The differences between the above speech and what she actually said should be the basis for speculation about her sanity and lack of criminal culpability. If I could whip this out in twenty minutes, why is it that Gov. P. could not come up with a speech that said something similar instead of that rambling bit of wackitude that made everybody wonder if she's off her meds, about to be indicted, or hiking the Appalachian Trail?

The Speech Hillary must give (edited re-post):

  -- But is she capable of giving it? 

Fellow Americans, loyal supporters, and hard-working staffers:

A year and a half ago, I began this campaign for the Presidency knowing that electing me would be a historic first for our great nation. Forty-three Presidents have occupied the office, every one of them a white male. You may have noticed that I’m not a white man, and I am truly inspired and grateful that so many people know that does not – and should not – disqualify anyone from the Presidency. But this is not a campaign about race or about gender, or about whose "turn" it is.

This is a campaign about who will be the best President to clean up the mess that eight years of George W Bush has left behind.

The mess in Iraq.

The mess in our economy.

The mess of our environment.

The mess of cronyism and corruption.

The mess of human rights, torture of enemy prisoners, and twisting the law.

The mess of turning every branch of government into a tool for Karl Rove’s Republican machine.

I thought I would be the best person to lead our nation out of this mess, and I still do.

But I know one important thing. The best person to lead America out of this mess is NOT John McCain. We need to get a Democrat into the White House. We need to build our Democratic majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives. We need to protect our constitutional rights and freedoms by sensible appointments to our courts. More than anything else, we need to WIN THIS ELECTION.

(applause)

It has been a long, tough battle in the primaries – six months of visiting so many states, so many small towns, and meeting so many terrific Americans. You, the voters, kept me going. Your hunger to fix the mess in our country, and your support, and your cheers, and yes, your donations – have kept me going. I want to win this for you. I want to win the election for the farmer in Ankeny, Iowa whose son was maimed in Iraq. I want to win the election for the waitress in Watertown, New Hampshire who has no health insurance and a child with special needs.  I want to win it for the family in Ohio who has lost their house because of a fraudulent mortgage. And I want to win for you.

The primary fight has become the big story for the media. We have been working hard, both of us, for a long time. My opponent and I have been in dozens of debates. From the beginning, we have had blood, sweat, tears, and toil. There have been others in this race – Bill Richardson, John Edwards – who have terrific ideas about what this country needs to do. And all of us – ALL of us – share the goal of getting a Democratic president elected. We just disagreed about who that should be.

But you know, the election did not end in Pennsylvania. It did not end in Indiana and North Carolina. And it did not end in Montana and South Dakota. It does not end in Denver this summer. This election comes to an end on November fourth, all across our land, when the voters have their say. And on the twenty-first of January, the cleanup begins.

(applause)

We have only five months before Election Day. It’s time to focus on winning the election by beating John McCain and not on beating up each other. Now, I could carry this fight to Denver. I think I have a shot at winning the nomination even though I don’t, quite, have a majority of delegates. I have more delegates from primary states, my opponent has more delegates from caucuses, neither of us has a plain majority from the voter-chosen delegates. We’ve had a long fight. There could be more fights about Michigan and Florida.

But remember, that’s not the fight we should be having.

The real fight is against the Republican machine. The machine of corruption, cronyism, lobbyists, and lies. The machine of Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff, Dick Cheney, and John McCain. For months now, John McCain has had an easy ride. While Senator Obama and I have been battling each other, Senator McCain has been resting, raising funds, and visiting those places where he won’t be paying a lot of attention during the fall campaign.

One of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, (yes, yes, he was a Republican, but pretty darn good anyway…) said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” And he was right. The Democratic house has been divided. It’s time we unite to get this country back on the right track!

Now, I had hoped to be listening to a speech like this, not giving it. I had wanted to be the next President. At the end of this long primary fight, and a very tough one, and an even tougher couple of days, I have come to realize that it is not going to be. I will not be the next President. But perhaps I can be the “next next President”. Now, there’s the audacity of hope!

