ELECTION EMAIL AND THOUGHTS

I received the following email yesterday from a stranger-friend who reads this blog. She and I correspond as time allows.

What follows is her take on the current state of the election. I hope she doesn't mind me posting it. The email is in it's entirety and I have only edited misspellings and things of that sort, not her content:

...I'm sending the last blurb I had to write in response to more Hillary bashing online:

I have heard speech after speech, and I think Hillary is the real deal. The accusations of lusting for power are ludicrous, and, by the way, never applied to her male counterparts. Anyone aspiring to the thankless position of President of the United States, is driven toward power=influence. What you have to determine is WHY any of them want to influence?

Huckabee wants to create a theocracy; Romney wants to produce the United Corporation of America, Guiliani wants to create a police state, McCain--did you hear his warmongering speech?--is going to WIN at all costs--not on my taxpayer dollars, thank you, while simpering about curbing spending (in between the jokes your weird old uncle tells at Thanksgiving dinner.) Until we are out of Iraq don't talk to me about pork barrel. Thompson is as dumb as a post. And Obama?--I'm sorry but I don't see the wonder of his speech making. He is full of platitudes and empty rhetoric.

Hillary has taken the trouble and the personal risk to talk about the issues in detail. She cares about women and children, and the reputation of our country, and the poor and middle class. She has thought about what it is really going to take to confront the incredible obstacles this country faces. " I'm so for Hillary."

I have liked Richardson's candor, and wish he had not backed Obama. A Hillary/Richardson ticket would be the most experienced for this country. And I am sad Biden and Dodd and Richardson are out and Kucinich is disregarded. Not sure why Edwards can't get traction.

We need all their voices. Seems to me people think getting along is better than fighting. I don't think we can get along with extreme right wingers. I think we need a strong progressive leader with well considered ideas, the background to make it happen, with a truly supportive marriage partner, truly a model marriage for our time, together through it all, I say, Go Hillary.

Chris, I want to let you know that your pro-Hillary bent has really influenced me. Yes, I wish she were even lefter of Kucinich, hell, I think government sponsored housecleaning and massage would greatly benefit humanity. I'd run on that platform alone...

I think Kim is spot-on.

John McCain has become the creepy uncle at Thanksgiving, Fred Thompson is a snoozefest, Mitt Romney is a talking Ken doll, Huckabee scares me, and although Guiliani is for gay marriage and a woman's right to choose, he completely misses the mark on everything else.

Last night I watched to results from yesterday's elections in South Carolina and Nevada and couldn't help but wonder what in the hell happened to Rudy? He rates lower than Thompson - sad given his front-runner status in the beginning.

The Republicans are a mess this year - I just don't see them gaining any traction.

Kim mentioned the Clinton marriage as the "Model Marriage for our times." I couldn't agree more.

I have never doubted the love Bill and Hillary share - although it isn't any of my business. She has loved this man practically from the moment he blew into her life and I think the same is true for him, but like all marriages there have been problems - just like 99% of all marriages.

Only in "The Provincial States of America" do we not forgive a cheating spouse. It is easier to throw away a lifetime, give money to lawyers and hand out scarlet letters. In Europe, and other parts of the world, having a mistress and a wife is commonplace. In America we call a lawyer the second we get a whiff of another woman's perfume.

Infidelity should be viewed as a weakness, not a crime, and standing by your man for the sake of your marriage and family should be seen as commendable.

Hillary Clinton was humiliated by the public airing of her husband's dirty laundry and yet she chose to forgive and recommit herself to the man she married, and in doing so she rediscovered herself and her voice - a voice for women and children and for low and middle income families. She has become the voice of reason in a time where there has been nothing but chaos and confusion.

Isn't it time we had a fresh voice in the White House? Someone who, with the help of a congress controlled by democrats, can finally put an end to the decline of our country and its reputation as a dictatorship. I believe Hillary will restore our place in the world as a country that believes in people and democratic ideals more than it does power, greed and war.

Thanks Kim for your thoughts and provoking me to write!