Issues, we want issues

their latest stands on Iraq:
Clinton: begin in 60 days
Obama: finish in 16 months
McCain: finishe in 4 years
All agree that no one knows what will happen. which is the smartest approach and why?
Pin them down: what is their stance on private militias? what are we doing with the just-built enormous embassy in Iraq? Our "war will be over" but there will be 10,000 private mercenaries accountable to no law there?

What would I do?

I have been grappling ... thry to consider the possibility of entering the voting booth and voting for "the Democrat" whomever that may be - but I find that I cannot go there. I am apart from the "logic" that has come from the Media and the DNC. I stand with people who stand for ideas and principles and the rule of law, not for person or "party". We were Democrats because we thought that meant standing for the rule of law and equality under law by all. Turns out, "Democrats" is just a lable. Ideas, principles and the rule of law are our guides. Hillary's heart and mind illumine justice and the rule of law, the good fight, endurance, belief, faith, fortitude: We vote principles, not "party." It does not matter if the Democratic Party loses. It only matters if the principles lose.

Tom wrote in the http://www.hillaryclintonforum.net/ " ... the Islamic terrorists will fear Hillary far more than they would McCain. Why are they so ruthless in their repression of women? Feminists know ... Hillary would be their worst nightmare: a woman unveiled, with not only the power, but the will, to bring about their destruction." I agree with Tom's key insight.

We do not know for sure that Obama would be a weakling in the world - we only know that thus far he has played that role. He rode the crest of an organized and orchestrated and paid media support + youth + new voter wave. It is possible that Obama could turn out to be something besides an action figure, but we don't know. Thus far, if you "genderize" them like a Sociologist, Hillary is the-guy-with-the-hormones and Barack is the gal-with-the-smile-and-the-desire-not-to-fight. However, there is one thing he will never be, and that is a real woman.

A woman is the way in to the heart of the Middle East. Oppression BEGINS with the oppression of women or the oppression of man to man because of women. A woman is the wedge into the mystery that is the horror of what goes on in the Middle East. Freedom is much more attractive to the oppressed woman than it is to the oppressing man. Only a woman can bridge this gap. Hillary is the bridge.

A political party committing suicide

Superdelegates are bitten by sound bites. They are consuming themselves, eating their own sound bites. The question will not be "Are you leaving the Democratic party?" The question will be "Did you notice the Democratic Party just committed suicide?" There will be no Democratic party if they nominate the straw man. A Superdelegate for for Obama is a vote for McCain.

Our job is intervention: the party does not know it is killing itself. Talk with "Kansas" - i.e., with Dems who don't scour the internet and rely on TV. They are "dealing with" what they now feel is their inevitable Dem nominee and obligatory vote in Nov. They sense & fear "their neighbors" won't vote for the Dem nominee ... they're trying to convince themselves Obama is ok ... So, just tell them one thing about Obama that the media hasn't told them yet will media feed them over the course of the Summer. Their voting hand turns right (McCain) or off (stay home). They will not vote Dem in Nov as they learn more truth.

Our job as interventionists is to
1.) tell the Democratic party that is is committing suicide and
2.) tell the Democratic voters everywhere - who Support Hillary but might be wounded today by sound bites. Call your sisters and mothers and friends don't live in KY or OR or WV; they know people who do. Remind people how Hillary was even getting compliments from Republicans all last week. Clinton is endearing to people who allow themselves to see her in action; her heart galvanizes our public heart. She even made O'Reilly agree he'd pay higher taxes. She's a genius.

There is going to be nothing new from Obama. We have seen what he has to offer. His stump speech is growing thin and by July-August will be entirely transparent. HOPE will become NOPE - the tragic signs are all over. Superdelegates have forgotten this is a man whose entire campaign is 1000s speeches about a 30 second 2002 speech in Chicago. Eating your own sound bites is unhealthy. He is Icarus and his wax will melt and coat the moribund Democratic Party. But that tragedy hasn't happened yet. You, too, can help prevent it.

Democrats awake: Clinton is radiant and ready - equpped to lead us into the Millenium with clarity, wit, and love: a mix of head, heart, and vigor the likes of which we have never seen - maybe the best since Lincoln. That's where we are in America: on the brink of an enormous fissure. Clinton will unite all of America and restore the standards of excellence and leadership in love. She is the only one of the 3 candidates whom all of America will love, the only one who has stated the basic truth of our mission: "I want to be known as the President who champions all the children." That is our fulcrum. That must be our calling. She is the Captain of the real ship. Obama is but a dream. He loses the G.E. Clinton wins. It's not too late: We can have her!

