The youth vote has been basically dubbed Obama’s strongest, most reliable voting bloc. There is, as we all know, a weird phenomenon amongst the youth that so vigorously supported him, and I have seen it first hand.I am a student, as my name would suggest, at the University of Iowa, Iowa’s largest school. A large percentage of these kids come from the Chicago-land area. I have had a front-row seat to Obama-mania, or Obama-cultism for over a year. This is a phenomenon that should be studied more, but I first want to address something else. 

I wish people on all sides of this race would stop painting the youth vote as all going for Obama.There is a large percentage of young voters that went for him, and almost nowhere was this more true than in Iowa, but there are kids who thought this decision out rationally. I am one of them.

I give props to people my age that supported Hillary, Senator Edwards, Governor Richardson, and all the others, even the republicans, because they didn’t fall for the fake prophet. We are the ones that thought through this decision. We chose to support someone other than Obama, because things other than oratory skills spoke to us. Issues, records, and personality all played into our decisions. Not just personality. 

I got to meet the candidates, I can say that I don’t like someone because of their personality because I met them. Most of these Obamabots have never met him, or even touched him. They jumped on this bandwagon because their friends did. They have no interest in the political scene for the most part, they have done nothing for the party prior to Obama’s campaign, and they have no major stakes in this election. They tend to be from well-off families, from suburbia. They have had most things in life handed to them. They have paid no attention to politics other than being able to join in Bush-bashing, something I like doing myself, and otherwise having little political knowledge. They think it is cool to be for Obama, because everyone else is, and if other kids are not, they are just stupid. 

These people will hear no wrong about Obama, they believe nothing is bad, everything is good, and that Obama is a shoe-in for November….well….. They will never sober up, but for those of us who have, we know there could be nothing further from the truth. Obama is no progressive. Obama is unelectable. Obama is a false prophet. Obama is an empty suit. Obama has done nothing to help the youth of America. Obama is a brand, America and the youth especially have been sold a brand name, and a very sad one at that.

I have seen the shirts here on campus: “Got Hope?”, “Bros Before Ho’s”, and the campaign shirts. All of this hype, he is built up, and let me tell you, he is a big let-down. Hillary is not a let-down. Her work on SCHIP, GEAR-UP, and the National Guard bills she passed, has shown people who really cares and has cared for the youth of America. Hillary still beats McCain by over 50 electoral votes in the electoral college, Hillary still has Universal Healthcare as a top priority.

These young voters that all blindly flocked to Obama will all soon realize they have been had. It’s a sham. Thanks to them, we have McCain to look forward to. Their belligerence and harsh actions have pushed me and many others to a point where we can no longer support Senator Obama, no matter what happens. And McCain may be the beneficiary. Who knows? I sure do.

Lessons we learn when we are young tend to stick with us throughout life. Especially when those lessons are learned from people we respect and admire. Hillary Clinton learned a few important lessons from a very great man whose death we both mourn and celebrate on this day.

At the tender age of 14, Hillary had her first “Awakening” when a pastor took her to see the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speak in Chicago. The sermon was named: ‘Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.’ And no sermon could have been more appropriate or more effective in determining the future of this young woman. Because what she learned that day was that there are issues more important than any of us. There are injustices we must confront because solving them expresses our morality and validates our humanity.

As Hillary spoke today [PHOTO] at the 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s death she paid tribute not only to the man she once met but to the dream he literally gave his life for. [VIDEO UPDATE AT END.]

Hillary’s Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of Dr. King’s Death

As a young woman, I was privileged to be taken to hear Dr. King speak by a youth minister who opened my eyes and ears and my horizons. Dr. King’s call to action that evening in Chicago led me to confront a world bigger and broader than the one I inhabited. He had a way of doing that, of pushing us outside our own comfort zone, of making it clear that we had to be part of the revolution that was going on. It wasn’t a revolution of guns. It was a revolution of hearts and minds, of attitudes and actions.

When one heard Dr. King speak, and I stood in line for a very long time that night to shake his hand. And he was gracious, and he was kind to lean over to shake the hand of a 14-year-old girl from the from the suburbs of Chicago, who went to an all-white church and an all-white school, and lived in an all-white suburb. But he didn’t ask me, as I reached out my hand, where do you live, what is your experience? He just took it and looked in my face and thanked me for coming.

