My mother instilled in me two strong values when it comes to men and marriage: I would never have to put up with a man hitting me, nor would I have to put up with him cheating on me. Either of these two incidents would be grounds, legal and moral, for divorce.
I suppose that's why, when it seemed inevitable that Hillary would be the nominee two years ago, I had trouble mustering up enthusiasm for her.
The Lewinksy scandal came out when I was a teenager, and I remember my mother pitying Hillary, saying "she doesn't dare leave him because she'll be ruined." I wondered at the time what she meant by that. Now, a decade, a senate seat, and a strong run at the Democratic nomination later, I understand.
Hillary chose her career over her own value as a woman when she opted to stay silent about Bill running around on her. After Paula Jones, she could have left him without any moral repercussions. She opted to stay with him, and keep silent about it, and then the Lewisnky scandal blew up. How many other times has he cheated on her? How many other times has he broken his marriage vows to her? Yet still, she stayed with him, because he was The Man and if she left him, she'd be stuck on her own in the political world. She is ambitious. (Nothing wrong with that; you have to be ambitious to make it anywhere in politics.) However, she is ambitious to a fault.
The fact that she stayed in a politically expedient marriage, even after her husband broke his vows, shows to me that those vows meant very little to her either. And that is why, woman to woman, I just can't respect her.
I gravitated to Obama early in 2006, when my fiance showed me the speech from the DNC in 2004 and said, "hey look at this honey, this guy is amazing!" Soon the rumblings began for him to run for president. I was excited and inspired for the first time in my political life -- this was a candidate who not only espoused most of the values I believe in, he LIVED them. (On a pure issue by issue basis, I actually matched Edwards better, but he had too much of a sleezeball lawyer feel for my taste. Clinton was third.)
Most of us early Obama supporters were there because we were pleased with the prospect of an alternative to Hillary Clinton. And as the long primary season wore on, it became clearer and clearer to us that we had made the correct decision. Watching a woman who traded her marriage for a political career fall apart made me want to weep. I do not doubt that if Obama had not run, she would have won. However, it gave us the chance to see what kind of person she genuinely is.
- She chose a career over an honest, loving marriage.
- She will lie to get what she wants.
- She will play the victim when it suits her.
- She will complain about unfair treatment while staying silent about the unfair treatment of others.
- She seems to be fantasizing about someone shooting her opponents.
- When the chips are down, she sends her husband out to defend her.
Don't worry, I won't vote for McCain if HRC ends up getting the nomination because some assassinated Obama. I will, however, seriously look into that application for Canadian citizenship again.