Shoot the messenger or love the messenger? . . That is the question

The audience might mistake the messager (cool) for the message (not cool). Reverand Wright is likeable and shrewd. I wish all men in suits moved around a bit at least every once in a while and I wish all men had passion and I wish all men sang at the lecturn and I wish men entertained and twinkled their eyes when they speak. All women, too. Rather than being stiff and silly and egotistical, I wish all of us could be as silly and carefree as Reverand Wright.

I love the messenger. But I do not love the message. It feels like aggression. I do not enjoy being preached at for what I already believe: I know that difference is magnificence. I would like to celebrate that rather than be preached about it.
I do not enjoy being told I do not love and respect B.B. King
I do not enjoy being told I cannot keep a beat. I love all the beats. I am them; they are me; we are they.
I do not enjoy being told that there is an innate difference between the races. As a minister I expect you to know all the beats of humanity and then some. While I enjoy your showmanship and ability to break barriers of propriety, I care not for the content. I like the style but not the message.

We are the same - the soul knows no color. when you feel joy it is the same joy I feel. When you feel sorrow, it is my sorrow. When you catch the sacredness it is as when I do - that is the human community. It is the same sacredness I feel. When you know God it is as when I do. We are ultimately the same and if what you meant is that we must recognize the differences and appreciate them so that we may reach our humanity, then I agree with you Reverant Wright. but you seem to stop short and revel in the differences. Many of us are past being afraid of differences and we are searching lovingly for our community.

Drop this admonishment about pronunciation. We all crack jokes about Irishmen from Boston and Oilmen from Texas, particularly the Texan from Connecticut and his fake accent. America has done the opposite with Black America: We embrace the oddity of the black language, imitate rappers, fall easily into the rhythms, the kids dig it, and black music has been American music for a century. Even Oprah sounded black when she unveiled her political choice last Autumn. We love the beat. Why parlay in the currency of opposition and division when styles and beats give us so much more than division?

So I do not really mean "don't love the messenger." Actually, I love you. But I don't like the message. The message needs be higher, better, nicer, freer, fun-er. And not all-about-you. Or all-about-me. We're all struggling with what it means to be a human being. We all need to take responsibilty for that, each of us, and to know that this is the spirit of community which is America.

Dignity Justice Vision Action Structure Sport

First, the Goal: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Next, the medium: The media
Third, the candidates: McCain backstage; Obama & Clinton frontstage with US
Finally, change, the moment, happenstance, the NOW. POW!

1 3 individuals want 1600: The Decider, Commander Guy.
11 3 are mediated thru media, a message from the past about the future delivered thru a box: squared off.
111 We are America. We are The US. 3 candidates meet us, hear us, speak for us, guide us, hear us again.
1111 Change, the moment, happenstance, luck, looming, flooding pressures, moment to moment, day to day, crisis to crisis, ceremony to ceremony, routine to routine.

A week in the campaign is a month, a month a year. We forget what engaged or enraged us days ago. Our optimism of a fortnight ago seems like an untarnished photograph from way back. We judge these 3 candidate stars on what we hear about what they say about the past, what we hear about what they say about the future, what we feel about when we see them in the media-sphere and what we think they feel about us -- and upon "what's happening" - the now.
We need new rules to remain a civilized society.

• "drop" exchange down to a conversational level - disengage from conversation-as-confrontation.
• allow a candidate to explain a past relationship with an issue or group, formulate a current stand, and specify how it varies from opponent. Opponent gets to restructure the question or to say that is or is not how it varies.
• Ask candidates to imagine a future to indicate what might shift their priorities, tactics, or even strategy.

Questions about character and likeability are legit. Yes or no? We have to like what we are looking to as a leader for 4-8 years. We want to anticipate the branding and the brand of cronyism. Do we get to open the doors, rev it up, check out the compartments and even kick the tires? Do we expect voluntary "full-disclosure" from our candidates as to who they are? What if full-disclosure is "bull-disclosure?" Then can we kick?

Full disclosure includes: one's close advisors, mentors, mega-buck supporters; one's favored books, socio-political theories, operational practices and relationship to God. We expect our candidates to reveal for themselves - or otherwise the media will do it for us and to us. The candidates must stand up and tell us who they really are. If accusations and questions cannot tell your story, then you tell your story.

This race is a mythic battle, grand scale drama, theater of huge proportion. Will it be a serial tragedy or a burst of hope on the Broadway of a new world? I am ready for each candidate's monologue, written by herself or himself, delivered fireside, allowing me to see if I want him or her as friend, leader, and inspiration and channeller of change.

