Dot #1: NIE
She didn't read it. That bothers me.
Dot #2: Katrina
"Brownie, you're doin' a heck of a job." Anyone who turned on the tv could see that he wasn't.
Bush didn't see it. That bothered me.
Dot #3: Reverend Wright
She said you don't choose your relatives, but you do choose your church and advocated leaving the church if the pastor says something controversial. Her husband has done "controversial" things with other women for decades, and she helped silence the women rather than choose to leave the husband. I don't see see that as consistent with the church choice.
Keeping her marriage together.
That impressed me.
Selling out her wedding vows for the expediency of political damage control.
That disappointed me.
A couple more dots, and the connections, after the fold.
Dot #4: Iraq
He said we'd be greeted as liberators. Rumsfeld said we'd be there 6 days, maybe 6 weeks, but probably not 6 months.
That did not fool me.
Dot #5: Bosnia
She said she was greeted as target practice.
That surprised me.
Dot #6: Cheney interview on lack of public support for the war
"So?"
That offended me.
Dot #7: HRC interview on Bosnia claims
"So? I made a mistake."
When did "So?" become the interview answer of convenience?
Dot #8: President Bush on $4.00 gas
"Oh, really?" "I hadn't heard about that one." "Heh heh."
That depressed me.
Dot #9: Caucuses (designed and adopted by our own party) are unfair and don't matter. Small states don't matter.
Whoa. That one scrambled my brain like two eggs on Sunday morning.
Dot #10: All Obama has is a speech.
Well, I read that speech. It inspired me.
So? So after 7 years of a president who doesn't know the price of a gallon of gasoline, who didn't know that Katrina was a disaster, whose advisers (at best) sold him a line of hooey on Iraq, whose vice president has disdain in his heart and on his face for the American populace, after all that and more; I'm supposed to vote for a Democrat who didn't know the contents of the NIE, misremembers/misstates/misspeaks about being shot at and whisked away while standing still on the runway, whose advisers are throwing away swaths of the electorate, and who says others are wrong to continue to engage with people who may say inflammatory or controversial things while remaining engaged (intended pun) to a person who has repeatedly done inflammatory and controversial "things," I say the following:
I will no more vote for HRC than I did for GWB or would for McCain. For me, this is not about the Democratic Party. It is not even about the Supreme Court or Congress. It is most definitely not about being a member of a cult of personality.
It is about me. It is about my dignity. My integrity. My refusal to vote for anyone who doesn't know what is going on in their own country even as they attempt to lead it into the future. My decision to not vote for someone who holds contradictory positions based on political convenience rather than political core values. My intention to not vote for anyone who does not represent me and the direction I believe this country should be moving.
This political season is complex. I can't help but connect the dots from the NIE to Katrina to gas prices to Bosnia-constructed-memories to shared contempt for voters and conclude that I will make my decision on who to vote for, or not vote for, not based on internet blogs, talking heads, or yard signs.
I will make my decision based on connecting the dots. And, if, after having done that, I see the same picture I've seen for the past seven years, I would rather erase the page than live with that same picture for another four years. I'm just not willing to sacrifice the means to get to the ends of a few SCOTUS appointments. That one dot just does not redraw the entire picture for me. At least, not yet.
I just had to get that off my chest after reading other recent diaries. Now, tell me how I got it wrong, and/or how I got it right, and I promise to thoughtfully consider your dots and how you connect them.