I was watching MSNBC last night when these various announcements were made and news reports broadcast. (By the way, has MSNBC always been the Dem equivalent of FOX News, or is that recent?) The thinking is that HRC would possibly like to get nominated on the floor in Denver, even though she’s fully aware that she cannot win, so as to show that a woman can and did get nominated for President by a major party, and she was that woman. Keith Olbermann found this plausible, folks, it’s not just me.
Look, I was irritated Tuesday night myself by her speech, but I’ve come to the conclusion that this was unjust. She and her loyalists are all saying that there is a right way to do this and a wrong way, and the right way is to bring as many of her supporters along with her as possible. This means easing her supporters through their grief and sense of loss and bringing them to see Obama as their best hope of decent government over the next few years. Further, it’s not so easy to just say “All over. Go home now.” to all the volunteers and especially employees working for her campaign. It’s been a large campaign, and the logistics are complex. She’s not screwing with Obama’s momentum; she’s taking a few days before she starts the long hard slog again, and this time without the prospect of winning the presidency herself to keep her going.
You all have been saying that Obama was the absolute winner for a couple of months now, but the fact is, this is the closest primary race in history. She had good reason to stick it out to the last primaries, and the end result bears this out - she won one of the last two states.
Obama hasn’t been in the least concerned about her actions, and as he points out, he’s just about the only person in the country who knows just how she’s feeling right now. Which above all is exhausted and a bit hurt - her congressional support melted very quickly what with everyone trying to jump on the Obama bandwagon. Nonetheless, she was very graceful and supportive of Obama at the AIPAC speech yesterday.
You want a personification of EVIL? Look to W, Cheney and Rove. You want a relevant personification of EVIL? There’s McCain waiting for us all to villify, and he deserves it.
HRC can be a real asset this fall, and in the coming administration (I like the idea of Attorney General - that would have some nasty folks shaking in their shoes!). Unless the idea of finding new and imaginary villainies to attribute to her appeals to you more than winning (and at this point you have me wondering), how about spending your time and energy finding ways to use her to beat McCain, the *real * enemy!