READ [BETWEEN] MY LIPS

1. Obama does not take oil money ;-
2. Obama did not vote for the war: nor did he vote against it. He didn't vote.
3. Obama has hope instead of experience - he didn't make experience on his foreign relations committee.
4. Obama is of "the people", with holes in his soles - but his wife reportedly wears an ankle length white mink
5. Obama said a couple years ago that he needed more experience: a well financed media campaign now is the experience
6. Obama is religious; he goes to church: but only when it's good (didn't inhale).
7. Obama wants single mothers to have to buy their children health insurance: - pony up, girls!
8. Obama to have exec meetings on CSPAN for all to see: closed door meetings elsewhere.
9. With Obama everything's going change
10. Obama will then have total transfromation into action figure. I saw one on a dashboard already.

Vote Obama: Vote for Words. Or for retracting words. Either way: Words work. Or they don't. but that's ok you can expect mistakes.

Political weather

ll What will the winds be on the day of the primary? Blowing dirt Obama way or kicking up a gaffe Clinton way? As a black preacher man for Hillary said, "God has a hand in this. God has a hand."
ll We pretend to talk about issues when it is all emotional. The complexity of issues renders most of us ignorant. Caught are we in thought communities. For those for whom Hillary can do no wrong, Hillary can do wrong—and still be right. For those in love with Obama, wrong is not an option since he already said he might be sometime. Think of your best friend. Now, someone says something bad about ‘em: you snap. You cannot hear.
ll Words matter until they make it so other words don't matter. With words cracking as they have been, wild enough to get people suspended for wielding them, why continue to speak as if rational when it is all emotional? What we are caught in the grip of? Some of us want to stand up and shout, “I love him!” Others, “I love her!” Some want to add, “I can’t stand her.” Others, “I can’t stand him.”
ll Which side are you on? Love your candidate or hate the other? Loving yours is fine. Hating the other is hate.
ll Which candidate can lead us in discussion? Awoman.

Racism is in the eyes of the race-ee?

Sociologists in the 50s came up with the word "homophily". It means like likes like. When Clinton analyses a vote in terms of homophily, he analyses a vote in terms of homophily. But when that analysis is experienced by a person of an analyzed race, it can feel racist. So it is. Bill Clinton and the body of his work is not racist. But if one honestly feels that he is or has done something or failed to do something, then that feeling is an immovable object and Bill Clinton is, according to that feeling, a racist.

Barack Obama and his silver tongue are also caught in racism. If the "typical white" feels being herded into a category by being herded into a category, then that, too is racism. If we live in a racist society we are all racist, so the word is thereby rendered useless. The motives and feelings of another are not knowable. The "typical white man" like Bill Clinton does not feel racist while analyzing voting patterns - but his comments may stir that latent function and it is felt as racism. His motive is to win. The body of his work would not show him as a racist--indeed, just the opposite. But if people are trained to view white men and white words as racist, it will be felt as racism.

Racism is coming from one and only one point of view, based on race, when life and creativity is so much more than that.

The Seven Heavenly Ways

Alright, you two. I mean Hillary and Barack.
So now the playing field is level. Barack is neither a Muslim nor a racist and Hillary is neither a racist nor the wife of a Republican.
Let us now move on to the higher ground that both of you offered us.
Let us talk.
Let us see which one of you can talk better.
Let us see which one of you can answer questions better.
Let us see the wisdom with which you approach specific international boiling spots as they are on various spots of the globe.
Let us see how you will go up against McCain, not just hear the one of you say you will have the words and the other of you say you already have the experience.
What, exactly, does happen on Day One?
What do you do when the Seven Deadly Problems jump up to number 2 spot on the priority list after the #1 problem: War. Let's list all seven:
1. The War. The Occupation. The Withdrawal. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Israel. Palestine. Iran.
2. The Rest of the World: Russia, China, Venezuela, Darfur, Kenya, Kosovo, Mexico.
3. The Economy: The Greening of America Project - infrastructure and greening and jobs - the Vision of The Greening of America. The Health Care system is part of that. Does the IT staff really have the readiness to extend the Congressional system out to us on ... Day 2?
4. Women: immediately recognize women as the route in to solve the domestic and foreign problems. It is the de-valuation of things feminine (joining, creating, softening, nurturing, joining, finding sameness) that is at the foundation of problems East, West, and Middle.
5. Children: education and love. American and Iraqii children first and all children in general. Children's interests have to come before the interests of pharmaceuticals and insurance companies.
6. Immigration: We love our Spanish friends and all the other peoples as well. American always welcomes people and people become very happy and sometimes prosperous living in America. We need to solve this problem with the respect due the United States and the joy and wisdom of the immigrants.
7. Science and art and the future: we want a vision of where we are going.

