I tried to post this on the HillaryIs44 website, but dissenting opinions are not welcome there. Their echo chamber is well-guarded.

What you are doing now goes against everything Hillary stands for and against her lifetime of service to the Democratic Party and to women around the world. If you write Hillary's name on the ballot in November, you betray her, you betray the Party, but most of all, you betray yourselves. John McCain is the sworn enemy of women everywhere. He is disrespectful to women (he called his wife a cunt in public), he is disrespectful to America's soldiers, he is disrespectful to the Constitution, and he and his fellow Republicans want to make a party hats out of Roe v. Wade. You may not prefer Barack Obama, but he is a good Democrat and he is a fierce advocate for women's rights. And he treats his wife and his daughters with respect and with love.

Today Hillary has asked you to set your disappointment aside and work for the Party. Your voices have become powerful, and you may still choose to deny her request. You may even have it within your power to weaken Obama so badly that he'll lose in November. But if you refuse her, at least take her name and her picture off your website, because by refusing to help the Democratic Party in November, you dishonor her name and all of the work she has devoted her life to.

I know you don't want to hear anything from people you disagree with, and I know you won't publish this post. You've censored everything else I've written. But perhaps you'll consider what the candidate you claim to support has asked you to do. Perhaps you'll have a change of heart. Hillary is right: this election is far too important to allow the Republicans to get into the White House. As Democrats, you should know what is at stake. You have freely given your energy to Hillary and to her cause so far. Please don't refuse her now. Not after she's worked so hard for you.

As you may know, Larry Johnson of noquarter lack of fame has been promising the release of a very, very damaging recording of Michelle Obama calling white people "whitey" during a talk at Trinity church.  Due to a few technical glitches, Larry has been unable to actually get his hands on a copy of the recording, but his sources tell him the tape definitely exists.  (Apparently, it used to be available through the Trinity church bookstore, but the bookstore has subsequently been "scrubbed".)  Larry has been able to provide a very, very damaging photo of Michelle Obama and Louis Farrakhan's wife together at a church luncheon (the horror!).  According to Larry, the very, very damaging tape will be released at the worst possible moment.

In the meantime, another very, very damaging photo of Michelle:

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/06/hbc-90003033

As an ardent Barack Obama supporter, I believe we have been blessed with a wonderful candidate.  That candidate, of course, is John McCain.  He is turning out to be possibly the most inept, incapable campaigner I have seen in my life.  He's old as dirt, he can't deliver a speech to save his life, conservatives hate him, the RNC is increasingly embarrassed by him, and his campaign has been a nearly endless series of equivocations, reversals and apologies.

Let's hope that the buyer's remorse take hold until it's way too late.  Otherwise, the Republicans may just try to find a way to run him out of the race and put someone else in his place.  Not that they have any better choices.

Oh, what a wonderful time to be a Democrat!

I didn't get into the rally at the Xcel Energy Center last night in St. Paul.  Didn't even get close.  The line snaked through downtown St. Paul for what looked like miles.  We finally decided to drop out of the line and follow it to the auditorium just to see what we'd been up against.  Insurmountable odds would be an accurate description.  A capacity crowd of nearly 20,000 people listened to Obama from inside the auditorium.  Another 15,000 stood outside and listened.  Once we'd established that there was no way we were going to get in, we opted for slices and beers at Cossetta, and then went to a friend's place to watch things on TV.

While we stood in line, I struck up a conversation with an African-American family that was ahead of us.  It was a guy, his wife, and his son and daughter.  The son looked to be about 7 or 8, and the daughter was a little younger.  As I spoke with their father, he stood with one hand on the shoulder of each of his kids.  They were all dressed up, and very excited to be there.  I asked him: "Are you excited?"  He said, "Oh, yeah.  Unbelievable.  I've never seen anything like this."  I told him that I'd seen Obama in Portland and that it was an amazing scene there too.  He asked me if I'd been an Obama supporter for long.  I said, "Practically since I saw him at the 2004 convention.  I've never been so excited about a candidate in my entire life."  He said, "Me too."  Then he patted his kids on the shoulders and said, "I'm so happy for them.  Unlike me and their Mom, they'll never need to wonder if something like this is possible."

This is about so much more than an election.

The headline on the main page of TPM currently reads:

OBAMA DECLARES HIMSELF THE NOMINEE

Am I being overly sensitive in thinking that this is one of the most snotty, dismissive and insulting ways you could possibly characterize the event of the evening?

In case anyone at TPM is interested, Obama was also declared the nominee by AP, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, Reuters, The New York Times, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, Time, Newsweek, and hundreds of other media outlets, as well as the majority of delegates and superdelegates.

According to Newsweek's Howard Fineman, Hillary is demanding that she be offered the VP slot so that she can refuse it.  She's also told the Obama campaign that they had better not dare to offer the slot to another woman. Apparently Hillary is only interested in breaking the glass ceiling for herself.

http://www.americablog.com/2008/06/clinton-campaign-hillarys-not-gonna.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24944453/

As far as ABC is concerned, this race is over:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=4987177&page=1

I know many of Barack Obama's supporters are adamant that he not choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate.  Some of them have good reasons for being against it.  Others are still just woozy from the venom and adrenaline of a rancorous fight.  But here's something to consider: you support Obama because you believe he has the judgment and the wisdom to lead this nation.  You're putting your faith in this man to run our country for the next eight years.  So now he's got the task of choosing a running mate, and in many ways, it's his first presidential decision.  If you don't trust Barack Obama to choose the best possible running mate, I'd say you've probably been backing the wrong candidate all along.

Hillary isn't my choice.  Not by a long shot.  But if Obama chooses her, it will be the right choice, and I will support it 100%.  Barack Obama is already my president.

http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

In a tacit admission of her impending loss, Hillary Clinton has told New York lawmakers that she would accept the Vice Presidential slot, according to AP.

CNN just announced that Jimmy Carter will endorse Obama tonight or tomorrow.

According to the AP via CNN, Clinton campaign officials have acknowledged that Hillary Clinton will announce tonight that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the nomination.

On Sunday, I put up a post about a comment Donna Brazile had made on This Week with George Stephanopolous about a concession the Obama campaign had made concerning Michigan's delegates. Huffington Post now has the video:

HERE

I'm watching This Week With George Stephanopolous, and Donna Brazile just made a very interesting statement.  She said that she had been shocked yesterday at how uninterested the Clinton campaign was in coming to some sort of compromise.  She said they could have tried to broker a deal yesterday, but they made no effort whatsoever.  Then she said something that possibly gives us an insight into what happened during that closed-door meeting yesterday.  She said (and I'm quoting from memory): "In contrast, the Obama campaign worked very hard to reach a compromise.  If they had wanted to, they could have had half the delegates from Michigan.  They had the votes.  But they chose not to pursue that in the interest of party unity.  And the Clinton campaign could have offered an olive branch, but they did not."

I suspected yesterday that the actual vote was little more than a public ratification of what had already taken place behind closed doors.  This statement would seem to confirm that.  It's also worrisome, in that it suggests that the Clintons may be serious about pursuing their own personal goals over the goals of the party.  I sure hope not...