My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote) ...by Michael Moore
April 21st, 2008
Friends,
I don't get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan.
The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn't get their act together, and
thus our votes will not be counted.
So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast
my vote -- and yours -- on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?
I haven't spoken publicly 'til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for
two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don't give a
rat's ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there's a picture
of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word
"Democratic" next to the candidate's name.
Seriously, I know so many people who don't care if the name under the Big "D"
is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck,
Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.
Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions
and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to
downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I've
watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the
worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name
"Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well that's when the silly season came to an early
end for me. She said the "F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of
course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator
Clinton, Obama's pastor does -- AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los
Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!
This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following
night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted
Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in
the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!
Yes, Senator Clinton, that's how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you
were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to
write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good
deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can't win unless you
smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give
it all to you.
But that can't happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody
war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and,
because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.
How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White
House. That day will come -- but it won't be you. We'll have to wait for the
current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).
There are those who say Obama isn't ready, or he's voted wrong on this or
that. But that's looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are
witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for
change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the
candidate.
That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what's going
on is bigger than him at this point, and that's a good thing for the country.
Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay
alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our
government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of
millions to stand behind him.
I know some of you will say, 'Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve
our vote?' That's a damn good question. In November of '06, the country loudly
sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done
nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?
I'll tell you why. Because I can't stand one more friggin' minute of this
administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people
and to this world. I'm almost at the point where I don't care if the Democrats
don't have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads.
Just as long as their name ain't "Bush" and the word "Republican" is not beside
theirs on the ballot, then that's good enough for me.
I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long
years. That's why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting
booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised
with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters -- that big
"D" on the ballot.
Don't get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.
It's foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party
that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any
endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope
that one day we will have a party that'll represent the people first, and laws
that allow that party an equal voice.
Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr.
Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part
of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does
this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were
having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill
bring to the White House for 'spiritual counseling?' THE REVEREND JEREMIAH
WRIGHT!"
But no, Obama won't throw that at her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be
decent. She's been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the
mud she throws in his face.
That's why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That's why he'll take
us down a more decent path. That's why I would vote for him if Michigan were
allowed to have an election.
But the question I keep hearing is... 'can he win? Can he win in November?'
In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk
Express. We know it's possible to hear the words "President McCain" on January
20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black
man. Hillary knows it, too. She's counting on it.
Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance
to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when
our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a
black man or woman was only "three fifths" human. On Tuesday, the good people
of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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