Open Letter To Anita Price Mills

Dear Ms. Mills,
I happened to be watching CNN the night you made these comments. I understand your pain and disappointment that Hillary didn't win the Democratic nomination. But we had the blessings of having two outstanding candidates dueling for our party's nomination and Sen Barack Obama won.

The reality is that Hillary lost. She got beaten in the primary despite the efforts of you and the army of women and others who supported her efforts. It's also sad but true the reason Senator Clinton was speaking on Tuesday night in Denver instead of Thursday is because her campaign team did it to themselves.

Those of us who supported Sen. Obama worked just as hard for our candidate. He put together an organizational team and a campaign staff that outhustled and outflanked Sen. Clinton's at every turn. Don't forget that Sen Obama won 23 contests and garnered the most delegates and votes.

The reason she isn't the VP is because of the negative way her campaign was run over the last three months that pissed off many African-American Obama supporters like myself. Unfortunately, with Senator Obama taking the nomination, it almost dictated that he was going to have to have a white male beside him just to get elected.

You can take comfort in the fact there will be other women that get the opportunity to become president. I can't say with certainty there will be another African-American with his combination of skills and talents who gets this chance. It was the deciding factor along with other reasons why I've been supporting Sen. Obama since January. I also understand that African-American women like yourself were torn between loyalty to our people and seeing another woman advance to the highest office in the land.

And contrary to what you said in this video, Sen. Obama not only is qualified to be president, he has looked presidential since his first speech at the 2004 DNC convention. As he has campaigned you can see the growth in him and the battle with Sen. Clinton served to prepare him for the fall campaign.

The point is that as a loyal Democrat, the onus is on you to work as hard for Senator Obama as you and other Hillary supporters would have expected me and other Obama supporters to work to get Hillary elected had the script been flipped.

As Barack said in his acceptance speech, it isn't about him. Hillary said the same thing in hers. It's about taking this country back from 8 years of Republican misrule of this country. It's about the Supreme Court. It's about realigning government so it works for everybody, not just the rich and powerful. It's about universal health care. It's about having a Democrat standing up on January 20 to take the oath of office. It's about electing progressive people to enact progressive policies, and this is an all hands on deck operation from now until November 4.

But then again, you were sitting in the Pepsi Center as a delegate, so I don't have to tell you that. I hope that after you've had a few days of prayerful consideration to think about it and work through the sense of loss you feel, that you will find the time and energy to help get Sen. Obama elected.


God bless you,
Monica Roberts
The TransGriot