I was, and am, an Obama supporter, but have found the "Hillary should step aside" drumbeat led by the media and followed by a whole lot of people (Obama supporters and not) to be really bizarre and creepy.

As I understand it (and the arcane Democratic elections rules are mysterious and strange, so it's totally possible I'm misunderstanding something), it wasn't mathematically possible for either candidate to clinch until the DNC decided to count half the Florida and Michigan delegations. And that only happened a few days ago, so why should she leave until that happened?

I don't blame her at all for staying until it's mathematically impossible for her to win, and in fact find that an admirable quality. However, she should leave now.

I love reading kid oakland's diaries over at DKOS. He wrote one back in April about the CA convention and his interaction with Clinton activists. I find myself in a similar position as I know more long time activists on the Clinton than Obama side.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/1/204752/7690

"I thought to myself, these folks aren't new at this. They've done this before. In fact, looking at the assembled sign-toters something struck me for the first time, Hillary's supporters know conventions."

"Clinton is in a powerful position. Her supporters are among the best activists the Democratic Party has. I do not doubt that every last Clinton activist in the party will work for the nominee. The question is when that will happen, not whether they will support the nominee. I like and trust Clinton's activist supporters. These are good people who deserve our respect. If Clinton continues down this path, her choice will shape our party's chances in November up and downticket."

I think you'd find a number of people who'd argue that at one point we had even 3 or 4 or 5 inspiring and wonderful candidates.

But anyway.

To Rusty's point, I didn't really see much of that drumbeat from real, actual people. I didn't spend much time after Iowa visiting any of the "big" political blogs, so if there were rabid Obamanauts on DKos or someplace calling for Hillary to quit, I missed it. That's not all that surprising considering that the big blogs cull the whole nation's field of bloggers for the nuttiest cream of the nut crop, which is probably why I avoid them. But among people I actually kind of knew or even talked to who supported Obama, I heard no serious call for her to quit. Even if we don't want to ascribe the best intentions to that, at the very least the Obama supporters knew that continuing the race till the very end meant pumping millions of dollars and thousands of boots-on-the-ground-hours into states where the Democrats had no infrastructure. There was a brief concern that the Clintons' anti-Obama rhetoric was getting a little dangerous, but her campaign quickly toned it down and as long as they stuck to the issues, the prolonged race was seen as a good investment by just about every Obama supporter I talked to.

To me, it was definitely the media that was beating that drum. They love to ask those big overly-dramatic questions that not a lot of ordinary Americans are asking so they can stoke up interest in viewers to watch them debate this shit endlessly with their pundits. This whole campaign season has been guided to a disturbing extent, in my deluded opinion, by the narrative the media wanted to sell us. If anything has made me put less value in the vote I cast than ever before, it's been the corporate media.

I'm very proud of Senator Obama and look forward to voting for him in November, but I'm equally proud of Senator Clinton for what she's accomplished.

It must have been tempting at times for her to throw in the towel, but she finished strong, in the face of mounting criticism. I'll always be grateful to her for showing that women can be as formidable as men in the political arena.

The naysayers never bothered me much, because they only made her seem that much stronger for holding on. And yes, she did give all the Democratic Primary voters a choice, and it was amazing to see them continue to vote for her in the millions.

Something huge has happened this cycle, and I believe young people, for the most part have taken it completely for granted.

This whole campaign season has been guided to a disturbing extent, in my deluded opinion, by the narrative the media wanted to sell us. If anything has made me put less value in the vote I cast than ever before, it's been the corporate media.

cosign

keep in mind this about McCain.

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_/2008/06/how_do_we_beat_the_bitch_excellent_question.php

He don't like the Clintons. Any of them.

One thing I would really like from folks is to try and sell me on Obama himself, not try and sell me him by telling me he's not McCain. Was that the basis for some of his support, that he was not Hillary?

that Obama manages to represent a post ideological method of governing where solutions are finally emphasized over partisanship...Obama doesn't just talk about being able to heal divisions within America...Obama's foreign policy ideas of talking to people is actually a pretty good one...I guess I could go on.

And finally, there's just the fact that he's a Democrat just as much as she is. A Hillfan at Manuel's was watching Obama's speech Tuesday night with incredulity, and when he talked about how he was going to change our country for the better bla bla bla, the Hillfan asked, "Yes but HOW? WHAT are you going to do?" I responded simply, "Just look at the Democratic Party platform, that's how." Seriously, was there ever that huge a gap between the two on policy? If not, then the real selling point on a candidate is just which one's going to be the person who gets your Democratic ass out of bed on a Saturday morning to go canvass. There's a whole lot of psychological fluffernutter that goes into that criterion, but hey, welcome to democracy.

