Just kidding.

While I still have lingering concerns about a Hillary Clinton presidency, I am done rubbing salt in the wounds of her loyal supporters and am trying to figure out a way to diffuse the divisions instead. We have been used against each other for too long as it is. Hillary supporters have a right to play this out however they choose. I would be doing to exact same thing in their position. I would be hatching plans and looking for loopholes and searching for a way - any way - that would make my guy the one who moves on to the general election against McCain. That's why have backed away from criticizing Hillary using language that could possibly be offensive to her supporters. I am not always 100-percent safe on that score, but I am trying my best. If they return the favor then the effort will have been worth it.

This blog is actually about Barack Obama, the man currently leading in all three metrics being judged in these contests. With all the Woe and Despair and Teeth Gnashing going on around the web, aided and abetted by the corporate media, I figured it was time to remind Barack supporters why this guy is the right one to lead us out of the wilderness.

Let's start in the distant past - all the way back to the January 8th New Hampshire primary and our first view of Barack in defeat. He had been predicted to win by double digits, but lost by a couple points instead.  Come back when you are done watching.  

After being built up to expect a huge victory, the man has class and dignity when he loses. His tone hasn't changed this entire campaign. His message is still the same - consistent and focused on every place this country can agree on changes without inflaming differences. He speaks to a common sense majority of republicans, independents and democrats all working toward common goals based the common good.

I anticipate the corporate media will experience a backlash in coming years for their failure to do their job and fr their complicity in our nation's downfall. I anticipate most news and information will flow from Internet sites within the next decade and TV as we know it will be die a well-deserved death.

I think their methods and tone have finally backfired, largely because they don't understand viral communications or the Internet or the quickly changing attitudes of the American public. We are pissed, and they treat us like children with methods that are clearly designed to trick and manipulate us. Take the nonsense about Barack's lead for the general election supposedly crumbling. It is a poll of 500 democrats with a margin of error of 5%. It doesn't account for independents or republicans, about 25% of Barack's vote in open primaries, a more accurate reflection of general election voters. Yet the corporate media continues to pound the drum - Trouble for Barack Obama!

That the status quo is trying to defeat him is all I need to know.

I will stipulate that the democrats are evenly divided this year, but they aren't the only ones with a stake in this election. Open primaries clearly show Barack building a governing majority that could do a lot of good over the course of two terms in office. His success will help down-ticket dems as well, building even larger democratic majority in Congress. We can turn this thing around if we can fianlly agree that no candidate will ever be a perfect choice, but Barack Obama is clearly the right choice for America and the preferred choice a bare majority of the democratic party. Not a resounding majority, but enough that he has won within the rules set forth at the begnning of the primary season.

George Orwell was right on the money with the effect and timing of what he predicted - he just didn't anticipate the sophistication with which it would be carried out. He anticipated a world like the one in which he wrote, where our oppression was shoved right up in our face and monsters wore their masks in public. Instead, we have been manipulated and medicated and managed to the point that many Americans are living in a fantasy world. The Matrix is closer to what is going on without all the bother of being enslaved by futuristic machines.

We are enslaved by our economy and our psychology, by our society and our lack of empathy for one another. Our education system has been dismantled while a complex and technologically advanced propaganda machine was been put in its place. The disparity between the highest paid and lowest workers has never been greater. Ever. We have never tore raw materials out of the Earth at a greater pace - all to manufacture junk that will be buried back in the Earth (or sold to China, who will be happy to do our recycling for us) a year or two later.

This country has been hijacked by corporate pirates and corrupt politicians.

That's why I think Barack is winning the primaries. It is also why he will win the general election as well. The corruption and manipulation has become so obvious that many Americans have been jolted from their intoxicated slumber. I am actually glad the DLC and RNC became so brazen. Otherwise Barack's campaign would have never been possible. The conversation would have never shifted in such fundamental ways. We would have never been inspired to thrown off the chains of distraction and division that we are still seeing those ripples moving out across the political pond.

I will end with a video that was created from the speech above. This video still inspires me when the media piles on my candidate and my fellow Barack supporters begin to buy into the media-driven narrative.

Perhaps cynic is too harsh, since many would call themselves "realists" and not cynics.  I'll take that definition. 
The many Obama supporters who are running around TPM with doom and gloom pronouncements about Hillary's imminent succession to the democratic nomination by suicidal Super Delegates who just can't stand to hear Reverend Wright clear his good name are in fact realists.

His anguish at this moment in history is tiny compared with the importance of electing Barack Obama. - articleman

I just don't see reality in quite the same way.  I have seen evidence that Wright is in fact helping to dispel the negativity of the association by speaking via the corporate media.  Unfortunately, that is the place where a lot of Americans still get their information.

My mom completely changed her opinion - one largely based on lack of context - after seeing Reverend Wright speak on CSPAN to the National Press Club.  She spoke about her new understanding of the reverend and what his church has done over the years.  Hell, she even said she would join that church if she lived in Chicago instead of Colorado.  This from a woman who has never belonged or gone to a church as an adult.

I would say the reverend knows what he is doing and is speaking to his audience, to his generation, via the only medium they consistently sue, the television.

Another "realist" opinion is that the Super Delegates will make a backroom deal to take the nomination from Barack and give it to Hillary.  That if Barack doesn't go on the attack and simply plays out the remaining contests with his winning game-plan that the Super Delegates will decide he didn't want it bad enough and hadn't earned it, despite winning more states, more votes and more delegates.

Hillary gets an endorsement from NC governor? Tides turn and so do super delegates. In the end, they're all just politicians. - tpmgary

Yes, they are politicians and they will not commit mass suicide by nominating Hillary over the will of voters.  The Supers have a greater understanding of the precipice that this country stands on than anyone else, I think.  Many may be scared of a Barack presidency, but they are more scared of the riots that would ensue should they go to Hillary despite the pledged delegate count.