Barack removed the race card from the deck - but is the sex card still in there?

. . . . Can't say anything about race because it is too subtle to be handled without misunderstanding in a political campaign. So no more race talk. Can we remove sex as well? Obama supporters say that Hillary is where she is because she married Bill.

. . . . Blacks and whites who are for Obama like him because they like him. Hillary people should not call them Obamabots because that implies they have no "reason." Ferraro in the Clinton camp was insensitive to what is perceived as racism: racism, like sexual harrassment, is defined by the person who is harrassed.
. . . . Race remains a topic that our country does not face well or comfortably. Whether by design or with deft use of the Ferraro commentary, Obama has removed the race card from the deck. It cannot be played. When people are told they vote according to their demographic, it seems to drain the passion, integrity, and intelligence for the vote, which is why it is offensive.

. . . . But can we talk about sex? With Spitzer and now Client #6 from England in the news, how can we not see the trickle down effect sexism in nearly everything we do? Some Obama supporters hath wrought Hillary into little more than a Republican wife. And when Obama people say Hillary attracts women 60 and over it feels, to me, dismissive. Half the human race is going to be women 60 and over. Have they no wisdom? We all vote for a person we like because we like him. Or her.
. . . . Dang! See? The man, of any race, sits, even gramatically, in the priviledged position. Otherwise, women enter the picture and mess everything up with this "his or her" pronoun switch. Can we say anything about that? When Geraldine says, "It's the guys sticking together," it is an anti-sexist comment construed into a racist comment. Pundits have not the time to analyze it for anything other than a morsel for the anti-Hillary cauldron, which is part of a bigger, nearly invisible cauldron called sexism.
. . . . Clinton literally slept beside a great U.S. President for eight years. He didn't tell her everything about the sex parts of his day job, but for sure he shared with her, his political pal since college, the intimate details of how a person wrestles with being the most powerful figurehead on earth. It's quite a fly on the wall she has been, and more. Take 10 min to watch her in Ireland; you decide for yourself if her effort was only decorative. If it was, it was decoration that made me cry.
. . . . .She is a woman strong enough in the big ring. He is a man intelligent and powerful enough to there too. Can we learn to talk about race and sex and age, since they are still issues, with intelligence and sensitivity and respect for all so that we can let these remarkable people be judged on the basis of his ... or her ... vision for tomorrow based on their experience of yesterday.
. . . . Move on. There is stuff to talk about to forge the Democratic argument against McCain. Obama has been too busy trying to act like Clinton is McCain. Hillary has been too busy giving her stump speech instead of turning this debate into the debate to come with McCain. Barack knows Hillary is not a racist. Hillary knows that Barack has run a brilliant campaign.
. . . . Move on. Stop talking about the campaigns. Focus less on TV and Radio Show and Celebrity opinion. Talk about the issues. Forge, together, the argument against McCain and the Republicans.
Stop talking about who could forge the better argument against war and destruction and forge it.

We all act “rational” when the entire thing is so “emotional”

Granted, we have many rational reasons to love Hillary and equally as many to doubt Obama, but their camp looks at it just the reverse. They love him and pretend it is rational by stacking up all their facts and reasons, and they hate her and stack up reasons and facts for that. When we paint a totalist picture with facts or theory to idealize or demonize either one of them, it does a disservice to America.

Stick with the facts of how great Hillary is – the patterns of her greatness and the particulars of her greatness. She has been to 80 countries. Obama has been to about 5 and only recently. She had lived six decades and is in the generativity phase of life where she wants to give back. He is still in his Young Adulthood where he is seeking a foothold in getting love. These are the stages through which we all travel in life as established so many decades ago by Psychologist Erik Erikson. Give back is her message: Stay positive and use what Hillary inspires in us. As one blogger said, “Hillary’s already my President.” Share beautiful odes and videos and links to the warmth that is Hillary – and all our reasons and emotions remain with Hillary as the gal we want in the office.