(applause, laughter)

Right now, I want to tell you two things. First, I’m not bitter. (laughter) It was a tough fight, and sometimes an ugly one. I regret that. I regret that staffers from both our campaigns said hurtful and divisive things. I regret the mis-statements and slips of the tongue that provoked outrage in some circles and I regret that those comments garnered more attention than the substance of our positions. I especially regret that some have let competition become poisonous and personal.

But Mr. Obama and I are rivals, not enemies. We share a vision of a better America. We have some differences but they are small compared to the differences between us and Senator McCain. Senator Obama has many ideas that I can support. I look forward to helping pass them and working with him from my Senate seat.

(interrupted by shouts of “Veep! Veep! Veep!”)

(aside)  No, no, that’s Mr. Obama’s decision to make. We haven’t discussed it, I haven’t thought about it, and I won’t think about it unless I’m invited to.

We have to get this country back on track and that is going to take a lot of work. There is a lot  to do at home and abroad, with our friends, our trading partners, our allies and our enemies. I will be proud to do my part for a Democratic president. I will carry a hammer, I will carry a broom, I will carry on the work of fixing the mess Mr. Bush has made of this country. And I know that you will work with me.

Some of my supporters have said that they could never vote for Barack Obama. Well, some of his supporters said the same about me. I hope that’s not true. I want each and every one of you to know that voting for me was great, I appreciate it.

But if you don’t want to vote for Obama, you won’t be helping us clean up this country.

You won’t be helping us fix the economy, damaged by foolish Republican “borrow and waste” economic policies.

You won’t be helping us to get our brave men and women out of the middle of the Iraqi civil war. 

You won’t be helping clean up the environment, you won’t be helping decrease our dependence on imported oil, you won't be slowing our contribution to the global warming problem. 

You won’t be helping us make sure every American has the basic health insurance they need and deserve.

You won’t be protecting our constitutional rights by making sure we keep a balance on the Supreme Court.

If you stay home November fourth, that’s about half a vote for McCain.

(boos)

And you know, Bush and McCain are more of the same. We don’t want more Bush. We don’t want McCain. We don’t want more of the same!

(crowd starts chanting, “No more Bush! No McCain! No more of the same!”)

 Therefore, as of tonight, I am calling an end to my run for the Democratic nomination for 2008. I now release my delegates to vote their conscience in Denver. 

(slight hitch in her voice) 

Thank you all, thanks to you millions of voters, to the thousands and thousands of people who have so generously shared their time and their money, to my staff, and to Bill and Chelsea. I love you all. (camera catches glint of a tear) We have made a difference. And we will continue making a difference! Yes We Can!

Good night, America! 

Now, if she gives a speech like this, in the next five days, she will become America's hero and be absolutely forgiven. If she's still fighting after next week, there's no saving her career or reputation. And if she takes it to the convention, or in any way is seen to fail to do her utmost for Democratic unity, she could be as despised as Nader was after 2000. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb6P4JJbe9k (about 6:45)

During the last - and I hope it stays the last - Democratic primary debate, the idiot moderator Charlie Gibson asked both candidates (simultaneously) about a joint ticket. If Obama had been a hair quicker, and replied, “I don’t think she’d take the job”, what would have happened?

Gibson (To Clinton): “Would you?”

Clinton: “I’m still fighting for the number one spot!”

Gibson: “You’re behind. You’re going to have a tough time coming back. Would you accept the vice presidential spot if Mr. Obama offered it to you? Yes or no?”

<hr>

Your responses - Can you envision BO making the offer? Would she take it (before PA, NC, IN)? How would the votes have turned out? Can you envision HRC saying, "Oh, yes, I would"; then the debate  - and the campaign - ending with a handshake and a hug? 

<hr>

 No, me neither. This is fantasy world. 

Five months ago I didn’t care who got the Democratic nod. I thought we had two great candidates who would be equally great presidents.

Here’s why this liberal turned against HRC.

First of all, I wanted a President who would not embarrass us when speaking in public. Eight years of Bush sounding like somebody trying to explain things, and not very successfully, to a slightly dim six-year-old was plenty. I want an articulate President, who can explain, persuade, relate a political position. Narrow victory to BO on that one.

