"Well, I want what I have always fought for in this whole campaign. I want to end the war in Iraq. I want to turn this economy around. I want health care for every American. I want every child to live up to his or her God-given potential. And I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard and no longer to be invisible."

Can't have it both ways, and the cake is too stale to eat.

That is not how I would feel about her age then (69), but it is how all the detractors will start off.

And, if BO loses this election, I am sure plenty of folks will try to deflect the blame on to HC.  That is their purogative.  But, they really need to look closely at their candidate (BO) and understand that beneath the suit and the tele prompter speeches, many see a really flawed candidate that does not represent what they want from the party.  The more his well hidden background and embossed narrative get exposed, the worse he looks.

I'm without a party too.  But I'm a PUMA, and I don't apologize for that.  I'm a feminist, and I don't apologize for that.  I'm a liberal, and I don't apologize for that.

On the one hand, a year ago many were calling themselves progressives and contrasting it positively to being liberal. See shystee at Corrente in January:

my own personal definition* of Liberal: people who want things like universal healthcare, out of Iraq, privacy rights, help for the homeless, good public schools, justice, equality, etc... but accept the excuses made by politicians and the media for why these things are not possible.

while the historically Progressives did stand for some good things, and are a part of the backstory of contemporary American liberalism, they also stood for some very bad things. Certainly, whatever sins liberalism may have committed in the 1970s as it fell into disrepute were distinctly minor compared to the problems with the Progressives.

"Liberal," by contrast, is an important term with a noble history and a contested legacy. I think the notion that something like contemporary American liberalism is, in fact, the correct instantiation of the historic liberal project for our times is a proposition that's worth fighting for.

''I'm an unrepentant and unreconstructed liberal and New Dealer,'' he said in an interview, peering over a cluttered desk. ''That means I favor the use of government to improve opportunities and enlarge freedoms for ordinary people.''

Miroff shows that it is largely the McGovern campaign alumni who shaped what's legitimate and doable in Democratic Party politics since that time. They have been convinced that there is a fixed center in American political life, that this is a centrist nation and that successful politics can only occur close to that center.  This group badly misread a series of elections after McGovern.

[...]

Becoming the party of new professionals and new entrepreneurs, Democrats were now defined by social progressivism and economic restraint. Miroff argues this is exactly what the Republicans want them to be and why so much effort went into defeating Clinton's health care initiative; if the Democrats delivered big time to working people, they might win. Unfortunately, that was only a Republican strategic understanding.

Personally, I always thought the right path was a mixture of New Deal liberalism and an appreciation for both the liberal and conservative cultural elements in American society (otherwise we risk looking extremely out of touch).  I don't mean caving to religious right demands, but rather adopting that cultural conservatism in a way that aligns with our values.  Just to use one example, consider the John Edwards affair story from any number of angles: the betrayal of his wife's trust and his marriage vows, the lying, the double standards in how men and women are judged in these matters, the lack of judgment in running for President and possibly denying Hillary the nomination, and how many liberals or progressives' first instinct is to say "so what? to each his own, none of our business, etc."  In a way it was none of our business, but I hope what I'm trying to get at is clear.