Oh, dear.

Read the user comments. Lose faith in humanity. I'm not one of those crazy Obama supporters, in fact I disagree with him (and most of the Democratic, or for that matter, though for different reasons, Republican parties) on most everything involving economic issues or government services. Though I acknowledge that his speeches are often quite well-written and well-spoken, I find the "Language of Change" shallow and meaningless. I mean, just the sheer stupidity of these commentors! They will mindlessly ignore their own self interest (or what they think is their own self-intrest) in order to prove a point. A point which is false, by the way. Hillary hasn't won. Even if you liked her, she still didn't win the popular vote (her claim she did is extremely dubious), she didn't win the pledged delegates, and she didn't win the superdelegates. She didn't win. Lemme repeat, SHE DIDN'T WIN. Got it? Barack Obama didn't "steal" anything, he still would have won if the Florida and Michigan delegates were counted (and Hillary agreed at the start of the primaries not to count them, how's that for a flip-flop?).

Not only that, Clinton supporters have this truly bizarre claim that Hillary lost because she was a woman. Now let me tell you this. Of all the registered Democrats I know, not one of them wouldn't vote for a presidential candidate for being a woman. Although they wouldn't admit it, I think I do know a few who would not vote for a black man. Barack Obama has had to overcome a whole lot more to get into the position he is in now. He has no "easy in" by having a former president as his spouse, and he had to overcome much greater odds as a black man. Many (white) people see a black man and instantly think "criminal." Not many of those people get that same negative perception when they see a white woman. Indeed, racism hurts more than sexism if you just look at population percentages. 50.8% of America is female. 12.9% of America is black. Assuming 25% of men harbor sexist ideas, and 25% of non-blacks hold racist ideas towards them (generous estimates, I hope), about 12.5% of all people in America are sexists, and 22% of America hold racist ideas. Not only that, but I think that men who are inclined to think in sexist ways are also usually inclined to think in racist ways, and hold their racist views more strongly, so that they would rather vote for a white woman than a black man. No one, and I mean no one has "stolen" the democratic primary elections from Hillary for being a woman. Barack Obama's campaign not once endorsed or implied a sexist idea. Hillary's campaign on the very highest levels, whether it was digitally darkening Obama's skin in television advertisements, the candidate talking about how he was weak with "hard-working Americans, white Americans" (a comment for which the media was remarkably lenient on her. Think about what would have happened if a Republican had said that, or if Obama had said Hillary was weak with "hard-working male Americans"), or spreading the particularly vicious rumors that Obama is a Muslim. On a side note, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE IF HE'S A MUSLIM (once again stressing that he isn't), DOES IT MATTER TO HIS POLICY? NO! HE HAS PUT FORTH AND SHOWN BY HIS VOTING RECORD HIS VIEWS ON RELIGIOUS ISSUES, AND IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT RELIGION HE DOES OR DOES NOT PRACTICE* TO HOW GOOD A JOB HE WILL DO AS PRESIDENT. Okay!

End of rant. I'm normally a grammar nazi, but I'm sure I had an excessive amount of run-ons and parentheses in that. I pride myself for not once using the word "fucking," though I couldn't restrain myself from using ALLCAPS. Oh well.

*I myself am an atheist. I will acknowledge that I too hold religious biases, I absolutely HATE radical religion (radical Christianity obviously being the most common in America) in all forms, since the followers of such fundamentalist religion seem to have complete "faith" in a single-minded, stupid aversion to rights and progress, much as the Clinton supporters commenting on CNN.com (I'll certainly admit that the Obama and McCain supporters on the same website seem to have a similar IQ) have a single-minded, stupid aversion to help this country and help themselves, because they wrongly feel wronged.
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Actual end of rant.

I'm sure I pissed of loads of people in there. Nothing personal, okay?

Hillary's Dropping Out.

Finally, she gets the message. Some people think that she was trying to get the veep nod, I think that she was trying to deliberately sabotage Barack's campaign so that he would lose, and his career as a presidential candidate would be over, so she could run unopposed against a (likely) unpopular incumbent in 2012. Now, I disagree with the Democratic Party's stance on many things, especially on economic and sometimes on foreign policy, but I what I really want is a candidate who will finally put an end to the disastrous war in Iraq, and I think that Hillary's selfishness means we won't have that. The Middle East will become further destabilized, so will the rest of the world without the threat of American military intervention, China, Russia, and Europe will become more powerful as a result of this, we will continue wasting untold billions of dollars, throwing our economy down the tubes (don't even get me started on the economy), and destroying any remaining international goodwill. And all because Hillary couldn't (and, it appears, still can't) get off of her high horse. Funny how these things work.

Hello!

Welcome to Above the Fray, where I will attempt to monitor in my own cynical way the comings and goings of world and US politics. I am a social liberal, I am mostly libertarian/protectionist (almost seems like an oxymoron) when it comes to economics, and I favor peace over war, and allies over enemies, though we certainly should be able to defend ourselves if necessary. I also have the somewhat unconventional view that we should have diplomatic relationships with every country and that we should negotiate with anyone that wants to. It will only be beneficial to our national interest in the end.

I am not this guy. If anyone ever asks me if I am that guy, who appears fat and gross, I shall cry.