Night Two with the Democrats: Hillary Clinton at the DNC

Who do I love? Hillary Clinton. I love her.

#1. The intro video was completely awesome. I laughed, I cried, I had five more daughters so they could appreciate her awesomeness too. Whoever is making these DNC videos did a brilliant, magical job. I liked Michelle Obama's, I liked Hillary Clinton's, I am all about the mini-documentaries that are like music videos, campaign commercials, I don't know what. Thunderous applause.

#2. Orange is the new black. Hello, I told you this like eight years ago. Approximately the time I gave birth to a baby who sported improbably orange hair. I reiterated this four years later with another orange-headed child. Hillary's orange pantsuit was like a special message just for me. In fact, Hillary and I are now BFFs and I need to go now so I can call her and make plans for shopping. She also wants to mentor me through the rest of my life choices. Which is just so like her, you know?

#3. Hillary's speech was the best I have ever heard her give. It was strong, funny, inspiring, smart, and it was delivered with class and composure. All day long I had been hearing people saying "Hillary has to..." and "Hillary needs to..." You know, like "Hillary has to unify the party!" and "Hillary has to convince her supporters to embrace Obama!" I even heard "Hillary has to apologize!" There was this sense that she was going to pay lip service to Obama while winking at her supporters that she really wants them to stick with her. There was NONE of that. I kept thinking, hearing all this punditration about what Hillary has to needs to must do, and I thought, you know, what if she just gives a badass speech. That is what she did. When she hit the Harriet Tubman part, I was almost on my feet, sitting here in the living room. It was very good. Here's the full transcript.

#4. The parade of governors that lead up to Hillary's speech was so cool! In particular, Brian Schweitzer of Montana. Wow, that guy was awesome! I was ready to buy a car from him. I also enjoyed Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and of course our own dear Mark Warner, who is so smart and original and just exudes confidence and competence.

#5. I am skipping the convention tonight so I can watch Project Runway and go to bed early. I like Bill Clinton and Joe Biden as much as the next girl (well, maybe not) but I need an injection of BRAVO to give me hope for the future, after that lady on CNN broke my heart last night. Did you see her? Post-Hillary Tomorrow we're heading back to Virginia. We'll be watching the acceptance speech on the big screen tomorrow night.

(I LOVE HILLARY!)

Sadie for Hillary, Hillary for Sadie

Sadie's Ahno posted a blog about supporting Hillary Clinton, using Sadie and little girls like Sadie as a reason to do so. I think it's pretty cool. Go here to see.

I made the hat that Sadie's wearing in the pictures:

Other People's Candidates are like Other People's Boyfriends

Edited to add the following context: I originally wrote this as a diary on the community blog for democrats called DailyKos. On that site, there is an epidemic of candidate-bashing, so violent that lately if you say anything pro-Hillary, you get a railroad spike in the eye. This blog/diary was in response to that problem. So, it's only meant to address and enlighten fellow treehugging librulls, not friends who are republicans or independents! If you are a republican or independent, you are welcome and encouraged to bash Hillary to me all day! :) :) Because you don't have to vote for her if she ends up the nominee, obviously. You can vote for your guy. As long as it's not Mitt Romney.

Who hasn't been in this situation? Your friend is dating a guy you find repulsive. You think he's politically backward, or he has a career you don't respect, or maybe you even caught him ogling a waitress while your friend was in the bathroom. Or... your friend supports a candidate you despise. You think he's a weak golfer, or she's a closet cannibal, or he's soft on redwoods, or she's got cankles. What do you do?

I'll tell you what you don't do, if you're smart. You don't march up to your friend and tell her, "Your boyfriend is a lying cheating ugly racist whoremongering bastard and marrying him will ruin your life."

Why? Three reasons:

1. That friend's boyfriend may become that friend's husband. Now you become the enemy. You're now the jerk that talked mean about her man, and it's them against the world, and you were (obviously) so wrong about him and how can she ever trust your opinion on anything again? True, they may be doomed. He may truly be a jerk. He may ruin her life and she may ditch him in six months. But saying "I told you so" isn't going to go far to heal your relationship with her.

That friend's candidate might become your party's nominee. What then? You either have to now eat everything you said and vote for this guy/gal, or you have to stick nobly to your opinion, and write in your mother. Whatever you do about the voting, consider where you now stand with your friend. Is she gloating? Are you bitter? Is this helping?

