Uh Oh!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-04-2003
Uh Oh!!!
65
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 7:15pm

Obama Speechwriter Drops Obama to back John McCain

Obama Speechwriter Wendy Button* had enough. Enough of the Democratic party’s belittlement of the middle class and women, and enough of The One. Wendy now supports John McCain.

From Wendy….

Since I started writing speeches more than ten years ago, I have always believed in the Democratic Party. Not anymore. Not after the election of 2008. This transformation has been swift and complete and since I’m a woman writing in the election of 2008, “very emotional.”When we first met, Obama and I had a nice conversation about speeches and writing, and at the end of the meeting I handed him a pocket-sized bottle of Grey Poupon mustard so he wouldn’t have to ask staff if it was okay to put it on his hamburger. At the bottom of the bottle was the logo for “The South Beach Diet” and he snapped, “Oh so you read People magazine.” He seemed to think that I was commenting on his bathing suit picture.

I helped with his announcement speech and others. I worked in the Senate when he was in D.C. One day after a hearing on Darfur, we were walking back to the office. I was still hobbling from a very bad ankle injury and in a very kind and gentle way he offered his arm when we approached the stairs. But later in debate preps and phone conversations and meetings, I realized that I had made a mistake. I didn’t belong. No matter how hard I tried, my heart wasn’t in it anymore.

…The final straw came the other week when Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher (a.k.a Joe the Plumber) asked a question about higher taxes for small businesses. Instead of celebrating his aspirations, they were mocked. He wasn’t “a real plumber,” and “They’re fighting for Joe the Hedge-Fund manager,” and the patronizing, “I’ve got nothing but love for Joe the Plumber.”

Having worked in politics, I know that absolutely none of this is on the level. This back and forth is posturing, a charade, and a political game. These lines are what I refer to as “hooker lines”—a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they’re reporting meaningful news.

As the nation slouches toward disaster, the level of political discourse is unworthy of this moment in history. We have Republicans raising Ayers and Democrats fostering ageism with “erratic” and jokes about Depends. Sexism. Racism. Ageism and maybe some Socialism have all made their ugly cameos in election 2008. It’s not inspiring. Perhaps this is why I found the initial mocking of Joe so offensive and I realized an old line applied: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me.”

The party I believed in wouldn’t look down on working people under any circumstance. And Joe the Plumber is right. This is the absolutely worst time to raise taxes on anyone: the rich, the middle class, the poor, small businesses and corporations.

…Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates. At first, certain Democrats and the press called Senator Clinton “dishonest.” They went after her cleavage. They said her experience as First Lady consisted of having tea parties. There was no outrage over “Bros before Hoes” or “Iron My Shirt.” Did Senator Clinton make mistakes? Of course. She’s human.

But here we are about a week out and it’s déjà vu all over again. Really, front-page news is how the Republican National Committee paid for Governor Sarah Palin’s wardrobe? Where’s the op-ed about how Obama tucks in his shirt when he plays basketball or how Senator Biden buttons the top button on his golf shirt?

…Governor Palin and I don’t agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can’t learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national stage with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday Night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot—that’s a sign of both humor and humanity.

Has she made mistakes? Of course, she’s human too. But the attention paid to her mistakes has been unprecedented compared to Senator Obama’s “57 states” remarks or Senator Biden using a version of the Samuel Johnson quote, “There’s nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus a man’s thoughts.”

…I was dead wrong about the surge and thought it would be a disaster. Senator John McCain led when many of us were ready to quit. Yet we march on as if nothing has changed, wedded to an old plan, and that too is a long way from the Democratic Party.

I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.

*Wendy Button has written for Democratic Senators John Edwards, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and John Kerry, and for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. She received her MFA in writing from Bennington College.

http://mindmining.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/obama-speechwriter-drops-obama-to-back-john-mccain/

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-29-2008
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 10:45am
Are you saying that Democrats "stand for" sexism, ageism, and mocking of ordinary citizens? These are the things that she says she is against.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-29-2008
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 10:48am

Why not? If he likes Dijon Mustard, it seems like a nice gesture to me.

Raising taxes will harm the economy. We need strategies that BOOST the economy. I think cutting the HUGE WASTEFUL SPENDING is a good start.




Edited 11/3/2008 11:18 am ET by chillychillychilly
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-26-2008
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 10:49am
Now I agree with you on that - lets start with the 10 billion per month we waste in Iraq....
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-23-2002
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 10:54am
I do not think that Democrats stand for that kind of ignorance, and that is why I find it hard to believe she is serious. Some people can believe everything they read, and some can question the validity of it. I made my own assumption based on her comments.


LDR Board
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-29-2008
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 10:57am

I am sure that there is wasteful spending in Iraq, just like there is in every other government operation. John McCain is more likely to cut the wasteful spending over there, as he has already saved our military huge amounts in contracts.

Obama wants to get the troops out of Iraq in 16 months - (at which time Al Qaida can move in and take over, and all of our efforts will have been for nothing.) AND MOVE THEM TO AFGHANISTAN! NO MONEY SAVED THERE!!! Actually MORE money will be spent moving them and messing up what we already have going that is finally seeing success...

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-2005
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 10:58am

Yeah, I don't like McCain/Palin either, for the same reasons.


It's funny that the anti-Affirmative Action party has an affirmative action candidate for VP.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-29-2008
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 11:01am

You said, "Supposedly she was a democrat, but says she is now against everything democrats stood for. Give me break."

The ONLY things she stated that she was against were sexism, racism, ageism, and belittling ordinary citizens. So.... are you saying that these things are "everything democrats stand for"?

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-08-2008
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 11:05am

Okey dokey.


 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-29-2008
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 11:06am

For the "same reasons"? Please explain. How are McCain-Palin sexist, ageist, and mocking of ordinary citizens? Please cite examples.

I won't argue Affirmative Action with you, because I personally am very pro- Affirmative Action. If she was chosen in part for that reason, I would be happy to see the Republicans moving in that direction.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-26-2008
In reply to: burgerville1994
Mon, 11-03-2008 - 11:23am
We should have never been in Iraq in the first place.

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