I don't think the chief argument for Obama is that he's not McCain. I think that's the argument currently being used to Hillary people because it's clear none of the other ones were effective.

Hi Plange. McCain is the opponent now, and Obama will have a much better administration that him. Better Supreme Court justices, better environmental progress, more likely to avoid unnecessary war, sanity in the Justice department, progress on affordable healthcare.

There is no point to continuing to try to compare him to Clinton, and it doesn't really even matter if we got to this point in large part due to a cult of personality tidal wave. He has clearly shown he can muster support and inspire people, has a good grasp of the issues, can run a very large, complicated organization, surround himself with capable people, avoid big blunders, stay healthy and alert, and communicate. It's not like he's some loser bimbo like Dan Quayle. We really have nothing to fear or be apprehensive about. Contrasting with McCain is as much of the gig as anything else.

Sometimes what we mostly need is just a chance to feel good about ourselves, and Obama will certainly do that for a lot of people too. And that's a good thing.

Besides, I'll bet you a Guinness that Hillary's speech tomorrow will give us the big pitch for "Obama himself".

When the choices are pro-torture vs. anti-torture, I think it's okay to say that one is right and the other is wrong.

But the choice wasn't quite so stark in the Democratic Primary. It was more Coke vs. Pepsi than Good vs. Evil.

I don't think Hillary's supporters need to be reminded that Barack is superior to McCain on the issues - they know this. And I don't think that anyone is going to argue them into feeling enthusiastic about Obama. At this point, it's really up to him to make the sale.

I think people were missing my point about McCain -- I certainly don't need to be convinced that Obama would be better as a President than McCain (duh!) -- what I was getting at was how I'm going to spend my time; as Shelby said it, what's going to get my ass up in the morning to go canvass? It could be because I'm still hurting (and I appreciate people giving us space to mourn), but right now I might just get my ass up for a local candidate instead, unless somehow Obama or his supporters are somehow able to "make me see the light" on what got *them* up to go canvass for him.... I would *really* like to be shown this because if he does become the official nominee I would like to believe. But, also, until I'm released as a delegate, please remember I am a pledged Hillary delegate in Denver.

Drew, I agree that sometimes there is a right and wrong, but from my perspective it really did seem like a healthy portion of the Dem party really did see it as Good vs. Evil rather than Coke vs. Pepsi. But I do agree with you on this:

I don't think Hillary's supporters need to be reminded that Barack is superior to McCain on the issues - they know this. And I don't think that anyone is going to argue them into feeling enthusiastic about Obama. At this point, it's really up to him to make the sale.

To Rusty's point, I didn't really see much of that drumbeat from real, actual people.

Really? because I saw it *a lot*, just among the small group of usual suspects I hang out with at Manuel's and such.

A few observations from my end of the world.

Plange, frankly if I were you I'd stay in bed at least a month.. no reason to rush to do anything. You and a few other folks earned and deserve a much needed rest! My word sleep in, hug your Mom and your dog, get a mani pedi! Sheesh...

I think that it was really hard to see the "other campaign" once you had picked sides.

Since I didn't really pick but dabbled instead, it certainly looked to me that both teams were working equally as hard and were very well matched. I had friends on all but Dodd and DK's teams, so I'm not about to say one worked harder better faster whatever everyone who wanted something to do could have plenty of work if they wanted it. I know that 2 vans of Obama supporters drove to TX as well as lots of HRC ones too. Folks went to Iowa for their guys and gave money etc.. seriously I don't think it's at all productive to play at this.

At the end of the day I voted for Sen Obama 70% for him and 30% against Clinton. And it really wasn't against her.

It was against the shitty all boy mouth breathers that surrounded her. Carville, Wolfson, Lanny, Penn and yeah even Bill. In fact had she drop kicked that crew to the curb I would have supported her a whole lot more. I respect her but had serious reservations about her influences.

As to Sen Obama he does represent change, a generational one if nothing else. He's dang smart, has come up a very steep learning curve and isn't coasting. I have every confidence that he can lead this country effectively for 8 years and leave it way better than he found it and still do something else. It's up to Congress and us to support his vision.
I don't need to be convinced more than that.

As corny as it sounds I could freaking do with a little hope in my life. I've become crusty and mean these last 8 years and wasn't much interested in fight more nasty political wars, I've had enough.

Oh yeah, the supporters (myself included, too often), saw it as Good vs. Evil. Which makes the fact that it really was Coke vs. Pepsi all the more embarrassing.