Hillary Clinton won Ohio and some other states last night. I saw her on the Daily Show on Monday and heard some of the campaign lines she was feeding to the people of Ohio. I had a moment of deja vu. She’s with the blue-collar people of Ohio, you know. She told them that she’s their candidate and she supports the blue collar worker since they’re the backbone of the country. Hillary Clinton cares about the areas being decimated by lack of blue-collar jobs and she’ll work to restore those areas.

If I could just remember where I’d heard all that before.

Y’see, I heard this entire campaign strategy in 2000. I was still living upstate at the time and someone had decided that she wanted to get in to politics. She then proceeded to descend on a foolish state who had a weak Republican candidate running for senate. She bought a million dollar home in Chappaqua and was suddenly New York through and through. She was a Yankee fan. She was a Giant fan. She was just one of us. To solidify her position, she went on a “listening tour” through Upstate New York. She went through Albany, Syracuse, Schenectady, Troy, Buffalo, and Rochester and told everyone who would listen that she’d help to revitalize upstate. She’d create jobs! She’d revitalize the region! Jobs would return! Forget New York State’s absurd business taxes… I can do it! I feel your pain!!

And the morons in this state drank it up. Twice.

Surprisingly enough, she did nothing of the sort. Upstate’s still dead or dying depending on the region. Albany is run by the same corrupt forces that were running it before I left. Clinton’s suddenly no longer a Yankee fan. The mythical “50,000 jobs” that were going to be created upstate were quickly forgotten. Albany to Buffalo is still full of empty factory. And we were so impressed by this as a state that we re-elected her in 2006.

The only thing that will save Upstate, at this point, is to split into a separate state from downstate. Of the 60 state senators, 40 of them are from the city. How much of a majority is an economic revitalization plan for Buffalo going to grab? Or Albany, for that matter. Upstate has been fighting a losing battle for years and the shrew played on all those fears and hopes… won an election in a weak race… and is now bailing out on the state faster than she came here. The worst thing of all of this: SHE WON THIS STATE IN THE PRIMARY. Not only did she lie to our faces twice but we voted for her again!

What is it about lying politicians that make people forget? I mean… she all but said “vote for me and the streets of upstate will be paved with gold.” She’s not done one thing for Upstate New York. She just sold exactly the same bill of goods to Ohio. Of all the ways to fight her in the known universe, can’t they just play clips of her promising to revitalize upstate New York… and then pan through the empty iron shells of factories in Rochester, Troy, Syracuse, Buffalo, and Utica? Show some speech of her riding through Albany followed by the hell-hole that is the public housing there?

With all the media that we have now, why is there not one news channel that lay into the candidates for things they deserve to laid into for? Why does EVERYTHING have to be us vs. them partisan? Why does NO STATION take Clinton’s/Obama’s tax plan and put numbers up? If you make X to Y, you are currently in this bracket… the proposed tax plans would put you in this one. Why do no stations mention that the only thing Clinton has really successfully pushed for in the senate is getting post offices named for certain people? Why are we OK with candidates picking and choosing their own questions in interviews? Why does no one ask her “you said you were going to do this in New York and it didn’t happen… why?” Why is no one asking the Democratic candidates how they are planning to pay for their health care plans?

If anything, this election is depressing me more than any of the previous elections. Because, now, we’ve reached a point where even good ideas are destroyed and knocked down on the basis of partisan politics. Bush has not been the greatest president of all time (obviously) but he was right in that we needed torte reform and social security overhaul. Both good ideas that were brought down by politics. I hate this country’s political process and the media, instead of doing what they can to make it better and call out hypocrisy and lies to keep them honest, choose a side and are willing lap dogs to their chosen candidate. It’s sickening.

And we’ll be left with the government the majority deserves. Good luck with that.

Last 5 posts by Thomas Daniels

• Congratulations, President-Elect Obama - November 5th, 2008
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• As If It Matters 2008: Supreme Court (Interlude) - July 10th, 2008
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• As If It Matters 2008: An Introduction - July 7th, 2008