We think we’re being rational, but we are all being emotional too
This leads to demonization
Demonization is negative
Negativity cannot win

What is important is the To Do List for the future, not accusations about the past
Both sides should stick with facts and reasons about the positive details of their candidates, details about past accomplishments and details about particular substantive areas as they appear now and in the future.
n the future of Iraq, not the past – enough with the speeches about a speech
n the future of universal health care and the quickest road to it – let’s just do it, there’s no good excuse for making it not universal unless you want to be particularly hard on women
n the future of green jobs and how to march out a plan rather than go Ken Starr Monster on each other – are her tax returns more important than the two of you again addressing us with particular questions about foreign policy and your respective know-how?
n the future of women’s rights – how is that part of Hillary’s vision of the future and seemingly absent from Barack’s view, although his wife has that as her project, how to be a professional with kids, like she is herself.
n the future of investigations into the various alleged breaches of the constitution by the current administration – and votes like Barack’s to give the telecoms immunity
n the future of small town and little city America – and Hillary’s lessons from New York on how Washington helps
n the future of the President’s democratic connection with those of us she met on the campaign trail through the internet – and her vision of continuing Town Halls throughout her Presidency
n the future of weaving our returning military into as pleasant a life in the United States as possible with the wounded ones first, but forgetting not one of them who went overseas to protect that which is good about America – with a dozen specific stories of how she turned her particular instances of help into legislation
n the future of listening to our elders, and listening to our elders listen to one another, like the two beautiful ladies down in Texas at the Town Hall
n the future of figuring out how not to lose their voices – they speak for themselves.
n the future of working with Bill and Melinda Gates and Oprah Winfry on intervention in Detroit and Philadelphia and New Orleans and Oakland and Jackson and St. Louis instead of primarily in Africa – we also need an injection into the third world of children right here in the US who have been waiting in line for text books and attention so they could pass some NCLB tests rather than sitting at a computer learning how to operate technology for jobs tomorrow.
That’s what we want to hear about. Not accusations, not personal attacks, not against Hillary, and not against him either.

The negativity of spammers can be ‘ignored’ – they are like dog pee on the front door.
Contempt can be ignored.
Icarus can be remembered.
Judgment that was never put to the test is not fact or reason. It was something that did not occur in the past and who knows what would occur in the future.

Hillary is all about positivity. She is all about being smart. We need to take the granularity of her experience, service, wisdom, wit, and love of Hillary and match it to his flash and cash. Stay positive – let him go negative if he wants to.

No need to be angry about him: he can’t take Hillary’s heart, grace, and experience away from her, and all we have to do is keep spreading the message of who she is, person to person.

I say: Hillary is our new Best Friend. Insist on a “Coffee with Hillary” with one or two of your Hillary-averse companions or co-workers. Sit with Hillary over coffee and a 20 minute video or video collage, maybe read together the interview she gave Judy Woodruff. Listen to her for over an hour in New Orleans. Catch her after Togo West and Wesley Clark introduce her. Just say, “I want you to meet my new Best Friend.” Oh! Start with the two Texas ladies in the Town Hall.

As Mother Theresa of Calcutta put it, “Do not wait for leaders to do it. Do it alone, person to person.”

The Grace of Politics

The 3AM ad presents Hillary as the woman to pick up the phone to deal with the world. What a modality change: an efficient and loving mother to handle a crisis. We like it. She didn't say anything bad about Barack; she said something good about herself. Hillary said McCain has a lifetime of experience. Well, unfortunately, he has: 45 or 50 years, which is as old as Barack is. She didn't say that McCain's experience produced nice results or projects a viable future, just that he has a lifetime of experience. With Hillary's grace, we will find the high road out of this. As Hillary says, "The Party will be together" united to defeat the Republicans. Read speech for Hillary

It is more than experience that Clinton has

Mar 1, 2008

~ From experience, she allowed the natural, human generosity and care for the human race to emerge in the forefront of her actions.

~ From experience, she sees the patterns in the detail and the details in the patterns.

~ From experience, she knows the moves between the Executive Branch and Legislative Branches and how to operate with facility and strength in each of them.

~ From experience, she has been given the opportunity, joys and discernment of sitting and speaking personally to world leaders in 40 countries from China to Kosovo, from Africa to South America.

~ From experience, she has developed the muscle to stick to her points of vision in the face of attack.

~ From her experience as a woman, she has learned to endure and move forward in the political arena with grace.

~ From experience, she has dropped her ego and become one with democratic action and the people.

~ From experience, she feels the needs of the people and encourages our wisdom and action in getting the jobs done.

~ From experience, she is oriented to work, and while she’s an intrepid campaigner, the tone of the campaign is always about you, the people, and the work to be done and not about matters tending towards self-glorification.

