The Witherfield Dialogues, Pt.1

The Witherfield Dialogues, Pt.1

Readers: As I'm more than prone to doing, I'm engaged in another battle of ideas with a Hillary Clinton supporter. We'll call that person Witherfield.

We've been engaged since a rather vapid note posting a few days ago. Alack, oh alack, dear readers. They continue to think I want to change their votes, but no! That couldn't be further from the truth. Because, (a) they're few votes are not stopping the tidal wave of support. Eleven in a row to date. And (b), all I want is the proper respect for Barack that the cerebral chip implants seem to disallow and prevent. They launch these scurrilous claims, and I beat em back. I raise my pimp hand of reasoning and swipe down hard with the five fingers of truth.

I try to be fair and call it like I see it. I think she'd make a "competent" president. No less so than Biden or Richardson, or Edwards. But they chomp hard at the bit to keep from saying the same and more. Hope is cheap? It's all talk. He's not tested? Well you all, here it is. The whole dyspeptic screed for you to enjoy. Bon appetit!


Obama takes a free ride to the Oval Office - Vallejo Times Herald
http://www.timesheraldonline.com/jackbungart/ci_83...

Witherfield: Lo siento, I couldn't resist - Yes, I am fully at peace with being the lone black 20-something voting for Hillary. And before you ask...nope, I'm not interested in hope and I'm definitely not interested in uniting with the republicans. It's okay though, I have nothing but love for all of my "Obama" peeps, just not on election day! LOL

Me: Than you certainly picked your horse wisely.

This provoked a much stronger response than I initially expected.

Witherfield: I definitely picked my horse wisely. Showhorses are pretty, but I'll take a workhorse any day of the week. Hope is nice, but I need someone who will fight to improve my situation b/c the republicans ARE NOT going to unite behind either Hillary or Obama's policies. Pretending that they will is not hopeful, it's dangerous, stupid and shortsighted!

Personally, I need someone who is WILLING and ABLE to fight to defend policies that will help those who have been suffering under the current uniter's "compassionate conservativism." Washington and the republicans WILL NOT roll over and unite behind change, especially progressive change. So hope and promises of change are woefully insufficient.

Solutions may not be as cool as hope, but hope doesn't stop home foreclosures, create retirement benefits, healthcare or affordable college tuition. So, yep, I certainly picked right - I'll take a workhorse, who's a fighter, over a showhorse, dishing out pipe dreams of hope, any day of the week.

I would just like to interject here that I withheld the first blow. All of a sudden my guy is a preening debutante and I'm stupid and a threat the general well being of our country.


Me: Workhorse, eh? Allow me to quote the non-partisan research website Factcheck.org for you.

In fact, Obama sponsored more than 800 bills during his eight years as an Illinois state senator. And his U.S. Senate career, while brief, has been action-packed.

As for Obama’s list of his accomplishments, he’s right on every count. A Washington Post editorial credited Obama for helping to create "the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet," and the Coburn-Obama Act created a new Web site, USAspending.gov, which allows anyone to see where federal contracting and grant money is being spent. Moreover, it was an Obama-sponsored amendment that ended Walter Reed's practice of requiring outpatient military personnel to pay for their own meals. And as a state senator in Illinois, Obama championed a bill requiring the police to videotape prisoner interrogations. Although initially controversial, the measure passed the Senate unanimously; even Republicans conceded that the turnaround was largely Obama’s doing.

Finally, while Obama didn’t mention this one, we think it’s worth noting that the Lugar-Obama non-proliferation initiative provided funds for destroying nuclear weapons and for intercepting weapons of mass destruction

In short, Clinton is wrong to suggest that Obama lacks a substantive legislative record.” - factcheck.org

Also…

During the debate on the Fiscal Year 2007 budget, Senator Obama passed an amendment to increase funding for homeless veterans programs by $40 million. These funds would benefit programs that provide food, clothing, mental health and substance abuse counseling, and employment and housing assistance to homeless veterans. As the spouse of an enlisted person, I’m thankful to him for this.

And then there’s my personal favorite. Senator Obama was part of the so called “Gang of 14” who helped to maintain the judicial confirmation process by working in a bipartisan way with Republicans to keep filibusters on the table for controversial appointments. You might roll your eyes, but the next time a Robert Bork comes before the Judiciary Committee you’ll be thanking the Senator from Illinois for all he did.

Man, it looks to me like in fact he does have strong bipartisan record. What’s that about not uniting? I’m pretty confident that the independents and republicans I’ve actually worked with on his campaign in S.C. feel differently.

To your other point it also looks like he does have a proven record. What did they call it again??? Oh that’s right, ACTION PACKED!!! He’s like Batman to your Joker.

I’ll leave it to you to decide whether to debate whether or not Clinton can even win in the general.

And lastly,
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/02/14/senior-mccain-adviser-refuses-to-cam