Chelsea and America Campaign for Hillary

Look at Chelsea! She's all grown up. I can't believe she's 27 now. She's such a well-spoken, intelligent young woman. Her parents must be proud!

Not so Hardball

I lost all respect for Chris Matthews when I heard him make this statement:


So then I heard him apologize. Eh. Not sure it matters to me. Nice try. Keith Olberman you're not.

Bill Clinton didn't change this country?

I'm trying to figure out what he meant by this statement. It's true that Ronald Reagan DID put this country on a different path, but it sure wasn't the right one! I don't know about you, but I didn't benefit from anything Ronald Reagan did. In fact, I doubt many middle class people really felt good about the economy when he was in office.

I remember the hope I felt when President Clinton was elected. I remember the effect his presidency had on MY family personally. The 90's were a good time economically. Surely Mr. Obama isn't trying to reduce the accomplishments of the Clinton presidency just because he's now running against Hillary Clinton...is he?

From Wikipedia:

Clinton left office with a 65% approval rating, the highest end-of-presidency
rating of any President that came into office after World War II

Shortly after taking office, Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of
1993, which required large employers to allow their employees to take unpaid
leave because of pregnancy or a serious medical condition.

In August 1993, Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993,
which passed Congress without a single Republican vote. It raised taxes on
the wealthiest 1.2% of taxpayers,[36] while cutting taxes for 15 million low-income
families and making tax cuts available to 90% of small businesses.[37] Additionally, it mandated that the budget be balanced over a number of years, through the implementation of spending restraints.

But maybe those years of Reaganomics and Iran-Contra WERE better. Hmmmmm...

Kids Are People, Too

If you're one of the "thirty-something" generation like me, you probably remember the show Kids Are People, Too! In the spirit of that show, here's a blog interview with my 11 yr old liberal kid. This was unrehearsed and some of his thoughts surprised me--at least his way of looking at things.

Do endorsements matter?

I'm not sure if they do. My reaction to hearing John Kerry was endorsing Obama was kind of a "so what?" one. Does anyone care much what John Kerry has to say these days? I'm not sure. I don't think it hurt Hillary, but it certainly had some ramifications in the Edwards camp. It seemed a little bit of a low blow to endorse the other guy when your former running mate is running against him. Kind of makes you wonder, huh?

At this point, do endorsements matter? I really don't care who endorses whom at this point. I know who is getting my support and if the mayor of Mayberry supports someone else, it won't matter to me.

Take the quiz!

This is kind of a cool quiz to help you figure out which candidate suits you. I'm glad to see I'm supporting the right person!

87% Hillary Clinton
85% Chris Dodd
85% John Edwards
85% Barack Obama
82% Dennis Kucinich
82% Mike Gravel
78% Joe Biden
77% Bill Richardson
41% Rudy Giuliani
30% John McCain
22% Tom Tancredo
21% Mike Huckabee
20% Mitt Romney
15% Ron Paul
11% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz <---click here!

Get over it. She won!

How interesting to see all the talking heads and pundits try to figure out HOW Hillary won in New Hampshire. I mean, their "polls" all said she was going to lose in a major way. How could their polls be wrong?

I heard Chris Matthews accuse people in NH of being racist. He said they just couldn't vote for a black man when they got to vote "in secret." The argument being that the Iowa caucuses require that you publicly state who you're for, but in NH, it's a secret ballot. I think that's just a little off. I guess most of myself wants to just believe that race had nothing to do with it.

Other reasons were offered up. People felt sorry for Hillary. More people turned out. Why not just accept your polls were wrong this time? Maybe people changed their minds. I tend to think the huge turn out may have skewed the polls. Whatever the case, why can't the pundits just say "Hey, we made a mistake."

I've watched a general negative tone regarding Hillary for many months from certain MSNBC anchors. Just a random fact... Mika Brzezinski's father is one of Obama's most trusted advisors. Makes you go hmmmm...

The entire media tried to destroy Hillary in the days before the NH primary. I saw it with my own eyes. Perhaps, the reason Hillary won is because the people of this country didn't like the attack on her. Maybe. Or could it possibly be that people just LIKE the Clintons? I was hoping Hillary's victory speech in NH would start with "You like me! You really like me!" Maybe she's saving that line for later!

More lives lost

Nine American lives were lost in Iraq on Tuesday and Wednesday. I won't recount the article for you. If you've had the news on, you've seen it.

The economy has taken on great importance over the past few months. It's certainly affecting me and you can see the candidates are also noticing. One quote I heard last night from one of the talking heads was that the economic indicator Bill Clinton paid attention to most was the price of gas. It seems that as the economy takes a downward swing, we hear less and less about Iraq.

I hate this war as much as anyone can and I've been against it from the beginning. I hear promises from most of the Democratic candidates to get us out of Iraq quickly and while that sounds wonderful to me, I can't lose sight of the fact that it's not going to be that easy. The next president can't just walk into the Oval Office and say "bring them home NOW." And POOF it's all over. It isn't going to work that way. We've been there a LONG time. It's going to take a while to get them home.

Not only our soldiers, but what about all our civilians who are over there working? I've heard estimates of 100,000+ American civilians working in Iraq--most for private contractors. How do we get them all home safely--and quickly? Realistically, this pull out will take months--at least. Hillary is the only person I've heard mention the civilians working there.

What about the safety of the Iraqi people? What about all the destruction we helped cause? Shouldn't we have to stick around and clean up our mess? Don't get me wrong. I want this war ENDED yesterday, but how in the world do we do that? It isn't going to be as simple as some people--including some of the candidates--seem to think.

One down! Many more to go!

I took a little hiatus from politics. I needed some time to recharge my mind...and my heart. Tonight, I realized I had to come back. It's in my soul. I was very disappointed when Hillary didn't win in Iowa. You know, it's nothing against Obama. It's just that it means so much to me--as a woman--to see another woman succeed! I want it so much for us. I want it for our kids. I admire Senator Clinton a great deal. I feel a bit of a kinship with her just because she's a mom.

I listened to the talking heads over the past few days. They all said she was going to lose--BIG. I was heartsick. I don't live in New Hampshire, so there was nothing I could do about it except hope their polls were wrong. I felt a dream I had for myself--for my daughter--slipping away. Unless you've been under a rock, however, you know...



Hillary won! Hillary Clinton WON the New Hampshire Democratic Presidential Primary! No woman has EVER won a presidential primary! HISTORY HAS BEEN MADE!

I woke my kids to watch her speech. I cried. It was historic. Once again, I have hope. When she said she listened to NH and found her own voice, it was what I needed to hear. I think her message will resonate with many in the country. I know we have a long way to go, but I have hope. I'm starting to hear "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" in my head just like I did in 1992. And I'm starting to allow hope to enter my heart the way it hasn't in almost eight years.