I'm not going to vote, in the general election, for Hillary Clinton. The only chance Democrats have of taking the Rocky Mountain States is Obama. They like him up here. If Hillary is the nominee, she'll lose Wyoming 64 to 31 so my not voting for her won't make any difference. Not in Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado or Utah.
Now, I won't vote Republican, I just won't place a vote for president if Hillary Clinton is the nominee. I'll support Democrats downticket in my state and others. I'll put all the money allowed into Gary Trauner's race. But still, there have been people reacting to my refusing to vote for Hillary (and to others who've said the same thing), by asking one question:
"Do you realize McCain wants to keep us in Iraq for 100 years?"
I realize he's said that.
I don't care who wants to be in Iraq for how long, even if they're elected. We. Won't. Be.
McCain played a hell of a gamble with that hundred years crap. He's betting,
- That the surge really worked.
- That it will keep on working until at least election day in November.
That was the whole point of the surge in the first place, to cut per-month-deaths of American soldiers in Iraq by at least half, and to hold that number through the general election. The actual surge, increased numbers of American soldiers, didn't do that. What did that was arming the Sunni elements and paying Sunni leaders shitloads of money. Things calmed down, sure, in a way that is winding the spring of civil war tighter every day.
Iraq is going to explode. If it explodes before November, McCain loses, no question about it. If Bush somehow keeps it from exploding until after November, McCain probably still loses (yes, even against Hillary and without my vote for her). But even if he wins the presidency, Iraq will explode.
It will explode in a civil war that will make the scattered violence of the last couple of years pale in comparison. You can't arm both sides of a conflict in a place like Iraq and expect peace to balance for very long. And when it explodes, we will pull our troops out and we will abondon the largest embassy in the world.... no matter who is president.
I won't vote for Hillary and you can't shove this phony "McCain 100 years" stuff in front of me and expect I'll not call it what it is:
Bullshit.
Give that up. It won't work.
And as for my leaving Kos if I won't agree to vote for Hillary in the general election, no. I won't leave Daily Kos, and there isn't a goddamned thing you can do about that.