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Welcome to the Church of Hillary
Hillaryis44.com is a dark and scary place. There is where you will find the true believers, the hardcore Hillary faithful, who worship her with a white-heat intensity. They meet at the Church of Hillary to commiserate with each other as they desperately cling to the idea that maybe, just maybe, Mother Hillary will find a way to take them all to the promised land.
Hillaryis44.com is a closed society. You will find no dissenting voices there. Hillary is the goddess and Barack Obama is the devil, a point they attempt to prove by spending day after day viciously smearing the presumptive nominee in a way that is eerily and ironically similar to the right-wing attacks directed at Bill and Hillary over the years.
As the idea that all their efforts may be for naught begins to sink in, they are going in a new direction, attempting to organize a boycott of the Democratic party by staying home or voting for John McCain over Barack Obama. They make the argument that Obama in not electable and then attempt to prove their point by stating their intention to not vote for him — a classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Some Hillary supporters (her husband chief among them) have resorted to thinly-veiled extortion, saying that they may be willing to support Obama, but only if Hillary is offered the Veep position. Such a threat puts Obama in a no-win position. If he picks her, he'll look like a pushover who caved to pressure, but if he doesn't pick her, he risks losing the support of the Hillary crowd.
For the gang at Hillaryis44.com, the reason that their heroine has
fallen on hard times is not that her campaign has been badly
mismanaged. It's because she is the victim of sexism and misogyny by
the media and anyone else who does not see the light of their cause. Of
course, they don't talk about the incredibly vicious attacks that she
and her supporters have unleased on Obama during the course of the
campaign, mocking and belittling him, even going so far as to suggest
that the Republican nominee is better qualified to be president. They
are not in the least concerned that such attacks may damage Obama and
the Democratic party - their party - in the general election.
Of course, what's remarkable about this attitude is the glaring short-sightedness it represents. Here is a group of people who, in a fit of pique, are willing to abandon their chosen party and the principles it represents because the candidate of their choice was not selected to be the party's nominee. Never mind that everything they believe in could be overturned by a Supreme Court rendered even more conservative by John McCain. Never mind that McCain represents a party whose leaders, ideas, and principles have created unmitigated disasters for the country. What's important to them is that they exact their revenge.
In my book, anyone who would so easily abandon their party just because they're miffed that their candidate lost is not a true Democrat.
The fact that some Democrats have indicated a willingness to cross over to the dark side and vote for McCain in November is, of course, a concern. Most observers, though, believe that the party will unite behind Obama and the dissenters will eventually come to represent a small, insignificant minority. Much will depend on Hillary Clinton and her enthusiasm or lack thereof towards Obama's candidacy.
The bottom line is this: Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee for president. The historic nature of his candidacy will make for an exciting contest in the fall. His ability to attract Republicans and independents will boost his chances. Hopefully, the Hillary worshippers will come to realize that the Democratic party is bigger than just one person. It represents ideals and principles that are bigger than just one person. Hillary's diehard supporters should celebrate the fact that her historic candidacy, even in defeat, has opened doors for other women (maybe even Hillary) to walk through in future election years. They should join with Hillary and their party to help take back the White House.
Comments (9)
None of this matters now. We are in the heat of this battle and feelings are very strong and very raw.
There will be some nuts who take this the distance. There probably always are. Of course, the longer Hillary incites this, the harder it will be.
But methinks the vast majority of Democrats will feel very differently come November. Methinks it will be very different by mid-September.
Obama will prove himself up to McCain's challenge and when Hillary is finally out of the picture, the stark contrasts between Obama and McCain will be very clear.
Not now. I get that. But it will happen. The voices at hillaryis44 and mydd do not speak for everyone who voted for Hillary.
I'm not all that worried. And I'm a sky-is-falling kind of gal.
May 28, 2008 11:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I've read frequent references to that site, but this was the first time I actually took time out to peruse it. I'll offer but one observation: Aren't you being too kind with your reference to said folk as the "Church"??
Jim Jones referred to HIS particular congregation as a "church" as well. You may better remember them as "The People's Temple".
May 28, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just went there and think you are giving them too much credit.
Who owns that site? There is absolutely no information about the people running it.
The main menu - under the heading "Visit Our Pages" purports to link to topics like "Why Hillary", "Iraq", "Hillary vs. Obama voting records", and "Hilary questions and answers". However, almost all of those link to a "coming soon" page, which also serves as a solicitation for contributions to the Hillary campaign (reasonable) and to the Hillaryis44 website (hmmmm...): they will sell you a button for $10 or a t-shirt for $100 - but can't tell you why you should vote for Hillary.
