I am reaching out to former Clinton supporters who no longer support her and think they might have difficulty voting for her in the general election.   I want to understand how you got to this place of opposing her after being a supporter.   Most of us are not the “Hillary Haters” who have an irrational aversion to her that the Clinton supporters portray us to be.

I believe understanding how the Clintons lost us as supporters, could be the key to understanding them, understanding how to get some of them to see our point of view, and also help them better understand us.  So, I’m posting my story of how they lost me below, and I was hoping some of you could explain why you switched.

 I used to be a big Bill Clinton fan.  When I heard he was being interviewed on TV, I was there. While I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about Hillary Clinton, I believed in their “vast right wing conspiracy” and felt her critics were being unfair.  The Ken Starr witch hunt made it easy to believe it. I ignorantly glossed through all the scandals and usually came to the conclusion that they all were all witch hunts with no basis in fact.  I did not take time to read and absorb the news stories or research the issues being discussed.   I also overlooked that other than Bush, no other administration had as many scandals, indictments, or convictions.  By 1999, all the controversies, trials, convictions, suicides and accidents of witnesses finally started to get to me, but I felt that all politicians were corrupt and continued to support them. 

 I assumed that when Clinton ran for office, that I would support her.  I thought having a Democrat in the office again would be good, and it would also be nice to have a female leader.  I did not love her, but I did admire her.  When she and other Democrats voted for the war, I was disappointed.  I realized that most voted that way out of fear of loosing their seat.  However, Hilary went further, she regularly promoted her position and aligned herself with other hawks.  She was not a reluctant co-conspirator like most Dems.  She also voted against the Levin Amendment, which would have tied Bush’s hands from acting unilaterally and became hawkish in general.  I understood that she was doing it to overcome potential resistance to her as president because of her gender, but felt she was selling out for her future run for the Presidency.  However, long after the war became unpopular she was still taking hawkish stances with regards to international issues, so I no longer believe she has taken these positions to appear strong, but is actually being true to herself.  I could no longer support her because I thought that once she got in office it would be likely that she would continue with her hawkish positions.

 That change in my perspective changed the way I saw the news about her.  Instead of glossing over stories assuming that they were part of the “conspiracy,” I would actually listen, read and watch with a more open mind, as well as do my own research.  At first, I still defended her, but not as vigorously.  The more I read and investigated, the more disturbed I got.  By the fall, I was at the point preferring all of the democratic candidates to her, but I still would have voted for her, and I still was a Bill Clinton fan.  When my candidate, Edwards dropped out, I went for Obama.  I do not agree with everything he does, but I do find him inspiring and believe he has a record of reaching out to would be foes, which is what our country needs right now.

Then came the plan to make Obama “the Black candidate.”  As a Black woman who had supported the Clinton’s for so many years, this devastated me.  They cravenly rejected their most loyal constituency, risking dividing the party for her to win.  I think she had a good chance of winning without doing that.  I started researching to find out how I could have missed this about them.  Without my “I love the Clintons” lenses on, they began to seem like monsters on corruption, attacking democrats other than Obama, human rights, the environment, telecommunications monopolies, Haliburton, poverty, cheating, manipulation, bold faced lies…. the list goes on.  I think I just chose to dismiss and excuse this stuff in the past. 

At first, I was angry with myself for being so easily fooled, but when I listen to people who still support Clinton, I see that they sound just like I did.  I understand that many of her supporters, see the Clintons as vilified by the press, republicans, independents,  and now democrats.  They do not really read the bad stuff about them with an open mind because they see all these controversies, not as pattern of behavior, but as more attacks by those who oppose them.   That is why I believe Obama supporters should cut them some slack.  We see her as dividing the party, pitting Black against White, women against men, Latino against Black, women against women, Blue collar against white collar, and Democrat against Democrat, all while motivating republicans to vote for her now to inspire their party to come out to vote for her in the general election.  Some of us believe having them back in the White House would not be better than having Mc Cain in office and that they could cost us the congress again..  They see her as David fighting off the mighty Goliath.

So my question to other former Clinton supporters is what event caused you to stop supporting Clinton?  How do you think current supporters see her current scorched earth tactics that appear to be taking the party down?  Do you think these supporters will wake up like we did or is the story they have been telling democrats too compelling?

My husband just sent me this info about the Vote is Texas.  What do you guys think?  Have you heard anything?

Didn't anybody notice this?

It is now 24 hours after the polls closed in Texas.

In 21 counties, with 100% of precincts reporting, Nobody voted in the Republican presidential primary.

