The Clinton Show

Okay, haven't posted in a while. Finals, papers, traveling, etc etc etc. Getting ready to go out and work for my main man, Senator Obama, in the Pacific northwest. But this is a fitting day on which to return to the blogosphere, because last night Obama secured the nomination. Kind of.

Clinton, of course, still hasn't conceded. Even though she now is behind by like 230 delegates (and counting), and has been unable to win for weeks. Her surrogates are saying that she deserves time to make her decision, and the respect of the political community, media, and country.

But here's the thing. They've been saying that for weeks now. Let's wait until everyone has voted! Let's wait until Florida and Michigan are resolved! Endorse Obama and you are either a "judas" (Bill Richardson), "incredibly disrespectful" (NARAL), or irrelevant (all African Americans.) They've been giving her time and letting the people vote - something she didn't seem to care about when she said it would be wrapped up by Super Tuesday - and letting the votes count - something she didn't seem to care about when she said "we all know this election [in Michigan] isn't going to count for anything."

And yet, they keep saying it. It's the same old tune. And last night, when the voting ended and Obama got the numbers to win the nomination by a pretty wide margin, they said should be her night, not his. She's won 18 million votes (a made up number which is somehow up a million from when they made up 17 million last week, even though the population of Montana and S.D. combined is like 400 people.) She's the leader of the party (even though she wasn't before the election, which she lost, and certainly isn't now.)

This isn't Clinton's night. It isn't her party. It isn't her nomination. She lost, and it is over, and has been over for several weeks. But it always has to be about her, because she is the center of the universe. So it makes sense that now she's pushing herself for VP - trying to at once make it both impossible for Obama to accept her and impossible for him to reject her, so that either way, he is fucked. Clinton cannot possibly imagine that a party without her and her husband at its center could succeed, or that a nation led by such a party could excel. With Clinton, it's always been about me, me, me.

And I love that her supporters are still "holding out for a miracle," which at this point means either a political catastrophe for Obama (which would wreck the party, even if he stepped down and she took his place) or his assassination, an idea which she seemed to champion a few weeks ago when she cited the death of RFK as her reasoning for staying in the race. It takes a pretty sick mind to hold out for such a scenario, especially considering that any logical supporter of Clinton would have to prefer Obama over McCain, but unfortunately there are a lot of people in that mindset in this country today. And I have a pretty good idea of who deserves the blame.

Such a person does not deserve time, or respect, and certainly not the vice presidency. Such a person deserves to be ignored, once and for all.