[ PHOTO CAPTION: Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) (R) stands with civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin Hooks (C) and Charles Taylor (L) on the balcony of the former Lorraine Motel, now part of the National Civil Rights Museum, where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968 in Memphis, April 4, 2008. April 4th marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the civil rights leader who was shot as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. REUTERS/Mike Segar (UNITED STATES) || Slide Show at Yahoo News ]

Hillary learned something valuable that day. And it was after that speech that she began to see the world differently. She began to understand that she had been given a privileged life compared to so many less fortunate. And she decided that she would dedicate her life to helping those in need, those who were forgotten and invisible. It was as if she had intuitively understood the deeper meaning of Dr. King’s message.

And when he stood against discrimination, he wasn’t just seeking to free African Americans from the shackles of slavery and the past that had been shaped by that abomination; he was seeking to break the shackles of hatred on the hearts of us all. He yearned for our country to fulfill the ideals that it had given lip service to, that were embodied in our founding documents. In his last speech here, he took us on a tour of history, but showed us the unfinished business and unrealized promises of America.

She was also inspired to share Dr. King’s deep conviction to stand up against injustice and continue fighting for what one knows is just even when all hope has failed. She more than many, has seen the dark depths of despair and yet she has risen every time to conquer when others so often counted her out and wrote her off.

His faith in America animated and sustained his journey. Like with any faith, there were dark moments when one doubts, when one is on the brink of giving up and throwing in the towel. But he would always come back from those dark places and so must we.

And Hillary claims justly that her run for Presidency is directly inspired by what Dr. King preached his entire lifetime.

Video Tribute to the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Well, I’m running for president because I still remember Dr. King’s challenge. He asked us what we would say when we appear before the throne of judgment and are asked, ‘What did you do for others?’ Dr. King said that no matter what our answer might be, God would say, ‘Well, that is not enough.’ There is always more to be done.

For throughout her life she has striven to do to do more, to push harder and to work smarter. From her early work on the Children’s Defense Fund to her advocacy for the SCHIP program, Hillary has always stood up for the least fortunate, for the voiceless in a society filled with self interested blow hards. And even though she was unable to accomplish her goal the first time, Hillary made it her life’s work to manifest Universal Health Care for all Americans, not just those that could afford it. Because for Hillary, like Dr. King, doing so is a moral responsibility.

Hillary’s Remarks on the 40th Anniversary of Dr. King’s Death

Dr. King taught us everything we needed to know about his legacy and how to carry it forward, but in the end it is up to each of us to walk that path. It is not an easy path. It was hard for him. It is hard for us.

Sometimes we take steps backwards so maybe then we can figure out a new way forward. But I have abiding confidence, and yes, faith that we can make our way to higher ground. Whether or not we make it to the mountain top, whether we make it to the Promised Land is not for us to know, but I believe with all my heart it is for us to try. And when we get tired and when our faith starts to waiver, we can of course remember Dr. King’s faith in us.

Yes Hillary is a fighter. Because one cannot give up, one cannot give in when winning the battle is so essential to realizing the dream that Dr. King so eloquently charged us to fulfill. And like Dr. King, Hillary realizes that we may not make it to the mountain the first few times we try. But that should never stop us from trying time and time again. Because the journey is itself just as important as the goal.

Dr. King taught us everything we needed to know about his legacy and how to carry it forward, but in the end it is up to each of us to walk that path. It is not an easy path. It was hard for him. It is hard for us. Sometimes we take steps backwards so maybe then we can figure out a new way forward. But I have abiding confidence, and yes, faith that we can make our way to higher ground. Whether or not we make it to the mountain top, whether we make it to the Promised Land is not for us to know, but I believe with all my heart it is for us to try. And when we get tired and when our faith starts to waiver, we can of course remember Dr. King’s faith in us.

Thank you Hillary. Nothing could be truer or more pertinent today.

VIDEO UPDATE:

Special thanks to C.S. for the video.

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Please follow the link below to a clip of the first part of Hillary’s speech today.

Hillary Commemorates MLK