In 3 counties, with 100% of precincts reporting, Nobody voted in the Democratic presidential primary.

In the 21 counties with NO Republican voters, there were
87,919 registered voters, and
36,239 ballots cast,
all of them Democratic.

In the 3 counties with NO Democratic Voters, there were
5,212 registered voters, and
1,865 ballots cast,
all of them Republican.

In Maverick County,
ALL 9,661 ballots cast were Democratic.

In Hansford County,
ALL 1,235 ballots cast were Republican.

ONE-PARTY TEXAS COUNTIES, PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY, 2008

            County        Registered  Republican Democratic
                                  Voters          Votes        Votes
Armstrong            1404          369            0
Borden                  432            0          139
Brooks                6385            0        3185
Cottle                  1230            0          471
Crockett              2654            0          1166
Culberson            1959            0          526
Dickens                1410            0          612
Duval                    9331            0        5053
Foard                  1043            0          432
Hall                      2110            0          813
Hansford              3101        1235              0
Hardeman            2969            0        1086
Hudspeth              1557            0          476
Kent                              665              0              250
La Salle                      4071                0            1392
Loving                    116            0            22
Maverick              26224            0          9661
Reeves                  6337            0          2228
Roberts                  707        261              0
Stonewall              1087            0          483
Throckmorton        1175            0          513
Upton                    2139            0            823
Zapata                  7148            0          3190
Zavala                    7877            0          3718


But don't take my word for it.  See for yourself.


http://enr.sos.state.tx.us/enr/mar04_135_race0.htm

http://enr.sos.state.txus/enr/mar04_136_race0.htm

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/state/ #TX


Election officials in the State of Texas
have some explaining to do.

I have a feeling of deja vu.  The Clinton White House is likely to be again faced with many scandals if Hillary gets in.  Below is a brief description of one.  It involves Hillary and Bill Clintons' long financial relationship Info U.S.A.'s CEO is Vinod Gupta, who now faces questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission and a lawsuit with his company's stockholders over his relationship with the Clintons.

Last year, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton rented out some of her lists to  It is drawing attention because, campaigns usually do not rent out of give access to their donor lists until the campaign is over.  They rented the list for $8,225 however most say it is worth $800,000.  Clinton says the rental was for her Senate campaign and that the rentals took place before she began her formal campaign for president last January.  That would mean that the debt went unpaid for at least 11 months, even though Info U.S.A.  settles accounts within 64 days.

Over $900,000 was spent flying the Clintons to various places, which could violate federal campaigning and ethics rules.   Hilary says he has been reimbursed.  Gupta also owns the Opinion Research Corporation, which conducts the political polling for the television network CNN - which in my opinion is very pro-Hillary.

Vin Gupta has a long history of giving and raising campaign money for the Clintons and after they  left the White House he hired Bill Clinton as a consultant.  Clinton has been paid $3.3 million, in addition to the options on 100,000 shares of stock. The corporate spending on behalf of the Clintons helped fuel a shareholder lawsuit against Gupta and 10 corporate directors.

As usual, I think that as usually, all parties involved will be prosecuted and that the Clinton will get out of this, but it still sounds like a brewing scandal the nation will have to face if Hillary is in office.  

You can read more at NPR

According to an investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Times, Hillary Clinton received $500 - $2,500 contributions totaling $380,000 from dishwashers, waiters and others with low paying jobs from  some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. Most have occupations that would normally make it difficult for them to donate such high amounts of money.   Some of the addresses and phone numbers of these donors proved to be false or non-existent.  Many are recent immigrants from Fujian province and seem to think that if she becomes president,she will be able to reunite them with their families.  Some lack the legal-resident status required for giving campaign money. Most have not registered to vote.  Some speak little or no English. Many said they gave to Clinton because they were instructed to do so by local association leaders.  Clinton has not returned the funds to any of the contributors who gave illegally.

You can read more about the donations and the investigation at The LA Times.

Has Clinton truly been vetted?

Last week, we heard rumors that Obama had purchased two minute blocks of time in all the major markets in OH and TX to appear today through Tuesday.  We I saw it on MSNBC's First Read and I think what his team put together is great.  It speaks to his experience, his positions and his disinterest in player dirty politics with Clinton.  It is a wonderful, eloquent, closing statement, similar to her closing statement at the Austin debates two weeks ago, but more fleshed out and not the words of Edwards or President Clinton.   You can view it at the following link. He might just take her out in both states.  I hope it plays in Rhode Island as well.