Time will show that this exit by Hillary Rodham Clinton was more gracious and magnanimous than most other high profile exists in the Democratic nominating process history.

I will offer no analysis of the speech, but a realization I came to as I carefully listened. Much of the rift between Clinton and Obama supporters these past few months has been the belief that one camp is right while the other is wrong. Today, it was apparent that for most of the time, we were all right. And now we are at that intersection of right and wrong once again.

I am not one for shying away from civil debate and discussion. I am not calling for a GBCW moment or anything of the sort. I believe that those who engage in such tactics do so out of reasons that are seldom benign. However, given the uncomfortable volume, the restless tone, and the sheer amount of nonsensical and raving diaries attacking the now almost presumptive nominee of our party, I call Obama supporters to take a break from this site until Monday for no other reason than to put a stop to a trend that might end up causing a lot of harm to our party and consequently, our country.

This is a good site. I'm no a long-timer on here, but I really like its environment. Very organic in its growth and interactions. So I must say that I am here to stay to help in the upcoming battles of electing democrats. The accelerating rate and increasing hostility of tonight's back and forth leads me to believe that a break is now a necessity.

I hate the fact that I must be the one to say it, but a call to not feed the trolls, to not engage, to calm down, to "chill", needs to happen once to be effective. Let this be it for now. Monday, we come back.

Profiles in contradiction:

Then: It'll all be over by February 5th.
Now: Let them vote!

Then: It's all about the delegates
Now: The delegates are no good measure. It's all about the voters

Then: MI doesn't count
Now: SEAT MICHIGAN!

more...

Obama's party? Very likely. Many in the past few days have cried foul, suggesting that the media is trying to end the race; kick Hillary out. That sexism prevailed. That voters have been disenfranchised. That caucuses are undemocratic. That one candidate is outspending the other. That Fox is fair and Fox is balanced. Hell no, we won't vote. That Clinton should be the nominee. Or wait, the VP. Popular vote. Edwards is Judas II. Electoral College. Polls. Superdelegates...

Convention.
Floor.
Fight.

Here's how it is:

* The media is not kicking Senator Clinton out of the race. If anything, they'd love for this to go on and on and on. If you think otherwise, then you must think you live in Iceland.

* The media is sexist. Oh boy. How do I handle this one. Listen, see point above. The media will be sexist, racist, ageist... whatever brings in more ad dollars, they go with it. If that weren't the case, a douche like Buchanan wouldn't still be allowed on the air.

* Superdelegates. There was a time when all we heard from the Clinton camp was "Automatic (Super) delegates should exercise their judgment". Ickes said it. Penn said it. Wolfson said it. And now that them supers are doing just that, everyone is freaking out? They are exercising their judgment, in Obama's favor.

* Some big ugly secret about Obama might come out. Yes. True. Something big and ugly could come out about McCain. Or Clinton. Something could always happen. Life, weird how it works out. But until it does, if you have the most delegates, you're the nominee

* Media Bias. Seriously. After being hammered on Wright, Ayers, Rezko, Farrakan, flag pins, Israel support, etc... after all of this, how can you believe for one second that Obama is favored by the media? He's favored by Malloy. Hillary is favored by Lynn Samuels. He's favored by HuffPo. She's favored by Taylor Marsh (who by the way removed the Rezko videos from her site. May be she feels change in the air?). If anything, the media was biased against Obama. And seriously, if all the "scandals" listed above couldn't take down Obama, I don't know what will.

