an open letter to keith olbermann

tonight i watched hillary clinton and barack obama give speeches as the tallies rolled in from the final two primaries in montana and south dakota. both showed a great deal of poise and class. i was especially impressed with how they showed appreciation and admiration for one another.

an open letter to keith olbermann:

dear keith olbermann,
for all the good you have done in holding the president accountable for any number of crimes and misdemeanors, your vitriol against hillary clinton has become unbearable. even tonight as chris mathews blathered on as usual during terry mcauliffe's introduction of mrs. clinton, you emerged later to inform us of what mcauliffe had actually said. apparently he introduced her as the next president of the united states. you scoffed as if it was just more dirty pool from the clintons, your perspective spinning off its axis and into utter chaos. so hillary's audience was amassed in a basement that does not allow for cell phone contact. so there were no television monitors in the room. you and your ilk are not so important and i thought you knew that.
i suppose you were too close to all of this to have the vision to see that hillary made a choice back around the time of the texas and ohio primaries to stay in this thing and fight. she had plenty of reason to do so, too. this was a close nomination process. indeed clinton won the majority of states most likely to be won by the democrats in november. (if you would challenge this idea, let's just point out then that she won california big.) the actual vote margins as well as delegate margins across the country were especially tight. so what's a bit of theatre in politics? apparently to you it was some major affront. the point the clinton campaign was making, keith, was that her campaign stayed relevant and vibrant right up to the last day of the primary season. hillary single-handedly invigorated the process even making puerto ricans and the typically irrelevant south dakotans and montanans feel important and involved. (why else would they turn out in such numbers?)
it was not easy for clinton and obama to draw distinctions from one another. it seemed at moments the clinton campaign wanted to bring up the fact that some people in this country are racist and would automatrically dismiss obama from the possibility of receiving their vote. since her campaign had always focused on beating the republicans prior to realizing they would need to shift their focus to the formidable obama, clinton had courted the independent and left-leaning republicans in the key swing states of ohio and florida from day one. hence why she was strongest in those places. however, you were enraged by her every maneuver.
you claim to not vote because you think it is inappropriate given your watchdog position as a journalist and yet, your preferences could not be more transparent.
when clinton depicted herself the more experienced candidate, better suited to answer a late night phone call alerting a president-leader to some unknown but massively dangerous threat in the world, you showed a particularly thin skin. obama responded, (because the media has broadcast his every move throughout the entire season,) and moved on.
the point is, these two great candidates have understood the nature of the endeavor they are engaged in from the beginning. it is obvious already they have not taken the fact that the other campaigned hard and tried to show themselves the better choice for the most high office personally.
within the next two days obama will announce hillary as his choice for vice president. and so, while you may have fallen in love with obama during the primary season as one is wan to do , it will be time to fall in line for the general election.
so quit killing your credibility when you attack president bush for subverting the constitution instead of protecting it, by disparaging the clintons. you do not owe it to this country to serve it, though you do in a capacity. similarly, the clintons have not owed it to the people of this country to serve and yet they have with distinction and for a long time. they have not been perfect by any stretch but they have been a force for positive change.
your voice has been so important these last several years. you are finally beating the propagandist bill o'reilly in the ratings on some nights and you deserve a great deal of credit for this and your work is important. the free pass the present administration was granted in the wake of 9/11 was phenomenal and your voice, (along with only one or two others, really,) has finally started to penetrate the fear and paranoia that permitted that free pass in the first place.
as you might say to president bush, please sir, regain your perspective.