Clinton's campaigning

Okay, this is going to be a political rant. Consider yourself warned.

I am an Obama supporter. I have been since I voted for him for his Senate position in Illinois. I respect his positions on issues, and the way he has run his campaign. He plays fair. He is respectable in how he conducts himself and his campaign helpers. It's admirable. Senator Clinton, on the other hand, makes me angry with her campaign strategy.

[A quick aside: I will not refer to Senator Clinton as simply Hillary, unless referring to Senator Obama as Barack. The discrepancy between calling him Obama and her Hillary is just weird to me - I don't know if she's striving for some degree of familiarity with the American people, like your friend's mom down the street, or what. But if one candidate is going by last name, I'm using last name for all. Just a little pet peeve of mine.]

Okay, back on topic. I just don't like how Clinton is running things. The blogosphere has been ablaze with this quote from Sen. Clinton on Wednesday:

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

Did you catch that? "working, hard-working Americans, white Americans..." and the all the other Americans are what? Non-working, lazy, non-white? That's a dangerous path to be treading, Senator Clinton. These folks agree.

I find it infinitely frustrating that so much of the Democratic party debate lately has come down to race vs. gender. It's not about the color of a person's skin or what's in their pants, folks! It's about integrity, honesty, the ability to lead and to represent a nation. I would love to see a woman in the White House someday. I really would. I just don't like the kind of dishonesty and political games that are coming from the Clinton campaign. It just feels skeezy to me. Yes, skeezy. Like someone trying to slickly coerce you into something without telling you the whole story. Doesn't matter that she's a woman. She could be a hermaphroditic handicapped martian, and if she behaved the way she has I still wouldn't vote for her.

I only hope she'll do the math and bow out soon so we can get down to the business of campaigning for the general election. But that makes me nervous too, as McCain scares the crap out of me. More on him later.