@bbk
SMH

@brightlights I think part of the problem is "the kid who cried wolf" syndrome. For the past 25 years the right wing talking heads have done nothing but cried foul at so much made up BS that moderates or liberals stopped hearing it - to the point where if she did in fact commit a criminal act; many people would be skeptical as to whether it was real or just more inflated BS.

I also cannot understand anyone supporting Trump, although I understand the non-support of H - in my opinion as the choice of 2 evils - I believe she has the understanding of the position, the international in depth knowledge, understanding of all levels of gov't, and ability to lead. she is however a blonde.

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WOW blonde WTH! My Dd is blonde is one tough strong strong woman. FYI Look forward to watching this lil old BLONDE lady kick *** and get the country into shape.
Have an amazing weekend!💁💁💁🙋🏼🙋🏼

@redneck roy
Such a great point on the crying wolf!!! All the hand wringing and hysterics and complete BS (like the whole DNC didn't have any flags and now delegates hired through Craig's List)...when can we know when they are playing, hyperbole, or serious??

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@HumbleGirl
The flaggate controversy was funny and a good example of how opinions can shape your memory. People kept saying they remember the stage at the RNC having flags all over. Except that there wasn't. The below picture which kept getting referenced only has one flag. The flags in the background are digital and kept changing.

@bbk :It's gonna be really difficult to take you seriously after that silly comment.

@Fairlane67 :
Shake it all you want & rub your eyes as well because I believe your watching our first woman President !!!!!

I think that both sides have done their fair share of crying wolf over the years. Neither party has clean hands on that topic. IMHO, the far left and right deserve equal blame in using inflammatory rhetoric to describe the opposition. Personally, I'm tired of all the generalizations used to describe people in the other party. Not all R's are closet racists/homophobes etc and not all D's want God out of everything/pro-abortion etc. I think that some people are so focused on the R and D labels, that they forget that they are talking about people. Kinda like road ragers who get so riled up by a car, they may forget about the people inside.I like to think that both parties (and 3rd parties) are mainly made up of centrists like myself, who certainly don't fit the labels the far left and right attach to one another. We may differ in our ideas of how things should be done, but we have the same goals for the country....peace, safety, prosperity for all. Unfortunately our voices are drowned out by the talking heads and extremists of both parties who are both equally guilty of tuning one another out.

@brightlights
Okay, finally had a little time on a conference call (in case @+1 would like to know what I'm doing at work ha!) to gather my thoughts. It was a good exercise at getting my cloud of thoughts better organized rather than just a sort of gut feel. Here are my thoughts on Hillary and why all the negative information about her isn't scaring me away. I wish I had different choices than Trump and Hillary...but I'm not willing to throw a vote to a 3rd party as none of those excite me either. And I've said all along #NeverTrump. I'd be glad to list those reasons later if needed.I've tried to address Hillary's "bad press" and all of the posts I've read here as of late as to how I could be such an awful person to even consider voting for Hillary and still live with myself. I have the same thoughts about the Trump voters certainly. I can understand those who admitedly aren't in love with everything about Trump and are reluctantly voting his way. But I can't get my mind around those enthusiastic supporters at all. He seems in direct contrast to what many of those enthusiastic supporters stand for.I don't think anyone is going to match my personal beliefs and desires line by line...and I'm going to strongly disagree with each candidate here and there.