Second, I actually preferred HRC’s health care positions: Yes, we can all be covered; a tax-funded baseline health care plan (with the option for employers or private insurers to add to it, for additional premiums) is the best way to go.

On Iraq, neither one said what I really want to hear: We got in for stupid reasons. Bush/Cheney/Rice/Powell/Rumsfeld lied to the people and to congress, misleading us into an un-needed war and botching the aftermath. Anybody remember Yugoslavia? So here we are, trying to rebuild the mess we made and keep the country from disintegrating into civil war. The real problem now is how can we get out, bring enough factions together to make a semi-stable country, and keep the Iraqis from killing each other in a bloodbath to rival Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, and Darfur put together. And without handing the country over to Iranian surrogates. It’s a tough nasty issue.

No, what turned this liberal into an Obama supporter was the sad truth that HRC learned too well from those factions that worked so hard to destroy her (and her husband) a decade ago.

Unfortunately, the lessons of the “vast right-wing conspiracy” and the “politics of personal destruction” were too deeply seared into the Clinton consciousness. As soon as the “inevitable” aura dissipated, the HRC campaign began to get nasty. Anybody who can experience what had to be the intense pain of being beaten on so unfairly, and who can then turn and inflict the same treatment on someone else, gets no love from this guy.

OK, Pastor Wright said some nutty things. If you had to address them in the primaries, perhaps a saner approach might have been to ask if you agreed with those statements. (Thus allowing equal comparison to the lunacy of Hagee, Robertson, Falwell, etc.) But instead, the HRC campaign moved directly to guilt-by-association.

Stupid pandering – bowling, beer, pick-up trucks, etcetera – is part of politics. But for one Ivy-educated multi-millionaire to accuse another Ivy-educated millionaire of elitism? Because he can speak articulately? Sheesh. Somebody in this race earned his street cred on the street, when he could have been an elitist and turned his back on the people who shared his ethnic/racial, if not cultural, African-American roots. 

Finally, HRC moved from “not my favorite candidate” to outright  “I don’t like her” when the ambition for her own career began to blind her to the difficulty of getting the nomination and she turned to outright attacks worthy of Richard Nixon, Lee Atwater and Karl Rove. If she’d started in on McCain with that kind of tactic, back in March, I might have thought “This is a fighter, she’ll whup his butt in November, maybe Obama is too soft.” The Republic party (drop the last syllable, they do it to us) knows better than to pull this stuff on their own kind, at least openly. I always thought that no politician needed to resort to irrelevant character attacks unless s/he thought that there was no chance of winning on the issues. And somebody in the Clinton campaign made that decision.

By the time it came to the Gas Tax Holiday Pander, I was tired of HRC. And contempt for experts? Contempt for economists on an economic issue? Sheesh, again.  Desperation. Stupidity. It wasn’t long after that I started writing “The Speech”, and didn’t put in a commitment to a candidate until after the IN/NC primaries. (Read the first few paragraphs carefully, I probably should have titled it “The Speech Hillary Can’t Give”.)

Now? It’s simply time for somebody – anybody, whether it’s Nancy Pelosi, Bill, Chelsea, or for crissake Socks, to say,  “Please, stop embarrassing yourself and hurting your party”

Please? 

A year and a half ago, I began this campaign for the Presidency knowing that electing me would be a historic first for our great nation. You may have noticed that I’m not a white man, and I am truly inspired and grateful that so many people know that does not – and should not – disqualify me from the presidency. But this is not a campaign about race or about gender.

This is a campaign about who will be the best President to clean up the mess that eight years of George W Bush has left behind.

The mess in Iraq.

The mess in our economy.

The mess of our environment.

The mess of cronyism and corruption.

The mess of human rights, torture of enemy prisoners, and twisting the law.

The mess of turning every branch of government into a tool for Karl Rove’s Republican machine.

I thought I would be the best person to lead our nation out of this mess, and I still do.

But I know one important thing. The best person to lead America out of this mess is NOT John McCain. We need to get a Democrat into the White House. We need to build our Democratic majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives. More than anything else, we need to WIN THIS ELECTION.

