And so it's over...

Senator Clinton finally announced her campaign is over and she is fully supporting the candidacy of Senator Obama. Too little, too late. Many have said she had the right to campaign through the last primary and, of course, she did. But the reason I and many others wanted her to stop campaigning sooner is because of the way she was campaigning. She has caused a division in the Democratic party that Senator Obama may not be able to repair because of her insistence that she was treated unfairly and denied what she felt was her due - the nomination. This ignores the responsibility she should acknowledge for the mistakes she made which are what cost her the nomination. Now many of her supporters, especially women who comprise the major bloc of voters in the Democratic party, are so angry they may not vote or will write-in Senator Clinton's name on the ballot. This division could have been avoided if she had cared about the future of this country as much as she claims. She is very smart and very savvy. She knew the effect her words were having on her supporters and she deliberately continued to incite dissension hoping it would cause the DNC to give her the nomination. If you doubt she did this deliberately, you only had to listen to the speech she gave on Tuesday night.

This is my last post about the Clinton's sense of entitlement and the damage they have caused to the Democratic party. From now I will talk the damage a McCain presidency would do to this country. Stay tuned.

Senator Clinton's Speech

I'm listening to Senator Clinton's speech on the night she lost the Democratic nomination and it's as self-serving as I expected it to be. I'm so sick of hearing her say she received more votes during this primary than any other candidate in history - the subtext of course is that she got more popular votes than Senator Obama. A pundit on tv last night said she is using the same accounting practices as Enron. In order to make this claim, she is counting all the votes cast in Michigan - where Senator Obama wasn't even on the ballot - truly democratic, right? All of the Democratics agreed not to campaign in Florida because their votes wouldn't be counted and she agreed. But now she needs those votes to make her specious claim - so she counts them. She isn't the counting the caucus states for two reasons - caucus states don't count popular votes and Senator Obama won the caucus states. Karl Rove can learn from the Clintons.

Now she is stating what she wants for this country as if she is the only person in the campaign who wants these things.

What makes me so furious about Senator Clinton is that she has put her ego above the campaign. I'm disgusted that the first woman candidate who actually had a chance to be the nominee has run such a despicable campaign. Many women felt as I did at the beginning of the campaign - torn between the two candidates. But as the campaign wore on and Senator Clinton allied herself with Richard Melon Scaife - the money and power behind the vast right wing conspiracy that worked so long and so hard to bring down President Clinton! - and Fox News; as she made thinly veiled racist comments; as she used the assassination of Senator Bobby Kennedy as a rationale for not leaving the campaign early - we became disillusioned and turned off and turned against her. What a disappointment she is.

The end of one campaign, the beginning of another

Everyone but Senator Clinton knows the campaign is over and she isn't going to be the Democratic nominee. Or, perhaps she knows it but isn't ready to publicly admit it. Whatever the case, if she cares for the Democratic party and the country as much as she has claimed - and I believe she does - she must concede defeat, announce her intentions to work hard to elect Senator Obama and strongly encourage her supporters to do so. The more gracefully she exits the campaign the sooner the Democrat party will come together to support Senator Obama. This is essential to the Democrats winning the White House in November. So, the primary campaign may be over but there is much work to do and we need all three Clintons to ensure a Democratic victory in November.

Save the Democratic Party from the Clintons!

A group of people is planning to demonstrate at the DNC meeting this weekend demanding that all of the votes from Michigan and Florida be counted so Senator Clinton can claim to be the nominee. Several problems with this. Senator Clinton agreed with the decision not to count Michigan's and Florida's votes when they defied the DNC and held their primaries too early. (Does anybody believe she would be working so hard to have the votes counted if they would benefit Senator Obama?) Senator Obama wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan. How can those votes be counted? All of the candidates agreed not to campaign in either state, including Senator Clinton. Of course, she then did campaign but we all know she doesn't believe the rules apply to her.

Senator Clinton has believed since she announced her candidacy that she is entitled to the nomination and will do anything to make it happen, even if it means causing an irreparable rift in the party that will result in victory for Senator McCain in November. This is reprehensible. We have to stop the Clintons and save the Democratic Party. Contact all of the super delegates who haven't committed to a candidate yet and encourage them to announce now. If all of the uncommitteed super delegates announced their support now - and presupposing they support Senator Obama as he is the presumptive nominee - Senator Clinton would have no choice but to withdraw.

Her legacy is tarnished and she will have a very chilly reception in the Senate when she returns. The only chance at any kind of redemption she has is to withdraw from the campaign and convince her supporters to supporters Senator Obama.

Rhandi Rhodes

Today on Air America Radio Rhandi Rhodes said she believed Senator Clinton stayed with Bill so she could run for president as Hillary Clinton, wife of the former president, instead of Hilllary Rodham, divorcee. It's an interesting theory I've heard from others and I'm beginning to believe it. I can't think of any other reason why she would stay with a man who publicly humiliated her. How ironic if this were to be true as she's now claiming to represent feminists in her bid for the White House.

Cover-up

Well, it had to happen. Bill Clinton is accusing "them" of hiding the truth about recent polls showing that Senator Clinton would win the electoral college in the fall if she were the nominee asserting that there is a cover-up. Of course there is. Clearly, the Democrats have decided that Senator Obama should be the nominee and will go to any lengths to deny Senator Clinton the nomination she rightfully won. Give me a break. I guess there is now a vast left wing conspiracy? I now regret my previous support of Bill Clinton and no longer respect Hillary Clinton. One has only to imagine how they would react if the positions were reversed and Senator Obama were claiming the nomination as his right knowing he had no chance to have the majority of delegates necessary under DNC rules to win the nomination. If you believe they wouldn't be insisting he stop campaigning because he was hurting the Democratic party and Senator Clinton's chances of winning in November you're as delusional as they are.

No More Clintons

Bill Clinton said today that if his wife wins South Dakota and Montana she can win the nomination. This could only happen if the superdelegates who have already announced their support for Barack Obama flip and support Senator Clinton. After the campaign she's run does he really believe anyone wants Senator Clinton to be the Democratic candidate? I'm sick of the Clintons trying to rewrite the rules to suit their ambitions. I don't want to see or hear from either one of them in any political contest again - ever. And I used to love Bill Clinton and I respected Hillary Clinton. But that's over. I'm disgusted. I know people who say Senator Clinton is a tough, tenacious campaigner and deserves respect for how hard she's fighting but I don't think the kind of slimy campaign she's run should be commended. From the 3 am commercial to the constant insisting that white, working class people won't vote for Senator Obama to her mention of the assassination of Senator Bobby Kennedy her campaign tactics have been despicable. Senator Obama won the Iowa caucus because a majority of the white, working-class people in that state chose him. He wouldn't have over one million donors if white working-class people weren't supporting him. He's drawing record crowds whenever he speaks, voter registration is up and more people are voting then in previous elections. He has inspired the country to believe we can be better and do better. We can once again be the "shining beacon on the hill" to the rest of the world. To deny him the nomination, for any reason, and give the nomination to Senator Clinton would send the message that the Democratic party has chosen to emulate the machinations the Republicans used to steal the 2000 election. We are better than that.