* The timing of the Edwards endorsement was bullshit. Yes, very true. Bullshit for Senator Clinton, great for Senator Obama. Just like the timing of the 3AM ad was bullshit. Just like the Obama health care mailers were bullshit. There's a whole lot of cow dung flying around. I happen to think that the Clinton campaign was worse in this department. You might think Obama was more negative. We disagree, and we move on

* She earned her spot on the ticket. Honest to God she did. Nobody should run for office for this long, this hard, and come away with nothing. But she doesn't have to come away with nothing. I think to myself "you know what, we can make this dream ticket work". But then I go back to Senator Clinton "bringing a life of experience to the process"... "McCain.. bringing a life of experience".. and Obama. Ohhhh Obama. Him and his shiny little speech. Regardless, If Obama is the nominee and he can work something out with Clinton as VP, Edwards as AG, who knows. May be we can get the band back together and rock this damn election as we should.

* Buying Elections. This is one that I simply fail to fathom. "Obama outspent Clinton 3-1". "Obama outspends Clinton 4.21 to 1". So what? He's new. You can't blame the guy for not being around so long and then blame him for spending money on putting his message out there. Which leads me to another point. He's only outspending Clinton because he can. Because the Clinton campaign mismanaged their money. The mismanaged the campaign. These are the results brought forth by Mr. Penn. Not by MSNBC. Not by Fox. Not by CNN. But by Penn and all those who did not stand up to him. Clinton might have been more of a change candidate than Obama. But no. Wasn't gonna go down that way. Not on Penn's watch it wasn't.

Damn, I could really go on all night. If you're 55 and a female. I can't tell you that I know what it must feel like, cause I don't. I can try to imagine and I have. It must suck actually. But you're giving Clinton less credit that she's due to think that it was stolen from her. She fought a good fight. She's still fighting it. And by her demeanor, she's still going to fight it. This isn't really about Clinton becoming president. It isn't about Obama becoming president. This is about the way we live and how we move forward.

This is not being handed to Obama. He worked hard. He worked real hard for this. He got blasted for this. He's the only person in the world who's got this one little problem: a Muslim with a crazy pastor. This is how much shit this guy's had to take.

Vote for McCain if you must. But remember how in 2000 a gallon of gas cost $1.4? Remember how more than 4000 of our troops were still alive? Remember when inflation wasn't 3.9%? Remember when we didn't have the foreclosure rates of today? Remember when we didn't have 300,000 soldiers with PTSD? Remember how Haillburton almost folded? Take all the bad things and multiply them by two. That's what 2013 will look like if John McCain is elected president. There is not a shred of doubt in my mind, whether the nominee is Obama or Clinton, we will defeat McCain and the Republicans come November. Cause whatever shit they throw at us, we're too damn tired and angry to buy it this time around.

A poll of 500 democratic voters conducted by WBKO/Herald-Leader found 58% of all respondents supporting Clinton while 31% support Obama and 5% undecided.

The results:

All Men Women White Black Other

Hillary Clinton 58% 56% 60% 62% 16% 69%

Barack Obama 31% 32% 30% 27% 78% 14%

Other 6% 9% 3% 7% -- --

Undecided 5% 3% 7% 4% 6% 17%

The poll also found McCain beating Clinton 53% to 41% and Obama 58% to 33%

The Oregonian reports Congressmen Peter Defazio has endorsed Senator Barack Obama in his bid for the Democratic nomination for POTUS.

This is a snippet:

Tonight Rep. Peter DeFazio became Oregon's third Democratic congressman to endorse Sen.Barack Obama, putting the Illinois politician one delegate closer to the presidential nomination.

DeFazio said that Obama, who will begin a two-day campaign trip to the state Friday morning, "represents our best chance of winning in November."

"We must not allow Senator McCain to continue the failures of the Bush foreign policy, war in Iraq and disastrous economic policies," DeFazio added.

According to the Politico Superdelegate Counter, DeFazio is the 3rd superdelegate from Oregon to endorse Obama, joining Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Rep. David Wu.

Seven Oregon superdelegates remain undeclared.

We begin with Mr. Frank Rich with The All-White Elephant in the Room. In form with wit and reason, Rich doesn't attempt to prohibit asking the "Wright" questions, but wonders why we aren't asking the "Hagee" questions. All of this, of course, wrapped in a delicious reminder that, yes, race is still an issue in America.

