Vote for Hillary Online Spoke. McCain Listened.

You may remember our open letter to McCain yesterday that called for him to denounce the smear tactics and get back to the issues so we can all have an honest and mature debate. It looks like people are starting to take notice to our grassroots Hillary campaign and they realize they can't get away with the under-the-radar character assassinations any longer.

Not even a day later, Newsmax writes an article entitled "McCain: I'll respect Hillary":

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Saturday said he won't follow his rivals' lead in taking personal shots at Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton, and that voters seeking a candidate who will do that should look elsewhere.

"I think people want a respectful debate and a respectful discussion. And if they don't, then obviously, I'm not the person to be their candidate," McCain told reporters in response to questions about criticism of Clinton by Republican rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

"Legitimate policy differences, those should be debated and discussed," McCain said. "But I don't think you should take shots at people, like imitating her voice. I'm serious, I'm not sure what you gain by doing that."

This is victory, folks. We did this. Not just the staff here at Vote for Hillary Online, but all of you - the grassroots Hillary supporters. This is about as close to victory as we're going to get when it comes to combating the smear tactics. In a perfect world, the other candidates would follow McCain's lead, but they have been doing this for so long that they've forgotten how to run a campaign without running their opponent's good name through the mud.

We will remain watchful of McCain's actions to see if he keeps his word. And if he doesn't, believe me we'll be the first to bring it to you. But for now, I think it's safe to say: Mission Accomplished.

Speaking of getting back to policy differences, you can refer to this page at any time for a comprehensive list of Hillary's positions on the issues.

Open Letter to McCain from Vote for Hillary Online

Senator McCain is a simpleton. So we're going to keep this very short and sweet.

Dear John McCain:

When you were giving a conference in South Carolina and one of your supporters called Hillary Clinton a "bitch", you had a great opportunity take the high ground and give us all at least a little hope that there is still a glimmer of integrity in this historical presidential race. You failed miserably. You not only let your own supporters down by subscribing to the continuing smear tactics, but you let America down. Most importantly, you let Hillary down. You are a well respected man Senator McCain. And what you have just done gives the green light to all involved in this race that pandering to the lowest common denominator is fair game.

We are giving you a second chance. What is done is done, and we can't erase the past. But you do have it within yourself to remedy this situation. Vote for Hillary Online calls for you to denounce this type of behavior. We call for you to apologize not only for your supporter's actions, but for your response to those actions. Anything less than this is simply unacceptable.

-vfho

Intellectual Debate? Impossible. Latest Tactic? Name calling.

Folks, when your enemy has to resort to name calling in order to attack you, it is right then and there that you realize you have won.

The 2008 Presidential race. We thought it could be mature. We thought we could act like adults. We thought we had put all these petty tactics behind us. We thought...we hoped that we would be living in different times right now. A time where intellectual debate triumphs and playground antics are stigmatized.

We knew Hillary Clinton would be a force to be reckoned with, and therefore attacked from all angles. But we also thought that this would be a battle of ideas and philosophies, in which each side ultimately wants America to be great once again, the only difference being how we get there.

But what we are seeing today is in stark contrast to those values and principles that we here at Vote for Hillary Online felt could be a reality.

Folks, there's no battle of ideas here in this race. There's no judgment based upon merits and values. We would like it to be so, but we cannot will that which is out of our hands.

Where am I going with all this?

Take a look at this piece by the Seattle Times. Headline: "If Hillary's a (rhymes with rich), what does that make us?"

I'm not going to post that article's contents on our blog. The gist of the story is that a John McCain supporter asked him "How do we beat the bitch?" Listen, there will always be fanatical supporters that you cannot control. But what did McCain do? He laughed, and began answering the question as if it was understood that in fact Hillary Clinton was a bitch.

Why is this important? So what if the opposition calls Hillary a bitch? I'll tell you why it's important. If there's one thing that has been consistent in this whole presidential race, it's that nobody wants to focus on Hillary's positions, her integrity, and how much of a value she will be to America if elected. This is a diversion tactic. This is telling people "who cares about positions? She's a bitch." It's an attempt to get the American people on board with this negative view of someone's character, in order to completely discredit the actually work that she will be doing, while in office, on behalf of the American people.

This has got to stop. And it has got to stop right now. I'm looking at you Senator McCain.