keeping note

You can view Hillary Clinton’s speech and sign up for Barack Obama’s website at: hillaryclinton.com or go directly to Obama’s wesite: barackobama.com

I’m a Hillary Clinton supporter and I was sad to see her end her campaign. (But let’s face it, it was inevitable) She put up a great fight, ( a great Machiavellian fight!) but it saddens me to see what has become of her supporters.

I’ve read many comments left on blogs and news articles that upset me and have enraged others. Why is it that former Hillary supporters are willing to change sides rather quickly, just because the Democratic representative is now Barack Obama? If anything, he is the person CLOSEST to Hillary’s ideals and the Democratic Party’s ideals.

In Hillary Clinton’s speech, she understood the need for a UNITED party, not a broken one.

“The way to continue our fight, to accomplish the goals for which we stand, is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States….Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on a vicotry he has won and the extrordinary race he has run. I ENDORSE HIM AND THROW MY FULL SUPPORT BEHIND HIM.”

All those urging others to switch to independent, to vote Republican, just because you hate Barak Obama for irrelevant reasons, I urge you to reconsider. In our system of government, there is no way a third party can win. It’s not built to support a third party. Majority of the populous will vote either Democrat (Obama) or Republican (McCain) and (in my opinion), a third party vote in this upcoming election, will be a waste. Those votes can go to the party you truly support. Have we forgotten the 2000 election when the Nader votes could have gone else where?

I have also read ridiculous reasons from various blogs and other sources, such as AOL’s straw pole, to not vote for Obama and ways to libel his name. I read a comment that said, “He’s not an American citizen. His father is from Africa. It’s being investigated.” Well, someone has not done their reading. Yes, his father is African, but his mother is an American citizen, which makes him an American citizen.

Another comment was a rant about how he never wore the American flag pin until now and how he’s never saluted when the national anthem was played. Are you serious?! This is your strongest reason not to vote for a leader? There are more important issues to follow when choosing a candidate. Also, a lot of people have been put of by his name, Barack Hussein Obama. Once again, this is the last thing you should focus on. If anything, this is a prejudicial judgement based on his name and not his leadership skills. Let me remind you of another point in Hillary Clinton’s speech,

“There are no acceptable limits, no acceptable prejudices, in the 21st century.”

Instead of spending your energy focusing on trifles, read about him and his ideas. Research what he supports, what he doesn’t support and what he plans for this country and then make your judgements. If you truly do not agree with him and find that you agree with other ideas, then fine. Just don’t take action based on shallow reasoning.

It is my hope that the Democratic party will stand together, rather than divided. In 40 years, there have been 10 presidential elections where only 3 terms were served by a Democrat. ( 2 terms belonged to Bill Clinton.) Let us try to put a Democrat back in office. If you are Hillary Clinton supporter then try to support her wishes and support Barack Obama.

Using Hillary Clinton’s words:

“The Democratic Party is a family and now it is time to restore the ties that bind us together and to come together around the ideals we share, the values we cherish and the country we love. We may have started on separate journeys, but today our paths have merged and we’re all heading towards the same destination, united and more ready than ever to win in November, and two turn our country around because so much is at stake.”

(Not all that write for KN follow the Democratic Party. Although, classified as a Moderate myself, I tend to lean towards the Democratic Party.)

Youtube.com is the greatest thing ever introduced to the classroom!

In my journalism class, my professor showed us a four year old clip of Jon Stewart as a guest on Crossfire.

From the clip, I gathered that shows like Crossfire add to the smoke screen that politicians have when it comes to avoiding and addressing issues that citizens want answered clearly. They don’t provide civil discourse and they invoke irritability and impatience when it comes to many learning about politics.

Stewart best said on Crossfire, “We need help from the media and they’re hurting us.”

Shows like Crossfire add to the smoke screen that politicians have when it comes to avoiding and addressing issues that citizens want to be addressed. They don’t provide civil discourse and they invoke irritability and impatience when it comes to us learning about politics.

It really made a connection with the book I’m reading for the same class called, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect

I highlighted from the book a quote that said, “The central purpose of journalism is to tell the truth so that people will have the information that they need to be sovereign” (pg 14).

They’re doing the public a disservice as “journalists”. Between the yelling, ahems! and the excuse me(s) (repeated so many damn times) I’ve learned nothing. The show doesn’t provide me with anything to make a better decision at all, except when it comes to watching the news- don’t watch Crossfire.

With everyone campaigning and the presidency up for grabs this year it’s so important for people to learn about the candidates and their platforms. The last eight years have been a trip (down south many would say) so don’t look for theatrics, look for information. If you want theatrics let a nation of uniformed people take to voting; then you’ll have your tragedy.