I dug around trying to find any information at all on who runs the site, which has posts going back to April of 2007. Of course in order to access those old posts you have to manually hack the URL (change the p= number at the end of the url to a lower number to get those old posts; first one is p=3). If you click the archives link, you'll get - you guessed it - the solicitation page.
On the other hand, the link to the "Why not Obama" page works just fine.
Some gems from the first few posts:
4/20/07 "The danger to Democratic victory in 2008 will come...from self-interested, so-called Democratic “progressives” now huddled in their blog fortifications lobbing Republican propaganda grenades at popular Democrats like Hillary.
4/20/07 "We long ago gave up any hope for Edwards and his hapless campaign. We now feel about him the way we feel about other losing candidates - just go away."
And this gem from the very first post, 4/19/20 (emphasis mine): "We will keep an especially sharp eye on “progressives” or Democrats who repeat Republican propaganda to undermine Hillary or any of our candidates." A pledge that they honored for, oh, about a day.
By the way, there is no information whatsoever as to who is behind this web site. The blog posts are written in first person ("We") but none of the ones I looked at carried even a hint about who the "we" might refer to.
The chance that the people behind that website are sincere (if deluded) Hillary supporters is, in my book, pretty slim. Whether their primary purpose is to fan the flames of Democratic internecine conflict (likely) or make a quick buck off of aggrieved Hillary supporters (possible) is not entirely clear. But what is clear to me is this: it's a con job.
May 29, 2008 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hillaryis44.com's domain information is scanty, and the contact information is "private." The following information is available:
Registrant:
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: HILLARYIS44.COM
Created on: 30-Mar-07
Expires on: 30-Mar-09
Last Updated on: 28-Mar-08
Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration HILLARYIS44.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2599
Technical Contact:
Private, Registration HILLARYIS44.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2599
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.BLUEHOST.COM
NS2.BLUEHOST.COM
Registry Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Status: clientRenewProhibited
Registry Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Is it at all suspicious that the proxy is in Arizona, McCain's home state?
May 29, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
You may find http://hillaryis44.blogspot.com/ a bit more fun and entertaining. I believe there is a slate piece about the owner 'admin' of hillaryis44 or as they like to call it "the big pink". I did a quick search but didn't find it. You might have better luck.
There are actually a few sites that poke fun at the community, because really, what else are you going to do?
May 29, 2008 10:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're looking for this article. The admin is a political consultant named Alex Rodriguez. The stinger in the article:
"I know very little about this. But I have been tremendously flattered by your opinion of my Web skills and assumptions about my free time," she emailed.
But she did seem, at least, to know Rodriguez's name.
I'd asked her if she knew "Alex." She then made a joke about the Yankee third baseman, also named Alex Rodriguez. But I hadn't supplied the full name of subject of my story, so I asked how she knew his last name.
"I don't know him. I just heard his name somewhere," she said, denying again any role in the site. "I haven't sent this person anything, ever."
May 30, 2008 1:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
So the only question left is - is he doing it for love or for money?
Ah, the plot thickens! Money indeed:
Rodriguez is using the site to scam illegal on-line Canadian pharmacies by faking ad click-throughs. Wow.
http://barath.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/13/171230/746/921/476062May 30, 2008 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here are some posts by the person who seems to have uncovered this scam:
http://knowwherenow.blogspot.com/search?q=hillaryis44
It seems that once one hacked intermediary has been fixed, Hillaryis44 changes their code to use another compromised server.
The most benign explanation is that Alex Rodriguez is negligently allowing his site to be used for fraudulent purposes. In any case, don't visit unless you have a way to turn off scripts in your browser.
May 30, 2008 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hillaryis44 (the site, not the blog) is actually very funny in that their slant is so glaringly obvious and their chosen expressions are so bitter (yeah, I said it) and blunt that I kind of feel sorry for them. Personally, I think many of them are just venting their disappointment anonymously and will probably vote Dem in the fall regardless of who's the nominee.
The site that freaks me out is TalkLeft - the admin is just as blatantly biased but they discuss their bias in lawyer-speak. Lots of sources, lots of big words, lots of cherry-picking of facts (lots of hassling anyone who tries to defend Obama with contradictory evidence) that it comes across as seemingly objective or at least rational. Reading articles there reminds me of Republican talking points - these guys can look you straight in the face (metaphorically, of course, it's a blog) and twist the facts beyond recognition. People who rely on that site for "information" are being misguided, and that's scary.
(Which isn't to say Obama is perfect and Clinton is all terrible, but for a bunch of people who claim to be liberal Dems, this seems just plain goofy)
May 30, 2008 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
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