Innocence lost
Or why I, a life long Democrat, am voting McCain.
Hillary was not my first pick. I preferred Edwards’ stands specifically on poverty and on minorities and labor. And his standing by his wife battling an incurable cancer. And the loss of his eldest son in a car crash at the age of 17. I prefer my leaders to have been tested by life tragedies. That’s put things in perspective for them and keeps in check their enormous ego otherwise needed to pursue and assume the Presidency of the United States.
I became a Hillary’s supporter that day in January in New Hampshire when she reminded me in a moment of strong emotion, why and what she was fighting for. She was speaking to me. I owed her my support.
And during the primaries, I witnessed the birth of a political giant. From a good candidate she morphed into an incredible leader transcending race, gender and social and professional background. And such in spite of, or may be because of, the despicable sexism demonstrated from the MSM against her and their bias in favor of Obama.
To any close look observer, the Democrat primaries mechanics has been nothing but a big scheme. From the very beginning, the game was tainted by the party’s leaders. The schedule had been modified in favor of caucuses to stack them early in the process.
The two primary states which also wanted to come earlier than usual, Florida and Michigan, were immediately warned of sanctions. The two caucus states wanting the same were approved no question asked.
We know now how Acorn, together with an army of underground volunteers secretly trained in the art of gaming elections during the Summer and Fall of 2007 in what were called “Camps Obama”, got ready to perpetuate the biggest and unprecedented caucus fraud. (see previous post : http://hillary.meilleur.choix.qu-obama.over-blog.com/article-22229301.html )
All throughout the primary campaign, results of the votes from Florida and Michigan, two of the largest population states, were never counted in an effort to promote the illusion of a sure lead for Obama.
On May 31, 2008, just 4 days before the last primary vote and behind close doors, the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democrat Party decided on the status of Florida and Michigan results: Florida results would only count for half. And in Michigan where Hillary was the only candidate on the ticket, Obama having voluntarily withdrawn his name when the polls had turned against him all the while pretending concern for respecting the rules (respect which in the context of Florida was not that important to him), the vote results were manipulated in the worse Banana Republic fashion. All the undecided votes were given to Obama irrespectively of Edwards supporters AND ENOUGH CLINTON VOTES TO AMOUNT TO 4 DELEGATES WERE TAKEN FROM CLINTON AND GIVEN TO OBAMA.
On June 1, 2008, PUMA was born out of rejecting the Party Unity line pushed by Democrat leaders.
On May 31, when I was cursing at my TV outraged by the RBC decision and mad as hell, I did not know that thousands of other democrats throughout the nation were as disgusted as I was.
On June 6, 2008, I officially changed my party registration in protest, therefore quitting the Democrat Party.
End of June, having by chance heard a PUMA speaking on Fox News, I joined the PUMA coalition.
During the entire month of July, PUMA fought to have Hillary’s name entered into nomination at the Convention. Indeed Hillary had not conceded, but only suspended her campaign. And Obama, even after all the fraud and manipulation perpetuated by his campaign, had not succeeded to pass the magic number of delegates needed to secure the nomination. Hillary was therefore still in the game.
At the Convention, candidates can have their names enter into nomination either by the President of the Convention or by delegates petitioning it. Howard Dean, the President of the Convention was refusing to nominate Hillary, hence disregarding not only the historical aspect of her candidacy but the 18 millions of democrats having voted for her. The only candidate at the Convention would be Obama. So had decided the party leaders.
Outraged, determined and on its own, PUMA contacted delegates one by one in order to have them sign a petition to enter Hillary’s name into the nomination and to have their signature certified. By the beginning of August, when it became obvious PUMA had more than the numbers needed on the petition and when Hillary expressed her intend to sign on the petition in order to validate it, Obama’s campaign inundated the MSM with the message that Obama would “authorize” Hillary’s name to be entered into nomination in the spirit of party unity.
Party Unity My Ass! PUMA.
By the time the Convention opened, and just one day after the RBC reversed his previous ruling on Florida and Michigan vote statuses, reinstating their full voting powers as originally certified by their respective election state officials, Clinton and Obama were only separated by 17 delegates. That’s less than 0,5%.
Scared at the idea of a possible Hillary’s victory, the party leaders moved to another tactic. The day before the roll-call was to be taken on the floor of the Convention, they announce that for the first time in History, the final vote would not be public and that the roll-call would be abbreviated. Several delegations rebelled. In protest, the entire California delegation appeared for breakfast gagged with napkins. That’s more than 200 delegates.
Soon after the announcement and all night long, PUMA and numerous Clinton delegates, among which Gloria Allred the famous California lawyer, tried to gather the signatures of the 800 delegates needed to block the measure and force a traditional roll-call on the floor. They run out of time. By morning they only had 600 signatures.
That morning, after breakfast, a first secret « estimation » vote took place within each delegation. The result of this vote, the only comprehensive vote which ever took place at the Convention, is to this day, only known to party leaders and Obama’s campaign directors. It has never been officially recorded.
In the afternoon, a shame of a roll-call took place. Several delegations supporting Clinton asked to pass to enforce the visuals of Obama’s lead. Other delegations, like New Jersey voted unanimously for Obama, therefore negating the will of the constituency they were supposed to represent, constituency which largely voted for Clinton in the primary.
The roll-call had not yet passed mid-point when it was interrupted at the request of the New York delegation led by Hillary who could not force herself to look up. Seconds later, the candidacy was given to Obama by a brief and shameful acclamation.
We will never know the actual count of the roll-call. There was no roll-call.
And that day, I, a life long Democrat, decided no to leave the top of my ticket blank but to vote McCain.
I never came back on my decision. A week later, McCain chose for VP a woman of my generation. A brilliant governor. A governor enjoying a 82% approval rate in her state. The mother of a special need child and of one of our troops fighting in Iraq.
I will not celebrate McCain’s victory, but it will satisfy me.
ARTICLE WRITTEN BY : FRENCH NAIL