MyDD :: Barack Obama made my mother cry,

Barack Obama made my mother cry,

by Drewid, Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:39:21 AM EST

This was posted a while back on dailykos, I'm cross posting it here for a number of reasons. It's dated, but I hope it makes some people see where I'm coming from. This is mainly for angry mouse.
I hear you.

Original Post:

Any way you slice it, no matter the outcome of this election, it will be historic. We as democrats will (most likely) either nominate an african-american or a woman as our candidate for the first time ever. These possibilities have lead to a very spirited primary season that has made some people very passionate about the nomination of their chosen candidates. For every victory of a candidate and group, don't forget there is a loss felt, hard, out there among another.

Saturday the election came to my state, and let me tell you I am awfully proud of my state, still. I worked pretty darn hard for this win, not as hard as 4 years ago, but hard none the less, and it feels damned good to come out of this weekend with a W. Of course I was there at the convention center Saturday night for Obama's electrifying speech, and after a long day I went to retrieve my doggie from my parents where she had spent the day. I was on an emotional high, pumped up and jazzed, so of course my mood was very celebratory. I got to talking with my mother about how great this was, and she kinda broke down a little.
"Just remember it hurts to see her lose," she said. I told her she did what she could, "you voted for her right?"
"No, I voted for Barack!" she told me. I asked why and the response was quick "because he's the best person for the job," she told me and added "but it hurts because this is the only chance I have in my lifetime of seeing a woman elected president."
She told me she went in and voted, went back got in her car and started crying.
What can I say to that, I tried everything.
Hillary hasn't lost yet.
There are other strong women in elected office (Seblius) that could make a run at it.
Both were dismissed, she's sure Obama will win and she won't see a woman in the WH.
My choice to support Obama was very easy, once I gave up hope of Al running. I know beyond a shadow of I doubt I can never vote, in a primary, for any candidate who voted to give W the power to go to war in Iraq, not now, probably not ever. So my choice was easy.
Not everyone has it as good as I do. For some people their choice in this election is incredibaly hard with downsides in voting for any of the candidates. It means very much to many people to see an african-american or a woman elected.
It's something I didn't quite grasp until Saturday night, and I guess one more lesson my mom taught me. So going forward with this process, I will keep that in mind, and I hope ya'll do too.

Update: Wow, thank you all very much. This makes twice in 3 days my expectations have been blown out of the water. This was kinda supposed to be a drive-thru diary between my shifts at work about something kinda nipping at my thoughts since saturday. I'm very glad it resonated as well as it did. I made it a point to come show my mom all the comments, so thank you to all who put forth positive opinions/positions/support/understanding .

Tags: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, 2008 election (all tags)

Permalink :: 13 Comments :: Post a Comment

Re: Barack Obama made my mother cry, (2.00 / 2)

Did you vote for Kerry in 2004? He voted just like HRC on the war.

"The Bumble Bee flies because it thinks it can."

by LadyEagle on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:48:33 AM EST

Re: Barack Obama made my mother cry, (2.00 / 1)

I voted for Kerry in the GE. I still can't support anyone who voted for the war in the primary. I worked my ass off for Howard.

Because I wont trade humanity for patriotism!

by Drewid on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:52:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Barack Obama made my mother cry, (none / 0)

Can we stop with the lies? Hillary did not vote for the war.

by musicpvm on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:56:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

She voted to authorize the use of military force. (2.00 / 0)

How is voting for a blank check for war not a vote for war?

by bobdoleisevil on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:59:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Barack Obama made my mother cry, (2.00 / 1)

Yeah you're right.
Autorization for use of military force in Iraq, that's what she voted for.
Not war you know.
Damn dude I was trying to be nice.

Because I wont trade humanity for patriotism!

by Drewid on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:05:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Barack Obama made my mother cry, (2.00 / 0)

It was clear to anyone with a clue at the time that a vote for the AUMF was a vote for war. You can play semantic games till the cows come home, but the political reality was that the AUMF equalled war with Iraq.

US citizen overseas? Register! http://votefromabroad.org/

by Kevin Lyda on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:15:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Barack Obama made my mother cry, (2.00 / 0)

It's so strange you believe that.

by mikeinsf on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:38:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Barack Obama made my mother cry, (2.00 / 0)

Neither did the Republicans. No one voted for the war. It just happened.

by Skaje on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 03:02:29 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Might as well not vote for BHO as well (2.00 / 1)

Obama on Iraq: Prior To Joining U.S. Senate
While running for senate in 2003, Sen. Obama acknowledged that he took his anti-war speech off his campaign website, calling it 'dated.' Specifically, State Senator Obama maintains that an October 2002 anti-war speech was removed from his campaign web site because "the speech was dated once the formal phase of the war was over, and my staff's desire to continually provide fresh news clips." [Black Commentator, 6/19/03]

