I just loved the way Hillary gave her speech tonight. She was the epitome of a true leader. For the life of me I can't believe why anybody wouldn't want her to lead the nation.

I also loved the way the MSM talking heads for once looked like stunned kids who just had their favourite ice cream taken away from them. That moment itself was priceless.

And its funny to watch the the Dem elites with all their posh talk about party this and party that, doing everything in their power to destroy the party further, with their Hillary has to Go Now meme.

I think her not giving in or giving up tonight was really smart. I think winning the will of the people has earned her, and her supporters a powerful position where she can ensure some things get done. One is that a true universal health care be forwarded. Another is that the voters of FL and MI are fully counted. In other words, she can push the party to do the right thing, which will help them in the end. And I think she can, if not stopped by Harry and Nancy and others, move her 18 million to support the nominee. I think if she stopped cold tonight, that would no longer be possible.

Though I know you Jeralyn and BTD of course will support the nominee no matter, many of us 18 million will not automatically do that. We must be respected and won over. So it is to that purpose that Hillary should keep fighting until the party sees the light and shapes up. And besides, I still see possibilities given the long sumer ahead. I'm hoping she keeps the options open, albeit in a sort of suspended state.

The most stunning quote of the article is this:

It has been a hard-fought and sometimes bitter campaign, but Obama is not, one of his senior advisers assured me Tuesday night, going to spend a lot of time in the next few months wooing Clinton supporters whose feelings may be hurting

Reading TalkLeft has become a part of my daily routine. I don't comment every time I read; otherwise, I probably would get less work done.

Thanks for the Janis Joplin tune. She's one of my favorites. Somehow, I think Janis would've been a Hillary supporter.

But, you're absolutely correct about Hillary; she won't let herself feel like a victim. I admire her so much for that. I wrote a letter to her tonight to let her know that I was proud to be one of her supporters, and I would respect whatever decision she made regarding her campaign.

I also wrote, "Your style, intelligence, and overall comportment have been exemplary during your campaign, and you have served as an outstanding role model for so many people, especially women. Further, your knowledge of the issues is unsurpassed..."

Even though she's extremely strong, everybody needs recognition and a pat on the back sometimes.

Anyway, I'm feeling kind of down right now, so please have a snifter of brandy for me too. I still have a bit of work to do. Ugh!

The work that you do here, Jeralyn, is truly meaningful and appreciated.

Thanks for the articles. Thanks for the laughs. Thanks for the great music videos. Seriously -- you're brilliant.

Even though I can't support your decision to support Obama (assuming he does get that nomination), I will stop by to read things.

It's important that wherever the chips fall, SenC's phenomenal accomplishments not be allowed to be diminished in number, or tarnished and dismissed by her detractors and political enemies.

I can't believe the relentless vicious quality of smiling ungenerous hacks like Jamal Simmons. He can't even spare a second of camera spin-time to compliment -- even for perfunctory appearance -- a fellow combatant.

I'm definitely passionate about HRC and as tenaciously competitive in my specialties as she is now, so I know how to keep a cool head when everything else is pounding.

When I see an ungracious opponent smugly using a perceived moment of weakness to prance it shows ME a gap in their game.

The collection of smarmy self-congrating villainy is so big and so dumbly piling on the "loser" it's like the meeting of goons in the first half hour of a Wu Tang film.

Obama's declaration is on a loop and they're falling over themselves to out-inflate the historicity and magnitude of tonight's "victory" by Obama in anticipation of SenC's impending concession, apology, and dragging of shamed and shameful @ss into a nunnery.

Even if you were to excessively generous, and give Obama the caucus estimates from the four states with no vote tallies, except use the Washington primary, which had much higher participation than the caucus. Then RCP says she won by 228,000 votes.

Okay, maybe the Washington primary shouldn't count, and we can use an estimate from the caucus, though I can't find one anywhere. Then she beats him by 178,000 votes.

Not enough? Okay, give him a big chunk of the Michigan uncommitted vote even though he got zero votes in that state. Chris Bowers, who is sympathetic to Obama, pegs this at around 173,000 votes. So she's still 5,000 votes ahead.

Pretty much anyway you dice it, Clinton won the popular vote. An inconvenient fact, but true nonetheless.

I'm not a regular commenter here, but I wanted to say something.

I'm an Obama supporter. Over on the blogs I normally frequent, the commenters are hating on Clinton, then a few Clinton supporters came in to start hating on the Obama supporters, who in turn started firing back on the newcomers, and so on.  You know how it goes.

Anyway, for whatever reason I just got bored with the Ten Minute Hate routine, so I decided to check out the reaction over here.

To be honest, I was expecting...well, I don't know what.  But what I found was a lot of classy, heartfelt posts.

I think a lot of the animosity in this campaign stems from the fact that it's a lot easier to say ridiculously offensive and insulting things from the anonymity of the internet.  As a result, people get polarized very quickly and a giant negative feedback cycle is created.

From what I've read here tonight, y'all seem like good people.  I know what it's like to invest a good portion of yourself in a candidate and have them come up short.  I'll never forget 2004, coming back from a grueling day of GOTV, only to watch the election slowly slip away.

Anyway, I admire your passion and dedication, not only to Hillary, but to your own values as well.  I hope by the time November rolls around we'll all be able to work together for our true goal: sweeping the Republicans out of DC once and for all.

Will it be another one of those Obama Adoration blogs?  

I know I posted here a little bit when the Plame thing was going on and I was hoping Karl and Rove would end up in jail, but I'm not a regular poster on any of the political blogs anymore (not since the Clinton Impeachment -- and back then we didn't have blogs, we had boards).  

