Theme: the Obamas are human.

Last night I watched a couple of hours of the Democratic Convention and came away under whelmed. I thought John Legend was the best performance of the night and I am not even a huge fan of the guy.

I am really tied of the Clinton bashing, especially by Democrats. They were not perfect, but eight years of peace and prosperity deserve a little more respect. Here are my main gripes with the Clinton bashing:

1) Bill Clinton may actually love his wife. That’s right – even though everyone thinks it is a partnership and not a marriage, isn’t it possible that Bill Clinton was tired of his wife being called a bitch and being disrespected? One example comes to mind – my Mother is my Father’s biggest critic, but if anyone not sharing the same last name as her offers a criticism of my father she will still get defensive. Even I cringe when someone other than me says something too harsh about an ex of mine, despite however many diatribes I may spew. Same thing for Bill, at least.

2) Stop with the “Bill Clinton is a racist” talk. Blacks abandoned the Clintons after 16 years of support because a black guy ran. If several million black people told you to fu-k off after a 16 year friendship you might get a little testy too. And the proof is in the problems that black leaders had within the black community when they supported Hillary, even after Obama’s candidacy proved it had legs. And I know that many black people nationwide did not really believe in Obama’s candidacy until after he won with white people in Iowa.

3) Hillary Clinton went to Yale law school. That is a pretty good law school too, so I have heard (although it is not a law center). If I had to hear one more CNN correspondent talk about what an amazing woman she is and how Michelle Obama went to Harvard Law I was going to gag. When was the last time these announcers gave credit to Hillary for her accomplishments? The lady was her own guest commencement speaker in college. I had Robert Rubin, former treasury secretary. Williams 2001 will regret not giving me the spotlight.

4) Hillary supporters have a right to be pissed about Obama. He lumped her in with George W. Bush for the entire primary, which is as insulting as can be to a Democrat, but then seized a good chunk of her platform once she was out of the race.

5. I did not think Michelle Obama’s speech was anything special. It was fine.

My brother thinks the first female president will be Michelle Obama. I agree with him more broadly that the first female president will most likely be a woman of color. That is because, as tough and sneer-y as Michelle Obama can appear at times, no one will call her a bitch. Not because they are afraid of appearing sexist, but because they fear calling a black woman any name could be greeted with accusations of racism. Hillary Clinton has no such buffer, which is why I think white woman feel strongly about her candidacy, because her womanhood is 100% of her identity. I think she is a poll driven political machine, but that does not mean that she is not smart and well-intentioned. I feel the same way about Obama, but somehow that gets greeted with much more hostility. I hope Obama wins, but then I hope people will give the Clintons a break. They cast a big shadow on the convention because they should. They are one of the top 3 political families in this country and should be given the respect they are due.