Obama in July 2004: 'There's not much of a difference between my position and George Bush's position [on Iraq] at this stage.' In a meeting with Chicago Tribune reporters at the Democratic National Convention, Obama said, "On Iraq, on paper, there's not as much difference, I think, between the Bush administration and a Kerry administration as there would have been a year ago. [...] There's not much of a difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who's in a position to execute." [Chicago Tribune, 07/27/04]

Obama on 2002 Iraq resolution vote: 'What would I have done? I don't know:' "When asked about Senators Kerry and Edwards' votes on the Iraq war, Obama said, "I'm not privy to Senate intelligence reports," Mr. Obama said. "What would I have done? I don't know. What I know is that from my vantage point the case was not made." [New York Times, 07/26/04]

In September 2004, Obama says he ' would be willing to send more soldiers to Iraq.' [AP, 9/19/04]

Obama on Iraq: U.S. Senate Record
11 months after joining Senate, Sen. Obama delivers first speech devoted to Iraq, says 'US forces are sill part of the solution.' "[T]he level of his criticism lowered when he arrived in Washington. In his first year in the Senate, he delivered one speech on Iraq, calling for a phased withdrawal by the end of 2006. But last November, Mr. Obama revised that time frame, saying the drawdown should begin in four to six months." Obama's Senate web site lists his address to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations on November 22, 2005, 11 months after entering the U.S. Senate. Obama said, "I believe that U.S. forces are still a part of the solution in Iraq." [New York Times, 2/12/07; obama.senate.gov]

18 months after joining Senate, Sen. Obama gives first floor statement devoted to Iraq, opposes timeline for withdrawal. "...But having visited Iraq, I am also acutely aware that a precipitous withdrawal of our troops, driven by congressional edict rather than the realities on the ground, will not undo the mistakes made by this administration. It could compound them." [obama.senate.gov]

Upon arriving in the Senate, Sen. Obama supported every funding bill for Iraq, some $300 billion....until he started running for President. [2005 Vote # 117, HR1268, 5/10/05; 2005 Vote # 326, S1042, 11/15/05; 2006 Vote # 112, HR4939, 5/4/06; 2006 Vote # 239; 2006 Vote # 186, S2766, 6/22/06; HR5631, 9/7/06]

by indus on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 07:17:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Might as well not vote for BHO as well (none / 0)

Without addressing each of those points individually, suffice it to say that none of the actions you mentioned came close to producing the disasterous consequences of Hillary's support for the war. Supporting troops in harms way is NOT the same as sending them there in the first place. Spinning your foreign policy message to appeal to a more conservative electorate is not the same as actually voting in a conservative manner.

by DreamsOfABlueNation on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:30:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Might as well not vote for BHO as well (none / 0)

Did you vote for John Kerry last Election?. BHO was not in the US senate at that time. He had siad he would not have known what he would have done if he had read the intelligence documents?.

It is George Bush's War and not HRC or JK or rest of the senate and congress war.

by indus on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 12:55:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Might as well not vote for BHO as well (none / 0)

I voted for Kerry because the candidates offered no significant difference on Iraq policy. Where we now have a choice btw a candidate who supported the war and one who opposed it, there is a reason to vote for the latter. I admire Obama's openness to the possibility that the Senators who voted for the war may have had secret information unavailable to the public that supported an invasion that -- on its face -- looked unsupported to him. Now that we know that there the Senate had no information unknown to the public (see below) we can be confident that Obama would have done the same thing and that Hillary's vote was unsupported by the facts.

From Senator Lincoln Chafee's (in congress at the time fon the Iraq vote) new book "Against the Tide"

As Mr. Bush pressed insistently for war, Chafee requested a meeting with CIA brass to examine the evidence against Saddam Hussein's regime. "Sooner or later, I have to vote on this war, show me everything you have," Chafee requests of the CIA.

"What they had, I discovered as the meeting stretched into an hour, was next to nothing," recalls Chafee. "They showed me what they had with little comment and no enthusiasm. Someone handed me one of the infamous aluminum tubes, the kind we were told Saddam was using to enrich weapons-grade uranium while plotting mushroom clouds over America, the `smoking gun' that Condoleezza Rice warned about.

"I looked at the aluminum tube, looked at the analysts and thought, I can go buy one of these at Adler's Hardware," the Providence hardware emporium, writes Chafee.

by DreamsOfABlueNation on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:39:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Good diary (2.00 / 0)

Recced.

Student Guy=JoeMentum. No really Student Guy=JoeMentum, after all JoeMentum was an embarrassment so is Student Guy. This sig is FAIL!!

by Student Guy on Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 01:14:13 AM EST

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