• Emails – I’m not terribly technical, but the older generation is even less so. I think Hillary’s use of her home email was dangerous and careless but not intentional. I think many areas of our government have not kept up with the world’s technology and we have lots of areas that could be exploited. This was one of many and rather than using this to harp on Hillary, I’d like to see real solutions roll out across the country to better protect our data for everyone. I’m sure there are other politicians and officials with equally or worse data security practices.
• Making too much money from speeches and deals, corruption – So much has been disproven or the claims are unsubstantiated, but I feel it is likely there are some financial transactions, favors, or deals that I would personally be disappointed in Hillary being involved with. Much like Trump’s non-payment of debts, bankruptcies, tax loopholes and acceptance of 9/11 funds – taking advantage of funds and benefits that could be better used elsewhere even if legal is disappointing on all sides. However, I’m not sure that even if a candidate could show all the times they didn’t take money that was thrown at them, that they would be believed or that they would get an equal credit in public opinion. Just like with welfare, if the money is there and humans can get it, they will take it nearly every time. Ethics disappear when it comes to money, even more so when that money is desperately needed. We expect more ethics out of our poor than our rich!
• Benghazi – I’ve researched this online, watched all the news reports, even watched the movie. I don’t come away from any of those things with confidence that what happened was Hillary’s fault. Yes, “the buck stops here” with leadership, I get that. But there’s a difference in levels of involvement and blame. I’m responsible for hundreds of employees – if one of them goes off the rails, I have to answer for it but not like this. I’m also not confident that different actions would have yielded better results. In fact, things could have been potentially worse and the death toll even higher. Armchair quarterbacking always works out perfectly in our minds…not so much IRL.
• Thought that Hillary has changed positions – I personally think this is often a good thing (as long as it’s not solely due to money/power struggles). We grow and change and have experiences that change our outlook on the world, that’s normal and a good thing.
• Hillary’s past legal career decisions – this one is a non-starter for me. From all I read, she was doing her job even if we feel it was distasteful to defend criminals.
• Rumors of murders and all kinds of conspiracy theories – most if not all have been debunked but people continue to believe them. I don’t.
• Hillary’s handling of Bill’s womanizing – There’s no one way to handle such a thing. Hillary made her choice and she came through it with her sanity. No one was murdered or mutilated, she didn’t set anything on fire, she didn’t dissolve into a pitiful drinking/drugging/slutting around mess…she survived with dignity. Additionally, I don’t know the inner workings of the Clinton marriage. Movies and TV shows like House of Cards tell me that the rich and powerful often operate by different rules than most of us. Other than that, I don’t hold her responsible for her husband’s bad decisions nor do I judge her decision to stay in the marriage.
• Personal dislike of Hillary – she does have a harsh sounding voice, abrasive laugh, and can appear to be “haughty” or “robotic” or “entitled”. Sometimes a joke from her comes off in a more sarcastic way because of this combination of characteristics. She is who she is, a product of her genetics and family traits and I feel able to look beyond those things. She is very intelligent, and very intelligent people are often lacking in some social abilities. I believe she flexes up to that task – as I do – and that can be perceived differently than reality. Not everyone has that natural charisma that is so helpful and charming in politics.
• Hillary is a woman, and a powerful smart one at that. She’s not “hot” or “sexy” or “ladylike” or “demure”. Many men and women don’t care for women like that. I think these are great qualities. I prefer to be judged on my actual work and not on whether I’m flirty or cutesy or defer to men in meetings. Like Hillary - I’m ambitious, I stick up for myself and my people, and I’m not afraid to say no or pushback. This is definitely a common problem in the workplace, thankfully my workplace is very accepting of women in power, although there is certainly a pocket here and there where there is an unspoken animosity.
• Lastly, it is weird to be considering electing the spouse of a former President. It just feels dynasty-ish and that’s not America to me. So that’s not my favorite thing, but I do think well of some of Bill’s accomplishments and I feel that Hillary probably played a part in some of the good things the Clinton administration did. So in some ways, we are getting 2 presidents for the price of one. Tons of experience, tons of connections, tons of knowledge. I can see that as a potential positive.

That being said, I though Chelsea did a good job last night. Hillary looked nice and I appreciated both the historical nature of her nomination, and a few points she made. Especially about college not being for everyone and the importance of trade schools.I agree that as a member of the establishment, Hillary has plenty of experience, but whether or not that is a good thing....I'm not sure.

@HumbleGirlThat was a great, well-thought out post. We do agree on the point that we both wish we had two different candidates to work with here (I believe a large majority of voters feel the same, even the staunch Trump supporters if they dig deep enough). We just happen to disagree on the lesser of the two evils.