Thank you Senator Hillary Clinton. I would just like to say thank you for everything you have done for me. Thank you for your service and thank you for pushing me to be the best that I can be. You see, because of you pushing me to be the best, you have made me a stronger supporter for Senator Barack Obama than I ever could have been if you were not running. There are plenty of diaries dissecting the latest thing but I’ll just get this off my chest anyway.
I’ve been a supporter of Sen. Obama since hearing him speak at the 2004 DNC. I remember thinking, this is the guy we need for President. He gets it. First I first had to research his name because I didn’t catch it. What did he say his name was again? Barack Obama. Wow, what a name. So, I started to watch him, hoping he didn’t mess up like so many Politicians. I watched him to see if he was going to lose his optimism. I talked about him all the time to family and friends. The words Audacity of Hope wouldn’t leave me. Then I started my personal Presidential announcement watch. In January 2007, Senator Clinton announced she was in and in February, Sen. Obama announced he was in. Talk about a dream team. I was so excited. The excitement over the election was at its highest. We are finally getting rid of the Republicans. How can we not with the field of candidates we had?
But a funny thing happened along the way. You lost the first contest and funny little statements started to come from your campaign. Not enough to really flip out over, but enough to make me take notice. You rebounded and the country moved on. Then more funny little statements from your campaign. I found myself having to defend my vote of Sen. Obama because I’m African-American and we vote race first. I mean it’s so obvious we do because look at all the black Presidential Nominee’s we’ve had, right? Then at some point, you went from being a trailblazer to leaving a trail.
But here is where I will start my thanks. Because I had to defend my vote, it made me pay attention to the issues more than I would have otherwise. So Thank You. Every time I heard the Affirmative Action argument, it made me work harder - even got a bigger bonus out of it. So again, my thanks. Every time your campaign did something else idiotic, I gave money to Sen. Obama. Thanks all around but please cut it out because I don’t have much more money to give. Every time you lied, sorry, misremembered something, I said thank you for making my decision easier.
But the final straw was this week. When Sen. Obama told the truth – although not in the best way – and you decided to use it against the voters. You decided to convince them that the truth should get you voted off the Presidential Island, but lies should get you elected. Oh, the gall it takes to even make the statement. So thank you Senator Clinton. Because of you, I will start phone banking, I will donate my time on the weekends and I will volunteer to do what needs to be done. Even though I was almost there, you helped it along by about 3 months. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much.
So if any of you have some advice about phone banking or volunteering, please share.
Update in case anyone checks this out: I made my first 4 phone calls tonight. So much easier than I thought it was going to be. I only planned on one phone call to get a feel for it but it was such a great conversation, I ended up calling 3 more people. I was on the phone with one lady for 30 minutes. Thanks for everything.