I see your candidacy as potentially transformational, and I'd like to get on board. But I am seeing: your surrogates complaining that President Clinton's actions in fighting for his wife are unseemly, unfair, underhanded. And I am hearing: you yourself say that perhaps your supporters won't support our nominee if it isn't you in the end. And I am thinking: the power of the institutional disadvantages we will face in November far outstrip that of Bill Clinton. Things will be a hell of a lot less seemly, and a HELL of a lot less fair, come the fall, and then we'll be in dire need of that unity you're always talking about.
I am tired of being told by Russert and Romney and even Reid that the reason things aren't hunky-dory in this country is because people like me just aren't civil or compromising enough. As if I were the one pushing for quixotic wars and Himalayan budget deficits, as if I were torturing U.S. citizens and poisoning the poor. Why should I fetishize bipartisanship? We saw this week what overeagerness to compromise gets us: bad legislation, stripped of any benefits for real-life working Americans. Should I now confess that it's me that's the problem? Should I be inspired to change when I see Lieberman backing McCain?
Hillary's team is portrayed as the most vicious, streetwise group on this block, and it seems to me they are. But we know that what's going on right now is child's play, and the real game starts later this year. You speak with power and grace, but I want a candidate that will represent my values - values that are NOT shared by all, no matter what anyone tries to say - with ruthless passion and skill. So I am asking: can you resist the temptation to trash me and my values? And can you do what it takes to win?