Friday, April 04, 2008

Obama and Clinton need to stop defeatist talk

In this election season, we have had something unprecedented in our nation's history. Not only do we have a black candidate for office, we also have a female candidate. As with most elections, things have gotten tense and contentious at times. Each is trying to treat the other like a rival candidate - but not too much, because one doesn't want to be accused of racism on the one hand, and sexism on the other. And the GOP candidate keeps apologizing whenever he feels that one of his supporters made a comment that MIGHT possibly be construed as racist or sexist.

It's for this latter reason that conservative blowhard Rush Limbaugh has been conducting his "Operation Chaos: Rush the Vote", so that the two Dem candidates can rough each other up, because it's okay if they rough each other up, because each belongs to one of the Democratic Party's classical "victim's group" - namely, blacks and women. Limbaugh figures that if the GOP won't lay a finger on them, then the two Dems will have to "bloody" each other up. It's why his radio show has been encouraging normally GOP voters to vote in the Democratic primaries so as to keep Hillary Clinton in the race. I discuss Operation Chaos in another blog entry, so refer to that.

Anyway, there have been times when either Obama, Clinton, or some of their supporters have expressed their frustration with words along the lines of "Maybe this country isn't ready for a black/female president." Know what that is? It's defeatist talk. Both of these candidates need to realize something: Not just the black candidate, not just the female candidate, but BOTH candidates beat out white dudes to get to where they are! So HELL YEAH, people are ready for either a black president or a female president!

So they and their supporters need to shut such stupid talk up, because it comes across as whiny. Not only that, whichever candidate ends up losing will have to keep from saying "People turned me down because I'm black/female!" The reason for that is because, as the first representatives of their respective "victim's group", they need to lose with dignity. That is, they need to show that their "victim's group" is capable of handling their loss in a manner that suggests that "the people have spoken, thus the case is closed". No whining, no fussing that there was cheating or voter manipulation, or Rush Limbaugh messed them up, or any of that nonsense. As precedent-setters, they need to set the precedent on how to handle losing. And throwing tantrums isn't going to cut it!

Given the tone that the election has had so far, I don't anticipate a graceful exit from happening, but hey, at least I told them what to do.

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