I will begin with a cliche: the Democratic Primary has been a spirited contest. At the start of the primary, the slate of potential candidates for President elicited near universal praise. Any one of them, conceivably, could have beat the GOP opponent.Any GOP opponet.

Now, we can fast forward to the present day and see that the slate of candidates has been whittled down to two. One, Hillary Clinton, was expected to be a finalist. She had accrued a record war chest before the first vote was cast in Iowa. Her nomination was so likely that right wing media made her the target months before the Iowa caucus. Hannity had the "Stop Hillary Express." Limbaush's first question to GOP candidates was, "how are you the best candidate to stop Hillary?"

Even McCain had an imprmptu moment when a supporter asked him, "how do we stop the bitch?" McCain made it a point to let this supporter know that the Grand Old Party had a stockpile of arrows in its quiver to assail Mrs. Clinton.

What happened? The answer, to anyone who wants to view the matter objectively, is simple: Hillary Clinton ran the wrong kind of campaign. The campaign hasn't been a train wreck, given that she is still fighting, but it was certainly retrograde in character. A corollary to this answer is that her campaign for President began when she ran for New York Senator. At that time, the national was markedly conservative. Her votes reflect an era that is likely the most conservative in US history since the late 19th century. I am sure that if she would have consulted a fullproof magic 8-ball, she could have seen the changing tide.

The tide did change. Not only has the electorate become acutely aware of the failures of the Bush administration, they are angry about the Democratic appeasement in the face of an unmatched attack on traditional American values. I don't mean social wedge-issue values, but the real values that America has taken for granted. The belief that an education guarantees a living wage. The belief that owning property was the ticket into the vaunted middle class. The belief that the government does not lie to the entire world ino order to initiate a war. The belief that this country is too noble to torture and too law-abiding to spy on its own citizens.

Those of us chicken littles on the progressive side have questioned these mythic values for decades, but these values are the bedrock of our national self-image. The vast majority of Americans could not have expected or anticipated that a single executive administration could so completely undermine these values. The realization has been slowly and steadily dawning on more and more of us as we approach this next election.

In spite of Hillary's experience, skills, intelligence, and war chest, many voters were reticent to fall in line. I know that I based my hesitancy on her supine support of the AUMF against Iraq. I saw as politically savvy, but deliberately right of center in order to thrive in the post 9-11 political climate. I also believed that my voice, along with many others, would not be heard in her administration. I pictured her taking the same deliberate and politically cunning course as President, and taking the electorate for granted. Most of all, I saw that Hillary Clinton still feared the media complex as a power too awesome to fight. She would govern based on the beltway elite manufacture of consent.

However, I would vote for Hillary were she the nominee. I would rather have a President sway with the political winds than promote outright neoconservatism. I look at the GOP and saw, per Tom Tomorrow, a three-headed monster of McCain (war hawk), Mitt (fiscal conservative), and Huckabee (evangelical base). Neither of them would be enough to create a coalition that could stem the the tide of a resentful and disillusioned electorate.

Barack Obama's campaign has been superior and more in tune with the public pulse, not the media's interpretation of the the pulse. His fundraising is largely small donar, like myself, and has an internet outreach that will be the blueprint for all future campaigns. It is the outreach that I admire more than the candidate. I see the campaign itself as a catalyst for the groundswell that threatens to capsize neoconservatism once and for all. With that said, Barack Obama has proved an able steersman of the ship. He has successfully redefined the successful Democratic primary to the point that his main opponent has decried the rules of the game that she helped implement.

With all the above having been said, I am now going to offer some brutal truth to everyone who calles themselves a Democrat:

No one individual changes a damn thing in the US government. Barack Obama by himself or Hillary by herself can possibly begin to undo the damage of the Bush-led GOP smash and grab.

So, you have to look beyond the individual and judge the election by different factors. Who is more likely to get Democrats elected nationwide? Who has the larger and deeper war chest? Who is more likely to appeal to independents? Who is generating higher turnout in heretofore unpredictable demographics, especially the youth vote?

Look beyond race, gender, the GOP 527s and the media industrial complex. Look at the numbers and see who is best prepared to take advantage of the political momentum and bring the checks and balances triple crown to the Democratic party?

The answer is Barack Obama. He is in the best position to secure a government that will be much more amenable to the needs of all Americans great and small. He is a member of the Democratic Party and will thus be part of a consensus whose ultimate arbiter is the voter. This transcends personality and becomes meat and potatoes politics.

This is why a reconciliation is necessary and, for nearly everyone, inevitable. Hillary Clinton has run an enduring campaign and will have a voice in the future of this country. She is not the best choice for nominee right now based on the cold hard facts. Even if you fear an Obama Presidency, even if that fear is based on legitimate reasons, his coat tails will carry sweeping change to the government that Hillary simply does not have the political infrastructure to match. She can not turn out the vote, she can only rally a dedicated base that, while necessary, is not vital. Her campaign has alienated more than it has won. That is a bad omen at a time when Democrats could could put up Biden and in all likelihood beat McCain.

There is simply too much voter turnout to justify Hillary's political apprach. You can not suppress voter turn out and rally a loyal base when masses of citizens are demanding a change from neoconservatism and spineless liberalism. Continue to support Hillary and push for her future and her agenda, but understand that reality concedes the future of the party to Barack Obama.

I appeal to anyone with an ounce of pragmatism to see what is coming. Voter outreach, registration drives, the rise of the mountain west, the success of the anti-war movement in a fraction of the time compared to Viet Nam.. and the desperate need to have left of center politicians in office to stabilize and ultimately heal this deeply wounded nation. Now is not the time to attach yourself to an individual and pray for another Bush administration to prove yourself correct. Now is not the time for spite. Now is the time to suck in your pride, look at crisis squarely, and overcome it together. Now is the time to move away from polarization and see that politics is a mass process, and we the people are the ultimarte leaders of this nation. It is time to restore the virtue of civic duty to our core values.

A vote for the Democratic Party in November from top to bottom on the ballot, is a vote that will begin to save our future from the horrors of the last eight years. It is not about who should lead us, because we the people lead ourselves.