On this blog there is a long archive which, at some point in August, I began entitling "Media Reads on a Hillary Run." The comment threads on those posts are chock-full of comments from HRC's supporters who wish she would run again for POTUS and not wait until 2016 to do so. Many of us are dissatisfied to the point of infinite frustration with the way Barack Obama has squandered his golden opportunity to bring real change as he promised. Most of us did not vote for him and did vote for HRC.
The list of reasons is long, but encapsulated comprises:
1. The Leadership Deficit: Obama's inability to break the shell of his West Wing office and reach out to the opposition in a human and social fashion. He would have been far more effective with the GOP had he approached them as human beings, had a few people, Boehner, McConnell over for lunch, and given Lisa Murkowski a congratulatory call for her amazing write-in victory, than he proved to be by having them over for secret meetings where he lectured and adopted the stance of "the adult in the room."
2. The Stalled Car: For a long period last year, he and his speech writers really liked that car metaphor, but the truth was that the car was stalled. It stalled over the Gulf oil spill and the jobs the government could have generated with a CCC type effort to clean up the gulf. In fact, from day one, jobs should have been a priority but were put on a back burner for a badly flawed and wanting health care plan wherein he withdrew the single payer option.
3. The Phenomenal Collapsing President: Every time the Republicans stood shoulder to shoulder, Obama simply laid down on the tracks and gave the GOP what they wanted (or he thought they wanted) before they even demanded it. He was, according to John Conyers, the one who offered up the social safety nets on a silver platter before they even brought up that subject during last August's budget crisis. The GOP candidates are correct. Obama is an appeaser. Not in foreign policy. He appeases them on domestic issues without even being asked. We have seen almost three years of this!
4. The Hesitation Blues: How long must we wait? Obama left for an August vacay saying he would introduce a jobs bill after he got back .. after Labor Day. Americans who are out of work could not afford that wait. They do not have vacations, and, while Labor Day is a holiday for those of us who have jobs, they have no holidays. It is simply another day when they cannot look for a job. In the foreign policy arena, he waited longer than necessary to establish the No Fly Zone in Libya, and we do know that HRC rounded up a posse to change his mind.
So this evening I have no media articles to prompt this post. Instead I have a short conversation between my friend Rumana and President Clinton this afternoon at a book signing in Chappaqua. Here is Rumana's synopsis:
I said you should go to S4h FB page and see we are encouraging her. He put his hand on my shoulder and said if lot more people encourage her maybe she will run. I said Mr. President we are talking about 2012 please do something. He said she needs to know you are there for her and I said please tell her. ;)So this is OUR golden opportunity! Please comment here, but also at the Facebook page. President Clinton, and maybe even our preferred candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be looking there for our encouragement. Let's go all out this weekend and let her see the support that is out here!
Hillary, may we have this dance? You are the best hope to put this country back on the rails. You are the best qualified for this hands down! We need you! Please, please listen to us. Please run!!!!