Oh, the double standard:

None of this is to say that two wacky white preachers make a Wright right. It is entirely fair for any voter to weigh Mr. Obama's long relationship with his pastor in assessing his fitness for office. It is also fair to weigh Mr. Obama's judgment in handling this personal and political crisis as it has repeatedly boiled over. But whatever that verdict, it is disingenuous to pretend that there isn't a double standard operating here. If we're to judge black candidates on their most controversial associates -- and how quickly, sternly and completely they disown them -- we must judge white politicians by the same yardstick.

It's a good read, don't miss it.

Second, Friedman (yes, gosh darn it, Friedman), asks "Who Will Tell the People?. "Tell them what?" you may ask. Tell them that our bullshit everything: foreign policy, political establishment, demeanor, participation... all of it, it sucks! We're falling behind, fast. He compares our airports and train stations to those overseas and wonders who exactly won World War II. Then he declares (listen, please, Senator Clinton):

I don't know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn't matter is dead wrong. "Of course, hope alone is not enough," says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, "but it's not trivial. It's not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else."

And he finishes strong:

It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted -- enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth and dignity -- big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, "no one can touch us."

The lizardbox wonders if this inspiring awakening was caused by the green-pie incident.

Third, there's the woman I love to hate and hate to love: Maureen Dowd. In her micro-brewed piece, she starts and ends with Obama and his attempts to connect with... white voters. But the meat of this literary sandwich talks Clinton and Obama. Obama from humble beginnings now laboring for the return. Clinton, woman of the people? Not so much.

I hear many Clinton supporters repeat this line that Dowd attributes to Karl Rove and his Republican pack:

Karl Rove and other Republicans say he comes across as the snooty product of a Hawaiian prep school, Cambridge, Columbia and Hyde Park...

Well, of course he is, this Obama. What I rarely hear though is what kind of childhood and upbringing Senator Clinton had. Must be nice when your father pays for the house in cash.

You can argue this all you want, but this line from Obama's closing argument in Indiana and North Carolina rings true with Barack more than any other candidate:

Politics didn't lead me to working people. Working people led me to politics."

In his early twenties, he went to Chicago to become an organizer for $11k a year. Of course many would suggest that this was just another stop on his way to this run for the presidency since it is widely known that he plotted this path in kindergarten.

Last but not least, there's the editorial on Missing Records, from Senators Clinton and McCain that is. Missing are the McCain health records. Missing are McCain's tax returns prior to 2005.

As for Senator Clinton:

The public is still owed a more complete accounting of the sources and amounts of Mr. Clinton's speaking fees and business income. Still missing, too, is a complete list of the major donors who have been supporting the Clinton presidential library and foundation.

So, after the diversions of Wright, Ayers, flag-pins, and bitterness, on any given Sunday, may be this Sunday, we can talk about some issues that matter. May be we can talk about transparency. May be we can talk about serving the people and not pandering to them. May be talk about being honest with ourselves, and how we need inspiration, to challenge the good citizens of this country to regain our standing in the world. May be have a serious discussion about race outside the boundaries of the electoral process. May be...

Vote Hope 08

As an Obama supporter, I try my very best to be objective. First, I do not excuse my candidate no matter the situation. For instance, some of the mailers sent out have been too negative and I do not condone their use. The Annie Oakley reference didn't sit well with me either. But overall, I'm satisfied with Senator Obama and his policies. He's the Junior Senator from my home state, so, I can even say that I have been satisfied with him as a public figure for quite some time.

Now onto this whole issue of who will win this nomination contest. Senator Obama should fight for it as though it's not yet his, because it isn't, but officially, the thing is over. The Clinton campaign likens this to a football game with 2 minutes to go, they say that we should let it play out. What they fail to mention is that they're down 4 touchdowns. No penalty, no safety, no fumble, or onside kick will give them a chance at the lead.