2. You cannot change your friend's mind by getting nasty. If you feel you must state the facts, to protect her from certain disaster, then quietly state the facts. But remember: she is in love. Love is blind. Candidate-love can be like this too. Lashing out against the candidate will most likely only make her love him/her more.

People might be convinced to switch teams by facts, by records, by ideas, by well-reasoned arguments. No one sane is going to switch teams because of name-calling and crabbiness.

3. You respect your friend. Your friend loves him, and you don't. But you love your friend! And you think she's pretty smart! You haven't known your friend to eat shards of glass, or sleep on railroad tracks, or watch "Making the Band" or anything else self-destructive and idiotic, so... maybe there's something there that you don't see. You could be wrong. If you truly respect your friend, or your fellow dem, you have to accept that their support for candidate X might not be motivated out of malice or lunacy, but out of reasonable belief in that person's ability to govern.

It's hard to have cocktails and sushi with someone whose boyfriend you've described as the devil incarnate. And when it comes to this election, the party has yet to begin. I want to be able to sit at any table, without worrying about who heard me talking smack in the bathroom.

A Friendly Wager on the New Hampshire Primary

Dan asked if I wanted to place a bet on tonight's primary in New Hampshire. That is to say, he was ready to bet against Hillary -- was I ready to bet for her? So here is the bet:

Dan has a t-shirt that he has never worn. In 2006, Dan participated in the Tour of Hope ride, Lance Armstrong's cycling fundraiser for cancer research. Well, he tried to participate -- the event got cancelled due to hideous rain, but he did get the jersey, the shorts, and more importantly the t-shirt. The jersey and shorts are a nice victorious yellow, and he wears them a lot, but the t-shirt he has never worn. Mostly because it is a bright, hot, optimistic blue. It is also adorned with a giant yellow sunflower. Despite his firm support of Lance Armstrong and everything he represents, Dan would never want to wear that t-shirt. Neither would I, if it comes to that. I don't wear shirts with things on them.

So the wager is this: If Obama wins, I have to wear the shirt. If Hillary wins, Dan has to wear it.

This isn't a picture of the actual shirt, in fact this is one from 2005 and the West Coast version and it has been made into a quilt but this is the general idea:

Tune in tomorrow to see who had to spend the day in this lovely garment.

I Support Hillary Clinton

I support Hillary Clinton for President. I think she would be great at the job. I have quietly supported Hillary since I knew she was running, but didn't say much about it because I suspected that the only reason I wanted to cast a vote for her was because she was female. Now I think I know why I want her to win.

Hillary Clinton wants to be president not because she's a woman, or because she's entitled, or because she's power-hungry, but because she knows she can do it better than anyone else. You can see it in her face, in her frustration over the last week. She can't seem to understand why people don't believe her, don't trust her, don't want her. I understand though.

Barack Obama is slick and smooth, and Hillary is abrasive and tough. He is talking about hope and change and light and liberty. She is talking about experience, competence, knowledge, and work. Of course, he gets a lot of applause. People want to yell for hope and change, even if there is no substance behind the words, no specifics to support the glossy rhetoric.

No one is jumping out of their seat for competence. No one is waving a flag for hard work. But I want her in that office because she will be competent and work hard. That is what I need her to do. I do not need her to orate or inspire me. I need her to fix the country, and I think she will.

If she would have, from the beginning, talked like I've seen her talk this week, with tears in her eyes, about how she will be a good president, instead of saying "change" 53 times a minute and relying on Bill Clinton to shape her message, I think she'd be ahead right now. She is very compelling, when she breaks down and just speaks from the heart. I got this feeling, this week, that she feels responsible for the country, and that we should let her do what she needs to do.

Hillary Clinton may not win. She may be a rung on which future women step, to get to the top of that political ladder. Maybe it will be her daughter Chelsea someday, who makes it to the top. Maybe it will be my daughter. I am thankful, as a female and as an American, to this person who is enduring merciless criticism, hateful personal attacks, and all the jibes and jokes of a cruelly dismissive opposition. I don't think she'll look back on this time in her life as a fun romp through the USA, spreading smiles and listening to applause, like Obama probably will. She may look back on it as a screaming nightmare from start to finish. But I support her. I will vote for her in my stupid, irrelevant Virginia primary, whether she's still in the race or not. And I thank her for standing up under all of this, and smiling through her tears.