I was quite delighted when I found this blog full of Hillary supporters.  

If Hillary goes down totally and completely, I'm probably going to vote for McCain though I would like to read something from BTD about how he decided to vote for Obama and for what reasons (I dunno but maybe he would sway me).  

I'll still vote for Democrats down ticket.  

I went to an Obama celebration tonight and I heard no celebration about the party or about coming together.  Of all the times that I had difficulty supporting Obama's position's or his supporters I at least always chose to believe (against all odds) that it was Democrats above all else.  But tonight all I heard was smearing of the Clinton's, and this, on the night that they were supposed to be only celebrating.

I would truly hope that this was not what it has come to.  And yet, as I watch CNN tonight, as I hear all the bullsh?t, honestly, from Arianna Huffinton and Jamal Simmons, I want to scream.  These people have truly lost touch with the people.  It's all "racist" if people vote against him and pure and good if we do.  As a Californian that doesn't base everything on race I am purely against basing everything just on that, as I would be for basing voting on Clinton only because she is a woman.  I NEVER voted for her because she was a woman.  It's disgusting to me to see Simmons and Huffington despise either of the Clinton's on the news tonight.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/michael_tomasky/2008/06/no_shame_no_gain.html

I am terribly confused -- I understand the rancor in the National Media, because they made their selection and Hillary has, wisely and courageously, made it clear that the decision rests with the voters, not the media. I don't understand the Obama camp -- they have run a skillful campaign in many ways but their politics since the Pennsylvania primary have been dreadful. Yesterday's events were really just the latest case in point -- if you've got the inside track to the nomination, all the acrimony is wildly counterproductive. They seem incapable of seeing how the "if you're not for us, you're against us" rhetoric becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I am an old-fashioned, pretty Yellow Dog Democrat who has long accepted the fundamental idea that our Party is a great coalition, the only truly national Party. I still think Scoop Jackson was a good Democrat even though he was off the reservation about Soviet technological superiority, and I can get along with Blue Dogs as long as they don't become Boll Weevils. The right wing has succeeded over the past 40 years in dividing the Party and thus the country, largely through identity politics. That the Party is playing into their hands, largely because the Leadership is more interested in the power struggle than in the Party, much less the country, sickens me.

For me it's over when Hillary says it's over.  And that means I will support the nominee, just as she will.

But I will not suspend my skepticism.  I used to think critical thought and respect for well-meaning progressives were essential to being a Democrat (among other things).  

All the other "metrics" are nothing more than political arguments aimed at swaying the superdelegates -- quite necessary, because neither candidate won sufficient pledged delegates through the primaries and caucuses for a first ballot majority.

That is also why the Media Primary was and is so important -- the Media Primary has a significant influence on the superdelegates, and its importance should not be discounted for the general election. I give the Obama team plenty of credit for winning the Media Primary -- notwithstanding the Clinton Derangement Syndrome in the media, Obama had to deal with a few high and tight fastballs and some wicked breaking stuff himself, and the long road of Democratic presidential campaigns is littered with hopefuls who came to grief (Muskie's tears, Biden's plagiarism, etc.).

Not once have they mentioned the magnitude of Sen Clinton's accomplishments or the milestones that she has set in her historically significant run for women.

Kira has referred to Obama's premature endzone dance as "MLK-like" and rather than allow Charlie Rengell to talk about Sen Clinton's run, Kira grills him on the "threat" to Obama's life.

Then she cuts him off and says, "What history!"

Schlub on the street: black pedestrians massaged towards what yesterday's "historical" Obama victory meant. White pedestrians (a fraction of the black ones) asked only if they'd support the victorious one. No lead-in of "presumptive", "uncertified", or the info that Sen. Clinton hadn't conceded.

No mention from these two journalists of Sen Clinton's accomplishments, and later, Sen C's supporters are confined to explaining why she should should be considered -- worthy was the reading -- for VP.

Word associations when describing Obama supporters: pioneering, historical, legendary folks themselves, paired against a {--- crickets ---] guy {--- crickets ---] and yet more {--- crickets ---].

i see him as just a more educated george bush,  still unable to put together a complete sentence unless it's scripted. the real danger lies in what i fear will be an obsequious majority democratic congress, afraid to not support him, regardless of how ridiculous the policy might be.

No doubt she will be there for Obama come the fall, but not showing her the respect she earned as a very formidable candidate in a very tight race will only serve to split the party more than it already is. Obama supporters should not succumb to their urges to brush "the little lady" aside.

If you care about the things Hillary cares about, like health care and the future of Roe v. Wade you need to get behind the nominee, Barak Obama.

Why can't you Obamatrons see that you're hurting your candidate when you mock Hillary Clinton's supporters with canned insults and character assassinations???  This blog if for intelligent discussions about the campaign, not for the rote recitation of Clinton Hater's talking points.  

She's correct that more voters chose her (pdf) than any other candidate in the history of presidential primaries.

"I am open to it" [VP] if it would help the party's prospects in November, Clinton replied, according to participants who spoke on condition of anonymity because the call was private.

Clinton's comments raised anew the prospect of what many Democrats have called a "Dream Ticket" that would put a black man and a woman on the same ballot, but Obama's aides were noncommittal. "We're not in the presidential phase here. We're going to close out the nominating fight and then we'll consider that," David Axelrod, Obama's top strategist, told reporters aboard the candidate's plane en route to Minnesota.

Want to fix the dumb primary system?  Want to elevate the discourse and put the media gasbags in their place?  Do it.  You are the party!