Urgent Petition to Democratic Super Delegates

We are Democrats who want to win the general election in November. We believe that another Republican administration will be devastating to our country. Your vote as a Super Delegate may well determine our Party%u2019s nominee since neither candidate is likely to have enough pledged delegates after the last primary. We ask that you consider the following while making this weighty decision for our country: 1.Senator Clinton has more life experience and high-level government experience than Senator Obama. She is tough, tested and can immediately tackle the serious problems our country faces. Experience will be a more important factor in the general election than in the Democratic primary, given Senator McCain%u2019s years of service. 2. Clinton%u2019s depth and breadth of policy knowledge and command of the issues is remarkable. In a match-up with McCain, specifics about policies will be a more effective tool to win over voters than idealistic words about hope, change or unity, making Clinton the stronger candidate. 3.Clinton has shown that she can rise above her supposed %u201Cnegatives%u201D. She has gained popularity throughout New York, both in the conservative upstate area and in the more liberal New York City region. She has, furthermore, won the respect of her Republican colleagues in the Senate. 4.Obama has never run against a well-funded, popular, respected Republican in either his U.S. Senate or State Senate campaigns. 5. In the primary, Senator Obama's possible %u201Cnegatives%u201D (see below), with few exceptions, have been all but ignored by the fawning national media. Democrats cannot count on a similar media pass in the fall. Clinton, on the other hand, despite a biased, sexist media, only trails by a small percentage in the popular vote and delegates. Voters are responding to her candidacy more than the establishment media, and it is voters that count. 6.Obama has a number of negatives and evidences of poor judgment that Republicans will exploit. They include: %u2022His now well-known association with Rev. Wright. Although Senator Obama temporarily quieted this controversy with his speech, many still believe that he did not show the leadership we need in a President. He continued to attend Wright%u2019s church for 20 years and never once confronted him on his racist and anti-Semitic remarks. %u2022His association with State Senator and Baptist minister, Rev. James Meeks. Meeks has called white mayors %u201Cslave masters%u201D, has denigrated moderate black politicians with racial slurs and is vehemently anti-Gay. %u2022His association with Anthony Rezko, now on trial in Federal court. Republicans will surely label Senator Obama a participant in %u201Cdirty Chicago politics%u201D and will dig out all the evidence there is relating to his association with Rezko. %u2022His association with Illinois State Senator Emil Jones, the %u201CKingmaker%u201D who helped Obama in his rise to power by giving him the chance to take credit for a number of bills in the Illinois state senate that other senators had written and had nurtured through the legislative process. Jones also has ties to Rezko. %u2022His association with Bill Ayres and Bernadette Dohrn, two former leaders of the %u201CWeather Underground%u201D, a group that bombed buildings during the anti-war movement of the late 1960%u2019s, ultimately killing three people. Ayres and Dohrn, after years as fugitives, are now professors at the University of Chicago. They held a fundraiser for Senator Obama, and Ayres served on a non-profit board with Obama. Republican operatives will taint Obama with Ayres%u2019 comment that he doesn%u2019t regret the bombings of the 1960%u2019s and that he wished he had done more. %u2022His association with pro-Palestinian activist, Rashid Khalidi. During Obama%u2019s term as director, with Bill Ayres, of the non-profit Woods Fund of Chicago, he voted to approve generous grants to the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), headed by Khalidi%u2019s wife. The AAAN has sponsored numerous events in which speakers have attacked Israel%u2019s right to exist. 7.Obama%u2019s small delegate lead in the primary that was built on disenfranchising voters. In the fall, voters will not forget that and neither should Super Delegates. The caucus system through which Obama gained his slight delegate lead disenfranchises older voters, frail voters, handicapped voters, voters who work swing shifts, caretakers, people in the military, single mothers and fathers, and anyone too busy or unable to attend evening or Saturday caucuses. Also, in another attempt to disenfranchise voters, Obama%u2019s campaign blocked a plan for a re-vote in Michigan, a plan that was approved by both the DNC and the Clinton campaign. 8.Obama%u2019s campaign has used race-baiting extensively, accusing Senator Clinton, President Clinton and campaign surrogates of making racist remarks. Those accusations have consistently been false or petty. This is a tactic that may (unfortunately) work in primaries with liberal Democratic voters, but it will not work in the general election where to win many of the swing states, Obama will have to appeal to Independent voters. The Democratic Party will risk a huge backlash if the Obama campaign tries to paint John McCain and his surrogates as racist the way they have used race to attack Senator Clinton and her campaign. Although both of our Democratic candidates are talented, bright and charismatic, for all of the reasons stated above (and many others), we believe Senator Clinton to be the more capable, experienced, tested and electable candidate. For the sake of the United States of America and the Democratic Party, do not allow an untested, un-vetted, candidate to win the Democratic nomination. The situation in our country is dire; we need someone who, first, can win and, second, can lead us out of the mess the Bush administration had created. Senator Clinton is that person.