(applause)

It has been a long, tough battle in the primaries – six months of visiting so many states, so many small towns, and meeting so many terrific Americans. You, the voters, kept me going. Your hunger to fix the mess in our country, and your support, and your cheers, and yes, your donations – have kept me going. I want to win this for you. I want to win the election for the farmer in Ankeny, Iowa whose son was maimed in Iraq. I want to win the election for the waitress in Watertown, New Hampshire who has no health insurance and a child with special needs.  I want to win it for the family in Ohio who has lost their house because of a fraudulent mortgage. And I want to win for you.

The primary fight has become the big story for the media. We have been working hard, both of us, for a long time. My opponent and I have been in dozens of debates. From the beginning, we have had blood, sweat, tears, and toil. There have been others in this race – Bill Richardson, John Edwards – who have terrific ideas about what this country needs to do. And all of us – ALL of us – share the goal of getting a Democratic president elected. We just disagreed about who that should be.

But you know, the election did not end in Pennsylvania. It did not end in Indiana and North Carolina. And it will not end in June in Montana and South Dakota. It does not end in Denver this summer. This election comes to an end on November fourth, all across our land, when the voters have their say. And on the twenty-first of January, the cleanup begins.

(applause)

We have less than six months before Election Day. It’s time to focus on winning the election by beating John McCain and not on beating up each other. Now, I could carry this fight to Denver. I think I have a good shot at winning the nomination even though I don’t, quite, have a majority of convention delegates. There could be a floor fight over so many issues. What to do about the delegates representing the great – and politically important – states of Michigan and Florida is chief among them.

But remember, that’s not the fight we should be having.

The real fight is against the Republican machine. For months now, John McCain has had an easy ride. While Senator Obama and I have been battling each other, Senator McCain has been resting, raising funds, and visiting those places where he won’t be paying a lot of attention to come Fall.

One of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, (yes, yes, he was a Republican, but pretty darn good anyway…) said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” And he was right. The Democratic house has been divided. It’s time we unite to get this country back on the right track!

Now, I had hoped to be listening to a speech like this, not giving it. I had wanted to be the next President. After a long fight, and a very tough one, and an even tougher couple of days, I have come to realize that it is not going to be. I will not be the next President. But perhaps I can be the “next next President”. Now, there’s the audacity of hope!

(applause, laughter)

Right now, I want to tell you two things. First, I’m not bitter. (laughter) It was a tough fight, and sometimes a bitter one. Second,  Mr. Obama and I are rivals, not enemies. I look forward to working with President Obama from my Senate seat.

(interrupted by shouts of “Veep! Veep! Veep!”)

 No, no, that’s Mr. Obama’s decision to make. We haven’t discussed it, I haven’t thought about it, and I won’t think about it until I have to.

We have to get this country back on track and that is going to take a lot of work. I will carry a broom, I will carry a dustpan, I will carry on the work of cleaning up the mess Mr. Bush has made of this country. And I know that you will work with me.

Some of my supporters have said that they could never vote for Barack Obama. Well, some of his supporters said the same about me. I hope that’s not true, either way. I want each and every one of you to know that voting for me was great, I appreciate it. 

But if you don’t want to vote for Obama, you won’t be helping us clean up this country. You won’t be helping us fix the economy, damaged by foolish Republican “borrow and waste” economic policies. You won’t be helping us to get our brave men and women out of the middle of the Iraqi civil war.  You won’t be helping clean up the environment, you won’t be helping decrease our dependence on imported oil, you won’t be helping us make sure every American has the basic health insurance they need and deserve. If you stay home November fourth, that’s about half a vote for McCain.

(boos)

And you know, Bush and McCain are more of the same. We don’t want more Bush. We don’t want McCain. We don’t want more of the same!

(crowd starts chanting, “No more Bush! No McCain! No more of the same!”)

Thank you all, thanks to you millions of voters, to the thousands of people who have so generously shared their time and their money, to my staff, and to Bill and Chelsea. I love you all. We have made a difference. And we will continue making a difference!

Good night, America!