In response to all those who have believed what the right is saying about Hillary, here is a letter I sent to the News-Press, refuting claims by another letter writer that they published.

In a letter to the mailbag published 2/12/16, Larry Biddle smears Hilary Clinton with unsubstantiated accusations. First, he claims that when she was a law student at Yale she helped the Black Panthers in developing grounds for their appeal when on trial for the killing of a federal agent. This sounded so awful that I Googled it. I clicked on Snopes, and their verdict is: False. Type in Hillary Clinton and the Black Panther trial.

Lie no. 1: The murdered Alex Rackley was a panther himself, and was murdered because they thought he was disloyal. They suspected him of informing and after torturing him, he “confessed”. It was never confirmed that he was an informant, let alone a federal agent.

Lie no. 2: Hillary was attending Yale Law School at the time. She volunteered to help the Civil Liberties Union monitor the trial for possible civil rights violations. Remember that part where, if we claim ourselves as a democracy, we believe in fair trials? In no way were her duties as an observer “instrumental” in freeing the defendants. The jury made its decision without the so-called “powerful” influence of a 22-year-old law student who did not testify and had no part in the proceedings.

Lie/innuendo no. 3: In the time-honored tradition of tainting someone with a belief because they want to know about it,Biddle thinks Hillary wrote her senior thesis on Saul Alinsky, a left-wing radical, because she was herself a left-wing radical. No, she wanted to analyze his activism. She interviewed Alinsky and visited low-income areas of Chicago to observe community action programs. She concluded that Alinsky’s methods were largely ineffective. She also included Eugene V Debs, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Walt Whitman in her thesis. If Biddle had actually read her thesis that he is so certain condemns her, he would know this.

Lie no. 4, and it is a whopper: Hillary’s personal aide, Huma Abedin,” has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.” Abedin (married to former U.S. Representative from New York, Anthony Weiner) was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her mother is Pakistani and her father is Indian, born in New Delhi. They were educators. Her father founded his own institute devoted to Western-Eastern and interfaith understanding and reconciliation. That is hardly the mindset of a Muslim with terrorist leanings.

Accusations against Abedin, were concocted by a group of Republicans to discredit Hillary during her 2000 senate campaign, and it included Michelle Bachman, the poster girl for right-wing lunacy. High-ranking Republicans spoke out against this tactic, the Washington Post Editorial Board denounced the allegations, pro-Israel groups denounced them. A quote from John McCain: “She is a person of enormous intellect with in-depth knowledge on a number of issues—especially issues pertaining to the Middle East.” She is a valuable asset to anyone in political life. Her academic credits are amazing. Log on to her Wikipedia page and be impressed.

It is disappointing that so many are willing to believe negatives about Hillary, particularly since exhaustive investigations have yielded no wrong-doing. Are her attackers just incompetent? Maybe they found nothing they could nail her with because the allegations are not true? Believe me they tried. She is a woman, she is progressive, she is talented, she is formidable She is a loyal wife and mother, she is strong, she gets things done, she won’t back down. These are all the qualities that terrify her opponents and they are relentless in attacking her. And do you think she’s the Teflon woman? Do you think they wouldn’t have taken her down if there was any substance to the attacks? They can’t find anything but they succeed by painting her with a black brush and the uninformed believe them.

Please also bear in mind that Republicans are not attacking Sanders. Nothing there? There doesn’t have to be. If they were afraid of him, they would invent things. Ask yourselves why they aren’t afraid of Sanders. I like his positions, but he’s not Superman. I think they are afraid of Hillary because she can win.

Where did Biddle get his information? Not, I dare say, from research.
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Why do my intelligent friends believe the lies whole cloth? And, although it is seductive to think there is someone out there, in the person of Bernie Sanders, who can wave a magic wand and make everything all right, his programs are grandiose and in order to get solutions, you have to start with something that can actually happen. Remember, there are a great number of voters out there who are terrified of Socialism and think it is about pouring money into the mix to help deadbeats. The miracles Sanders promises are not possible without funding, also hostage to obstructionist Republicans in Congress. Hillary is more capable, in my opinion, of manipulating Congress than Sanders.

Sanders is like the divorced daddy who takes the children every other weekend and promises them the moon while mean old Mommy says no a lot.

This country doesn’t have a daddy, it has Congress. Good luck with that.

Hillary will be a phenomenal leader and she knows the system. Her detractors harp on faults that have not been proven, and Republicans were even caught on tape saying that the Benghazi effort to demonize her was not about facts, but about “getting her.”

Clinton has been buried under an avalanche of negativity, to which the media have contributed. It is undeserved. She was also criticized for not leaving her husband during the Lewinsky debacle, as if anyone can dictate to anyone else what their choice should be in a deeply personal situation, that involves a question of loyalty (for better or worse – remember that?), and she still soldiers on. Also, although she does not fill her remarks with religious references, she has lived a moral life that is admirable. And I wonder how perky Sanders would be if he had been subjected to the same relentless avalanche of attacks for the last 25 years.