I agree that popular vote is the only metric that makes sense in a representative government.  Further, every election should be an open primary with all the available candidates on the ballot, with the candidates from each party who get the most votes that parties nominee.  Parties have way too much control over the process.

That is not the system we have today.  Those are not the rules by which everyone agreed to play.  If Hillary steals the nomination - meaning Barack has the most pledged delegates at the end of the primaries & she gets the Supers to turn - this country will explode.  Denver will make Chicago look like a tea party.

The Supers will declare their support for the winner of the pledged delegates once the primaries are over. 

They are taking it easy on Hillary because her supporters are critical in the general.  No one likes to lose and right now a huge percentage of democratic voters feel like they are losing. They want to grasp at any straw.  I don't blame them.  If the situation were reversed, I would be grasping at any straw to see Barack get the nomination.  It is human nature.  But I think most of her supporters are both fair and understand the rules.  They may be fantasizing right now, but once all the contests have been run, most will accept the pledged delegate as the governing metric.

The primaries will play out in whatever fashion they play out, though they are largely immaterial.  As soon as Puerto Rico announces their results, the winner of the pledged delegates, per the rules that everyone agree to before the race began, will get enough Super Delegates to cinch the nomination.

Perhaps that makes me an optimist, but I think it is sound analysis based on the available evidence and common sense.  I am above all a realist.  If I thought for a second that the cynics were right, I would be flying to Denver as well. 

Still, I find it ironic that supporters of the candidate running on hope are so quick to lose hope themselves, when they are winning. 

I'll leave you with one more quote from the Chorus of Realistic Optmists:

Sister Mary Margaret on a whole wheat cracker, just absolutely Democrats drive me crazy with this crap. Every time there's a bump in the road they slam on the brakes jump out of the car and start doing the Chicken Little Dance. It is our worst trait and the best way possible to suck the life out of a campaign. - The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve

Amen, brother!

Perhaps cynic is too harsh, since many would call themselves "realists" and not cynics.  I'll take that definition. 
The many Obama supporters who are running around TPM with doom and gloom pronouncements about Hillary's imminent succession to the democratic nomination by suicidal Super Delegates who just can't stand to hear Reverend Wright clear his good name are in fact realists.

His anguish at this moment in history is tiny compared with the importance of electing Barack Obama. - articleman

I just don't see reality in quite the same way.  I have seen evidence that Wright is in fact helping to dispel the negativity of the association by speaking via the corporate media.  Unfortunately, that is the place where a lot of Americans still get their information.

My mom completely changed her opinion - one largely based on lack of context - after seeing Reverend Wright speak on CSPAN to the National Press Club.  She spoke about her new understanding of the reverend and what his church has done over the years.  Hell, she even said she would join that church if she lived in Chicago instead of Colorado.  This from a woman who has never belonged or gone to a church as an adult.

I would say the reverend knows what he is doing and is speaking to his audience, to his generation, via the only medium they consistently sue, the television.

Another "realist" opinion is that the Super Delegates will make a backroom deal to take the nomination from Barack and give it to Hillary.  That if Barack doesn't go on the attack and simply plays out the remaining contests with his winning game-plan that the Super Delegates will decide he didn't want it bad enough and hadn't earned it, despite winning more states, more votes and more delegates.

Hillary gets an endorsement from NC governor? Tides turn and so do super delegates. In the end, they're all just politicians. - tpmgary

Yes, they are politicians and they will not commit mass suicide by nominating Hillary over the will of voters.  The Supers have a greater understanding of the precipice that this country stands on than anyone else, I think.  Many may be scared of a Barack presidency, but they are more scared of the riots that would ensue should they go to Hillary despite the pledged delegate count.

I agree that popular vote is the only metric that makes sense in a representative government.  Further, every election should be an open primary with all the available candidates on the ballot, with the candidates from each party who get the most votes that parties nominee.  Parties have way too much control over the process.

That is not the system we have today.  Those are not the rules by which everyone agreed to play.  If Hillary steals the nomination - meaning Barack has the most pledged delegates at the end of the primaries & she gets the Supers to turn - this country will explode.  Denver will make Chicago look like a tea party.

The Supers will declare their support for the winner of the pledged delegates once the primaries are over. 

They are taking it easy on Hillary because her supporters are critical in the general.  No one likes to lose and right now a huge percentage of democratic voters feel like they are losing. They want to grasp at any straw.  I don't blame them.  If the situation were reversed, I would be grasping at any straw to see Barack get the nomination.  It is human nature.  But I think most of her supporters are both fair and understand the rules.  They may be fantasizing right now, but once all the contests have been run, most will accept the pledged delegate as the governing metric.

The primaries will play out in whatever fashion they play out, though they are largely immaterial.  As soon as Puerto Rico announces their results, the winner of the pledged delegates, per the rules that everyone agree to before the race began, will get enough Super Delegates to cinch the nomination.

Perhaps that makes me an optimist, but I think it is sound analysis based on the available evidence and common sense.  I am above all a realist.  If I thought for a second that the cynics were right, I would be flying to Denver as well. 

Still, I find it ironic that supporters of the candidate running on hope are so quick to lose hope themselves, when they are winning. 

I'll leave you with one more quote from the Chorus of Realistic Optmists:

Sister Mary Margaret on a whole wheat cracker, just absolutely Democrats drive me crazy with this crap. Every time there's a bump in the road they slam on the brakes jump out of the car and start doing the Chicken Little Dance. It is our worst trait and the best way possible to suck the life out of a campaign.

Amen, brother!