~ From experience she knows that in her heart it is better to go to the funeral of the young woman in Texas and to visit her friends in New Orleans at the State of the Black Union rather than to abandon them as if to say that family and race questions in America are not of central importance on the agenda of the Presidency. To her, they remain central.

~ From experience, she knew what it was to be the Senator from New York in Washington DC, on the day of and on the day after and in the year after the attack on New York and Washington DC. She was in the position to work towards the defense of the ideals of our country, when we still had ideals, when we still believed in ourselves, as did the world, in a way that Senator Obama will never know because he was still outside Washington.

~ From experience, she saw how that 2002 vote presented one way to her on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee became, one year later, a tool for Bush and Cheney to begin to behave like a cowboys with guns and more guns-- just to throw away like used up toys and leave behind for our enemies to pick up and recover.

~ By the time Barack got to the Senate later, from experience he learned to see himself vote the same way that Senator Clinton did on the ensnarlment of Iraq.

~ From experience, she knows that the pharmaceuticals and insurance companies will slip right through the hole if you stand before them with anything less than a total, 100%, universal plan for them to accept. Give them a hole, and they set the price. You know that from the experience of 15 years of fighting with the big boys.

~ And from our experience we know that if any American allows himself or herself to open for 15 or 30 minutes to a speech or an interview with this great Senator from New York, he or she will begin to recognize how Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton can fill a heart with gratitude, expand knowledge of the fields of action, and fortifies hope and faith.

She's the real thing, and we will do all within our power to allow the whole world to experience her the way we who have allowed her to speak to us do.

Address of Hillary Rodham Clinton

Address of Hillary Rodham Clinton
Future 44th President of the United States of America

* Americans: I want to be your President. I have been drawing so much support from you—your rallies, letters, stories, ideas, blogs, calls--all your heartfelt contributions. My heart is filled with the energy we have created. It astounds me, and it is deeper and more profound than anything I felt before when I went through this with President Clinton. We are energized in a new way - not because of me, but because of a combination of me, this point in history, and you. We see where the Republican Party is headed (towards more war, more environmental contamination, more inequality), and we citizens want to head in the opposite direction. War, contamination, corruption, and inequality are part of the same mentality, and their opposites are peace, efficiency, love of nature, and sharing.

* I’m a child of the 60s—and that’s a good thing. Sixties kids are now 60. This is our last chance to get it right. There’s too much harshness, too much pain, too much suffering, and too much inequality on this planet. We want a cool world, a green world. We sleep best at night when play well together, not when we fight, whether we win or lose: No one wins a war. No children win a war. We need to start deciding on the basis of what is good for the children, as the Native Americans did—and we can learn from the wisdom of their ways. We need to grow into peace and cooperation, we need to dare to open to sharing and health, we need to examine unrestrained hoarding of wealth of kings and queens. We are the United States and together with the entire world, we need to adapt to our environment, not to adapt our environment to our base instincts. To be an enlightened nation, we need to recognize that we are one and that all people share a goal of peace although not all governments or groups share tactics of peace.

* We will know we are in balance: when more sick or wounded children get looked after, more veterans step back into repaired, post-war lives, more young adults get to open their minds, more kids acquire more skills, including critical thinking, more immigrants learn more English, more quickly, more easily, when all shades and colors mix and learn each other’s plights and prayers and dreams: that is when more creativity can emerge from the human spirit—and that is the spirit of America. When the great Miss Liberty at our New York harbor says, “Give me your tired, your poor,” I believe she is saying now, “Give me those of you who are tired of unregulated corporatism and who are poor from that same unregulated corporatism, and I will find harbor in the rule of law.” Liberty wants to restore the rule of law to America. If we restore our balance of opportunity and justice for all, we restore the middle class.

* The young will soon enough take over the earth; time moves swiftly and carries with it shocking and sometimes scandalous events whose repercussions now ripple ‘around the globe in the blink of an eye. We are always left finishing the jobs someone else started while at the same time new emergencies hit with shock and rapidity. We have to fix a monumental problem started by the ineffective handling of Iraq. Whether the Bush Administration should have or should not have invaded Iraq, they did. American troops were skillful to topple a tyrant and his statue in very short order, but then there followed five long years of mishandling. The mishandling was run by operations that may have been unconstitutional and certainly were lucrative for some—but not for most. Iraq has brought most of us not profits, but confusion, degradation of our reputation, waste, high gas prices, hopelessness, misery, and a lack of planning to get us headed elsewhere. And it's also left us with major terrorists at large.

