Rachel Madow, a commentator who I respect, felt that Clinton was signaling that she would stay in the race until the convention in August....that she is in it to win it.
Nowhere has Hillary Clinton even implied that she knows there is an endpoint. Subtle signals are important in such a hotly contested, enraging contest/campaign.
People have heard Hillary Clinton's lies and distortions about Obama for months. She attacks directly and indirectly through surrogates and then keeps presenting herself as the victim. Feminists like myself around the US have had it with her, which should tell people something about the "women's vote." One need only look at Daily Kos diaries over the past few weeks to see how angry women are at her campaign and misrepresentations... starting with her lying about Obama's record on reproductive rights in Iowa and New Hampshire. This early lie so angered the former director of NOW in Chicago, that she left Hillary Clinton's campaign and went to work for Obama, whose record she knew well. Make no mistake about it, there are as many women opposed to HC and her tactics as there are for her.
At this point, to not be clear about ending this race and supporting the candidate for the Democratic Party is to make one self vulnerable to misinterpretation at every step.
There is no trust. And from where I sit, I see no statement on Hillary Clinton's part to build this trust. I keep looking, I keep waiting, and I keep feeling disappointed. I am sure many others do too. And people are worried and scared. If they keep believing that HC will unite the party, when she has no intention of doing so, and they keep waiting for her to signal something different, the race will be over. And so people react and overreact. For this unsettling, cliff hanger of a contest I believe Hillary Clinton must accept all of the responsibility.
Update: I just wanted to respond to a few comments. Some people are saying we can move forward in the campaign even without a signal from HC. Some are saying we will never get a signal from her so we have to move forward. And clearly the campaign has been moving as we see Obama engaging directly with McCain. But what I want to say is that unless something different happens, there will be an explosion at every turn. While I think HC comments about the ongoing nature of past primaries in June were a distortion, I also think that the mass response and rage about RFK was beyond anything that I would normally think was called for. I have just finished watching the HBO movie RECOUNT. I know this event takes place in another time and place. But the threat to our democracy is great and ever present. It would be a shame to have that threat made worse by our own internal conflicts.