This one is my Father, a lifelong democrat from NYC aged 76 now living in Florida. Yeah I know, New York's southernmost county.
I don't get to see my Dad much. He lives in Florida, I live in Colorado. So I can only make it down there a couple times a year.
Like many Floridian retirees my Dad lives on a fixed (and pretty small) income. He's not in very good health suffering from a variety of problems from Ashtma, to macular degeneration, to heart disease and more. He struggles to come up with the "donut hole" money being extorted from him by an insufficient medicare drug benefit so that big Pharma CEOs can continue to line their pockets with the lifeblood of our most vulnerable citizens.
He's a die hard New Yorker from Queens and until a couple weeks ago was a die hard Clintonista. I'd call him pretty typical of Clinton's Florida democratic base, at least among the over 65 crowd, which as we all know is a sizeable one in that state.
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Anyhow, week before last on a visit to the sunshine state with my family I got to spend some quality time with him. After a day of fishing with my father and daugher, we were relaxing and sharing one of our other favorite pastimes, watching Olberman.
Well, Keith and guest were discussing Clinton's sniper gaffe and you could have knocked me over with a feather when Dad buried his head in his hands and said. "That's the last straw, I just don't know what's the matter with her, I can't vote for her now. I'm going to vote for your guy, Obama."
Well, technically speaking, My dad doesn't really get to make that choice since he is in Florida, but the implications were clear. Hillary had crossed the rubicon, as far as he was concerned.
He doesn't really care that much about trade deals, he's retired and on a pension, I guess he figures they don't affect him. His biggest issue (and one of mine) is healthcare, to that end he must have seen her plan as a bit stronger than Obama's.
But when he saw the shameless and outright intentional self-aggrandizing fabrications he finally realized what I've been telling him all year. The Clinton's will say just about anything, do anything to obtain/hold on to power.
I know this is anectdotal, but I do think it speaks to a much wider perception. Clinton has stepped over the line in the sand that separates political license taking from outright lying. There is no coming back. She is past the failsafe point. If she is losing the New York/Florida reitree crowd, arguably one of her most loyal constituencies, then upon whom can she now rely?
I'm really proud that my Dad finally made the right choice, even if it took this blatant incident to finally show him the light.