* What is at the root of this? Is it a love of God or a love of money? We cannot have a Justice Department in the United States that says that for some there can be no justice and for others there is no rule of law. We are out of balance.

* Right now the economy has a hole in it and the hole is called Middle East foreign policy, the ozone has a hole in it and the hole is called depletion, the class structure has a hole in it and the hole is called the middle class. The war, the warming, and the weakening wages—these are undoing of the strength and hope of humanity.

* So what are we going to do about it?

* You bring my campaign energy now, and I ask that your enthusiasm carries on after we win in November and the real work begins. I do not want to become remote and lose this connection with the people. I don’t want to hide behind power. This is a democracy, and you are in charge. I am your Executive. I am the executive of all the people, not two parties.

* Some still think of an executive as a man’s job, but women have overcome gender cages and disproven misconceptions with skill and grace. Plus, many, if not most, gentlemen, by definition, welcome executive women above the glass ceiling. Times—they are a changin’. By being a whole half of humanity, women just bring—with our presence and because of our presence—a balance to the image and essence of governance. When I watched the State of the Union speech last year and for the first time saw a woman’s face in the Triumvirate, I was happy way beyond my beloved Democratic party. I don’t ask my supporters to vote for me because I am a woman—that’s not how we do things. But it is part of the big picture that I am a woman, and we need to balance our picture of leadership. Some say the job of the President is largely ceremonial. I don’t agree, but if we happen to convey in our ceremonies a deep feeling of compassion instead of aggression, a desire for union instead of division, humor instead of humorlessness, and respect instead of contempt, and at times a wee drop of emotion instead of a core of steel—that is ok by me and, I think, by you. We all love our mothers—or we hate ourselves. Sexism is not something that happened to women; sexism happened to all of us. We all need to take the best of the masculine and the feminine and become human. It is time.

* I have learned in many ways how to be a boss, like a man, although I know it is true that some still don’t like that, so I try to keep my sense of humor. But I can run a 3 trillion dollar budget, allocate plenty of it down channels to health care to dam up that particular hole in our life boat, begin to get soldiers back home to their loved ones and their rehabilitation, find out from Al Gore step 1, 2, 3, for United States participation in global balance. I will announce a schedule for a Presidential series of issue-specific Town Halls.

* I will to talk with you every week, but not just like FDR did. I want to dialog. I will welcome Bill Gates and Warren Buffet and Oprah Winfrey to educate us on why humanity needs to roll back the Bush tax breaks. I will begin the welcome of the good people of different sexual preferences into the American family. I will stop the blockage of investigations into breeches of American standards (vanished email, the appointment and firing of Federal judges, warrantless spying, privatization of overseas security forces who are not accountable to the rule of law, and—my least favorite—torture). I will listen to young people who are turned on to the future and those who are turned off. In pursuit of these shared goals, I will do everything in my power to bring back the standards of journalism; entertainment news may be fun, but it’s not funny to divert attention from life and death issues. I will call all of you to the task of raising our children to the high road, where they can learn to be green, not mean, learn to be scientists, not taggers, get off the slider into debt and get to put a foot in the bootstrap that is the middle class of America. A world where young women lead young men into the sacredness that is their union rather than into the shame and burden of single parenthood that comes from lack of education and foresight. I will begin a sea tide of change for the next generation. I will begin that sea change with you, and the Republicans know it.

* I am organizing a better America for you for the time when Obama and I will both be long gone. But you and your kids will be ripe for participation. Fourth graders will be graduating high school and ready to enter colleges when I'm done in 2016, and we’ll be ready for them.

* But my supporters already trust me to begin on Day 1 to rearrange America. So tonight I also want to talk to the supporters of Senator Obama. In my quest for President, I want to be a positive role model. So rather than attack this man whom you love so much, I turn my attention to share and teach you about inside politics and how things actually work on the inside. And as President I will begin to loosen the reins of money on the power of the people. Tonight I want to embark on some of the particulars embedded in the morass called Washington, DC, a place I know so well.

* I have contributions from big corporations; Obama has contributions from big corporations. We are the same; that’s how it works up to this point. I long ago worked as lawyer for a small company called Walmart. I got $18 thousand year. Obama’s wife Michelle worked as a lawyer for a grocery supplier to the now giant company called Walmart. She got over $50 thousand. Her job was recent and mine was long ago, so we can adjust for inflation, and we are the same. I quit because I couldn't get them to agree with my support for labor. And you’ll have to ask her why she quit. But – we are the same. That’s how it works up to this point. I have more earmarks in the game called fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations bill than any other presidential candidate; that’s how it works. I won. Well - New York won. I just facilitated it. When Barack Obama got to the US Senate three years ago, on [air quotes] “Day One” he came to me in my office to learn how to be a Senator. Obama later sponsored a bill to change financing and I helped him with it and support that bill as I have all the other bills before that were like it, and I know the geology of Washington and how to run with them.

