Helping Those Less Fortunate

On Fox News this morning, Eric Shawn interviewed Amy Siskind, a Hillary Clinton supporter who has been absolutely crushed by her candidate’s Primary nomination loss.  To understand what what a momentous opportunity this is for Republicans, read my transcript of the interview and please pay special attention to her references to Core Values:

Shawn:  Not all of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters are willing to put aside their feelings over the long, often bitter race for the nomination.  Republican John McCain, reaching out for their vote, trying to get Clinton supporters who are disappointed over her defeat by Senator Obama.  Our guest this morning, Amy Siskind, who was a Clinton supporter and considering voting for McCain.  Amy, you’re not supposed to do this!  You just heard what Mrs. Clinton said, put the bitterness behind you, vote for Barack Obama.  Why aren’t you considering doing that?

Siskind:  Well for me personally, this was a big week of loss; not only seeing the candidate of my lifetime suspend her campaign, but also to see the Democratic Party which for me is so much of who I am really abandon what I feel are the core values that our Party is based on. 

Shawn:  Well how did they do that?

Siskind:  Well, I was brought up to believe that the Democratic Party stood for equality and for helping those less fortunate.  And the issues may change campaign to campaign and decade to decade but as long as we stick to those core values, the Democratic Party gets to where we should be. 

Shawn:  But Barack Obama is dealing with equality, and dealing with these same tenets of the Democratic Party…

Siskind:  Well let’s talk about that.  I think as relates to equality, actually one of your commentators, Juan Williams, had a great article about that this week as relates to race that has been used, probably to the disadvantage of our party because we’re going to be sending in a candidate that was not vetted, that went through the Primary season without a single idea, but our Party liked the idea of him. Whereas our candidate who I thought was more qualified, who for many people in this country felt was a candidate whose time was really here, they allowed overt sexism repeatedly to happen in the campaign and nobody in our Party stood up and said anything about it.  …Many people love Hillary Clinton, and she spent a lifetime working for the values of equality and helping those less fortunate.  And many people feel abandoned by the DNC …I think both parties have lost their way in a sense but the Republican Party knows that and they’re grappling with it whereas our Party has not seen this train wreck coming yet. [Emphasis mine]

Note:  The article Amy referred to by Juan Williams was published in the Wall Street Journal Opinion section on June 6, 2008, called It’s Time for another Obama Race Speech

Please stay tuned for my next post:  Fred Thompson Leads The Way on GOP Core Values