Tom Watson on Comity

Tom Watson's blog is one of the solid spots in my blogroll. Over the last several years he has been on the right side of several issues, not the least of which was the case of Mukhtaran Bibi three years ago. His journalistic moral compass always points to the truth as he discovers it, and he is not blown off course by popular breezes blowing in another direction. He was in Hillary Clinton's camp (and still is, probably) but now seems willing to follow her lead and get behind Barack Obama. Like me, he has respect for Jimmy Carter and was my source for the sexism video I posted last month as the contest between Obama and Clinton was winding down.

This morning he posts a comment left by one of his readers, Mr. Mobi, urging unity and reconcilliation among Democrats. I'm putting it here because he's right. As he says, "...generosity is a lucky charm. We have limited campaigns of our own on this planet, election day comes soon enough to everyone, and there's just not enough time to settle every score. Besides, improvement is the idea - of ourselves, our communities, and our country. So cool out, people. Cool out."

What Mr. Mobi says...

I'm an Obama supporter from Illinois, so I've known about him for quite some time. As an older man, I'm not especially given to fawning admiration for any politician (I'm from Chicago), but in the case of Obama, I find his story and his experience both compelling and inspiring.

Today, Hillary Clinton showed all of America how a great candidate concedes a vigorously fought election with eloquence, style, and class.

I've said before, and I'll say again now, these are the two best Democratic candidates I've seen in my 61 years. During the course of the campaign, both candidates were subjected to, and, in some cases used, racist and sexist attacks. That said, this was one of the mildest, most congenial political primaries I've ever seen.

Think about it. We had two candidates whose positions on the issues were, at most, millimeters apart. They fought and scraped for 16 months, and we now have a winner. Hillary today asked her supporters to "not go there" with regard to rehashing the real and imagined slights of the campaign, but to stay focused on how important this election is. It's good advice, and we ignore it at the peril of our freedoms, because the alternative is John McCain.