Dear Nancy Pelosi:
I am a young democrat, and on that, it might seem cheeky of me to write this letter. I have no choice. Everything is at stake.
For a long time now I have watched Bill and Hillary Clinton tour the country like a pair of outlaws. Perhaps I should say: like a couple of outdems---meaning, of course, that they seem to operate outside the party, indeed, outside democracy itself. In a kind of vacuum. Politically, they seem to live in their own small western town, population of two, one they took over after shooting the place up and scaring everyone else away. Judging from things I've seen as they campaign, they are political loners. These are my impressions.
I am writing you about them because I believe that you can do something about this dangerous couple. I believe they are after a co-presidency. Or at least Bill is. I feel that his words and actions on the campaign trail, bear this out. They are in a contest for the nomination; they plan to run for president; they will be president. In my view, they are one entity, and it is that which makes them dangerous. Their indivisibility.
Even so, I can't understand how it is that the party cannot handle this couple. It isn't that they don't have a right to stay in the race for the nominee. They have a right, it is a democracy. But, as professed democrats, they do not have the right to praise the GOP candidate, John McCain, to the voters. They do not have the right to sidle up to McCain, even fawn on him, while shunning Obama, a fellow democrat. Three different times they have done this, the third being yesterday, it was Bill. This is not party policy, how could it be? It invites ridicule of the party. In doing it, Bill and Hillary display real contempt, not just for Obama but for the party itself. It is terrible.
Can't you do something? If not, can anyone else among the party leaders, do something? Could you and other party leaders do it as a group? Could any person or persons anywhere in this party, do something? If not, how on earth will the party govern the country, should it retake the Whitehouse? If the party cannot handle one couple, how it will handle the affairs of the nation?
Can you not see? See how weak the party looks, as this couple move around the country unchecked, like a tornado? Uprooting party principles like so many trees, the tentacles are their innuendos about a fellow democrat, that touch down here, there and everywhere. Like a tornado, Bill and Hillary do damage, leaving untrue stories of Obama in their wake. Only McCain is left standing, like a house miraculously spared. From state to state they move, while the rest of us stand with our mouths hanging open. Wondering where the party leaders are.
I'll be blunt. Is it possible that people up in D.C. owe Bill and Hillary favors? That this pair is calling in those favors? I've heard this kind of thing happens. Are you all being bullied up there? Even party leaders? For I feel, as do some others, that everyone up there must be truly afraid of the Clintons. How can this be? What is it that gives them leverage? And why do they have so much?
You must show some leadership, otherwise we will end up the laughing stock of the entire country and parts of Europe too. I suspect that even in China they are dumbstruck. I live abroad, and I can tell you that many people here have asked me, in so many words: what ails the democratic party??!!
I live in hope that you will rein this couple in, it should have been done weeks ago, and time is running out. Desperation, in Bill and Hillary, has now set in. Panic is next, and once panic sets in, anything might happen. You must act. Otherwise this couple may turn to things that will make their shoddy support of McCain seem like a model for democrats everywhere.
Ever yours,
Emme