* We all want to stop this monolith called special interests. I have put a dent or two in it already, and I will continue. There is pressure when good legislators come in to corporate contributions and let noble bills die. And Senator Obama knows this now that his nuclear power bill died after the executives he fought made contributions to his campaign. We all know what happened to the rookie cop in “Crash.” He thought he was different from the other fellows.

* The enormity of the task of running the United States of America takes some getting used to and I’m glad I know a lot of what goes on in the West Wing as well as Pennsylvania Avenue. I am ready to take over the Oval Office, and I will remember that you are a major part of the equation. If there is one thing I have learned on this campaign it is how brilliant we American people are. We need to see to it that the voice of the American people is not strangled and the interrelations are not controlled by a small group at the top, for that is not democracy. Democracy is in its citizens.

* I have many contributions from citizens; Obama has many more contributions from citizens. Many of mine are “older and wiser” and many of Obama's are younger and full of dreams. I have young supporters, too: they are hard workers and they care about children and health. Obama has many older supporters, too - they are educated and white and many consider themselves "left-wingers."

* Obama has progressive radio and tv talk show hosts for him, bloggers – vying for him - and they have joined right wing radio and tv talk show hosts in revving up the Republicans-Hate-Clintons machine that I have been fighting for years. Now that I have said that, they might be moved to say I am playing victim. I am not a victim. I am still standing after the slanted [air quotes] “reporting” and Senator Obama is sailing over there. That’s just the way it is. Media is either a fickle or an empty thing. The “sound bite” nips at your brain until your desire for detail is eaten through by trivia and your ability to think critically is excised rather than exercised.

* Let’s look at detail, not cloud cover: I voted in 2002 for the inspectors to return to Iraq and for the ability to tell Saddam Hussein that we would use force if we had to; Obama was a Senator in Illinois at the time. In the interim between then and now, Obama said at least once, in public, that he does not know how he would have voted had he been a member of the US Senate at the time. Since then, he and I vote the same on the bills to support our troops, even while we opposed the handling of the occupation.

* I knew that the vote in the Senate against immunity for telecom giants would fail resounding in this slanted administration and that Congress and my vote opposing it would be symbolic only. I know this and my supporters know it. So I kept working on my campaign that afternoon rather than voting the way all my Democratic partners and my Republican opponents and my supporters know I will vote when the bill comes to fruition. We are the same in opposing immunity for telecom giants. Senator Obama misses important duties, too. He gets busy. He missed the State of the Black Union on Saturday.

* On one closely related vote we varied: I voted for Kyle-Lieberman bill; he did not. Many are not versed in the Kyle-Lieberman bill, so we will address this particular detail at our next Town Hall—on the Ides of March. Bottom line: I do not want a war with Iran. Presumably Obama does not want a war with Iran either, but I don't know what he intends to do. We are told to “go to his website,” and to it I have gone. I still cannot tell what he’ll do, but I will tell you what I would do.

* To share vision with substance, I plan a series of Town Halls, aided and abetted by you, your questions and ideas. Here are the first 9. You tell me number 10.
1. Globe: War, Warming, Wealth give way to Peace, Planetary consciousness, Prosperity,
2. Health and Wealth: Ill Health and Wealth give way to Health and Caring
3. Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Illegality gives way to creativity
4. The Isms: Sexism, Racism, Ageism, Homophobia: Fear gives way to Knowledge
5. Infrastructure: crumbling gives way to building
6. Rural America and Small Towns: small is the new cool
7. The Media, Teaching, Ideals: the Media beckons us to our higher selves, not our lower
8. Leadership and Creativity takes over where Infotainment and Testing left off
9. Efficiency, Bureaucracy, Motivation, Innovation – Let’s get you into government
10. that’s up to you

Why have I just given myself so much more work? You can say because I’m a woman – W-O-M-A-N, but I say it’s because I am ready to be the President of the United States. I’ve been saying I’m ready to begin on Day One, this is Day One. We have begun. No more stump speeches. The American public is full of our promises and the American public is ready speak about its needs and its wants and hear the specifics. Let’s talk, let’s listen, let’s get this place organized for a major turnaround into the Green Blue yonder!

Let’s go!

speech for Hillary Clinton