Democrats Unite!

Artapraiser -- normally I ignore posts that are primarily links to other content, but in this case, I think you point is very well-made and that this group of people really needs to hear it.

Of course, Obama should be gracious. And, given the strong messages from Clinton's campaign, he'd better not make too much of this victory. However, I really wish that Clinton wasn't playing her end game like this.

artappraiser,

What can I say? One doesn't have to look too hard to find ungracious comments about any of the candidates, I'm afraid. My personal strategy for managing my emotions during this process is to try to focus my attention on what the candidates themselves say, rather than their supporters (especially those found on political blogs!). It helps me to remind myself that there's a distinction between the candidates and their supporters.

Lately at TPM there have been a few pleas for unity but they're ususally paired with an intransigence when it comes to letting go of one's own invested resentment. I guess that's human nature.

I suppose we won't really see reconciliation until the contests are actually over and both candidates officially come together to re-focus the party's energy toward beating the Republicans in the general election.

It'll happen...we'll have to try to be patient.

Since I'm not part of the Obama campaign, I feel completely unrestrained in telling it like it is.

Clinton needs to bow out after today. Or if she stays in, she needs to keep her trap shut or simply praise Obama at any opportunity. The campaign is over - we have our nominee. All this talk about being worried about Obama's "victory lap" is just projection - why is Clinton even staying in the race at this point, if not to do a "defeat lap" where she and her surrogates continue to parade themselves around the talkshow circuit and pretend to be way more relevant than they actually are?

NICE reminder. Rubbing salt in a wound does not make us gracious winners, and leaves us no room to criticize others for any lack of graciousness we may try to attribute to them. In fact it is time to stop thinking of us and them - regardless of the rhetoric we are addressing. The healing that has to occur is over real wounds, whether all of us believe they were inflicted or not.

Attention TPM Cafe bloggers who bitch about the quality of posts making it on to the "Recommended Reader Post" list since the "upgrade":

Your pot needs some scrubbing.

This is the kind of thing about Obama that makes him such a great candidate - he makes a habit of thinking about how his behavior makes others feel and then does his best to bring his supporters along his path of graciousness, good will and thoughtfulness.

Sure, we think, nay we know, he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that's why we need to honor his request that we behave like adults.

So quit yer sniping, folks.

Hillary is scorching the earth on her way out through false accusations of sexism and unfair treatment, that much is clear:

http://www.thepersonalispolitical.com/2008/05/hillarys-gender-baiting-campaign-is-in.html

I still have lost all respect for her. No one would be so touchy about this were it a rival male. I applaud her achievements and as a woman, I thank her for them. But I also expect her to act like it is much bigger than herself. She has never given me that impression.

You know, she can stay in the race until it's officially over. Whatever. Won't change anything. But she needs to just stop any of this crap she's been pulling for months. She's cut back on a lot of the negativity. But she's still moving the goalpost and changing the rules (in her mind). Until she stops, I'm going to have a problem with her staying in. But as I said, in the end, it doesn't matter, does it? So just let her play her little game. Eventually she'll have to realize it's over.

It's such a shame that the Republicans have shown much more sanity in the way they got Huckabee to concede gracefully, and Dems just show that they'll let their kingmakers and Her Royal Highness rock the foundations of the party (and the country) and rend the electorate instead of mending the damage.

I'm embarassed that so many Dems are racist and proud of it - pounding away on the WHITE hardworking Americans' votes and deriding Obama as an Affirmative Action candidate.

She has done so much damage, but has remained UNREPENTENT, as are her supporters.

If Hillary exits the primary gracefully and works hard to get Obama elected I will happily welcome her and her supporters who follow her lead back into the embrace of the Democratic party. If she or any of her supporters give an inkling of not supporting the Democratic nominee I will do my best to see her and any of her elected supporters primaried out of office at the earliest opportunity.

There's no middle ground for me. This election is too important, the work to be done, the legislation to be passed in the coming years far outway any petty grievances or perceived slights they harbor. If they don't see that then whether Obama wins or loses there will be no forgiving and forgetting on my part. In my eyes there can't be. Any Democrat who doesn't commit wholeheartedly to electing the Democratic nominee this year isn't sane and can't be trusted.

What's starting to get on my last damn nerve is that the calls for gracious winning are drowning out that of gracious losing.

Dismissing the results as sexist - which was today's meme (ala Bill and Gerry) - when everyone knows it was the confluence of an early frontrunner botching her campaign AND one of the best campaigns run in modern political history - while moving the goalpost incessantly and refusing to concede does not inspire magnanimity among his supporters. Meanwhile - as he's done the entire campaign the actual candidate remains gracious.

Does anyone care that he and his supporters have earned the right to celebrate - not in a salty way - but w/out the threats of party desertion and diminishing his victory?!? This was an historic contest which only one candidate has tried at every turn to piss on.

The 'rules' have only ever become 'unfair' for her when she sensed her trouncing. I've got news, much as you want to make strawmen out of his supporters - he has comported hiself w/ dignity. If this spectacle continues too long she won't be able to say the same. Is this really how she wants to be remembered in her historic run?!?

Enough - already. You got to know when to fold.