I just got the word on how this race ended, with something that didn't surprise me, after Maureen Dowd had written that the party would prefer losing with Barack than winning with Hillary. Everyone knows by now that I'm a Hillary supporter who always felt great about my candidate. I see her as girl wonk, smartest girl in the class, hardest working and nicest, the one that cares about women and kids and sick people and those that are the 'least' among us, and don't get listened to. I was proud of her campaign that hit the high roads and avoided being small.  

But Barack has won, and now it seems the party may just want his money base and don't care so much if we lose with him.  Maureen often has the inside track, she heard that gossip before I did.  

So, I'd like to help Barack prove them wrong. I'd like Barack to show that he can win and be a decent president, and I'm here to help him.  How? Of course the easiest way is to select Hillary as his VP, listen to her and put her to work. but maybe his money men can't bear anyone named Clinton, much less a girl Clinton, getting in their way when it comes to reshaping Washington in terms of power and influence (no one thinks they do anything for free).  So if they prevent you from getting the most qualified and bestest and nicest and most knowledgeable vice president, cause, you know you do owe them a lot, do the next best thing, steal her.  

Back when this race was getting underway and no one had yet dropped out, I wrote about Barack's style of negative campaigning, in a diary published at kos called "Maureen Dowd, Not," which was a parody of Dowd's column championing Barack for stepping out onto the low road.  He'd made a joke that made Michelle laugh, alluding to Hillary's experience, married to Bill, and he wondered, in his now trademark style, how that qualified her to be president.  

I don't speak for anyone but myself, but this particular Hillary supporter is tired of the 'myth of inevitability' that Barack's supporters keep trying to sell.  She wasn't, early on, although some claimed she thought she was, and she certainly appeared polished and confident, and he isn't either. The entire reason for super delegates is to overturn the delegate lead when that candidate can't get elected.  It's not just the economy, although that's why she's winning those so-called Reagan Democrats he claimed early on were for him. It's the electoral map, updated right here, that shows that even a dorky guy like John McCain can beat Barack Obama in the fall.  The pugs have a built in advantage, recall that we're a Republic, not a Democracy.  Recall now voter ID's are the law of the land. Recall they cheat.  Recall they will do and say anything to win, so that we can lose even more rights that will expand their built-in advantage for the coming elections.  

But, I don't just think she can win the nom and the GE, I think she will, and here's why.  

As a degree carrying member of the professional class, I've had an easy life.  But I'm the first and only one in my family so far to earn a doctorate.  One grandfather was a bus driver and the other went into real estate.  My dad had a college degree, but my mom didn't. I grew up in a middle class family that profited from the post-war boom.  My parents bought their first house when I was a baby, and they stayed home owners, and had one to leave to me at their deaths.  My uncle, who was a fireman, owned his own home and through appreciation he died better off than my dad, who was an engineer.  

I find that conflating class with income is a strange concept.  Although I'm in the educated and often more affluent professional class, I identify with my extended family and friends, most of whom struggle to pay monthly bills and have few dreams of retirement at all, much less the retirement my parents and my fireman uncle enjoyed.

But if it's not income, what makes a someone an 'elite?' How is it that Hillary, my first choice for president, relates to working people better than her opponent, who's wife grew up in a struggling family?  

I've been unsurprised to find that Senator Obama and his supporters are 'giving' Hillary their 'permission' to stay in the race, as long as she doesn't 'further diminish' Barack.  Some months back I wrote a diary about his strategy for winning the nomination that nullifies his reason to run in the first place - that he's a brand new kind of guy who represents change that is unifying and not divisive, but his strategy it to drive up Hillary's negatives through sarcastic and sexist character assassination. He's said he plays "Chicago Smack Down," and so he does.  Much of the media is now, and without apparent irony, blaming Barack's problems with the electorate on Hillary. I think that he's positioned himself to blame a GE loss on her, should he win the nomination and go down in flames.  

Outside the obvious conclusion, which is that he knows he hasn't won and his only real chance is to bully her out of the race before the voters have had their say and before the super delegates indicate which one they think will have the best chance of winning in November, it's clear that he's doing his best to shut the contest down, and anoint himself the 'winner,' so that he can claim to the super delegates that she'll never win the African American vote if she's seen as someone who has denied him his rightful destiny.   (Divide much lately?)  

It seems that one of Barack's messages is that Hillary can stay as long as she likes.  That's kind of his campaign message in a nutshell, by giving her his permission (as if that's possible) he shows his supporters that he's in charge, he's the man.  Her message is that she'll stay in until someone's a winner, with the majority of votes.  So, it may very well go on through the convention, during which Michigan and Florida may do a revote and get counted without needing special party permission. Why is this good for Barack, Hillary and the Democratic Party?  

Senator Obama calls Hillary a panderer for proposing a gas tax holiday and says she's no different from McCain. I think that's old politics and here's why.

In Illinois Barack proposed the same thing, a gas tax holiday. At that time he had his 'bottom up' philosophy and he could see that the people needed to get some of the breaks in order to realize how many we don't get, and how many big business does get. Now he thinks it's a bad idea, but he's not only being disingenuous, he's also misrepresenting Hilary's position. Hillary does not claim, as says Barack, that this is a comprehensive solution to the energy crisis, she says it's a good idea. She'll take the pandering tax breaks from big oil and give pandering tax breaks to drivers. Sounds like fun to me, and about time. It won't solve anything long term, but it will get big oil used to the idea that their tax breaks are endangered and the days of gouging drivers are equally endangered.

It's not McCain's plan. McCain plans to cut the tax but not replace it with taking the break from big oil. Under his plan big oil gets to keep their obscene profits and the tax holiday comes from more borrowing.

But, that's not the only place she'll pander. She'll take away panders to the polluters and pander to green energy. She'll take away the panders to ultra-rich and pander to struggling Americans.

Barack says she's pandering, and I say pander on, about time someone cared enough to pander to me. It's a first step, not one the economists think will do any good, but one that can very well lead us to ask for more. More fairness more justice, and more personal freedom.

I admit I've been for Hillary and I've been critical of Barack for the way he's campaigned against her, in order to try to compare himself favorably. I've never thought this was the unity way to run in a primary, but I always have and still do consider him to be a decent man.  Most presidents ran rather unpleasant and depressing campaigns against their opponents, so he can't be singled out, except to say it's retro.

That said, I think Barack will drop out within the next week or two. He knows the basis of his campaign has been compromised and that he hasn't the time or even the energy to re-introduce himself. I think that whenever he'd realized he'd lost, he'd do the stand up thing, congratulate the winner and campaign for her, as she would have for him had he closed the deal.   His main problem is that he wasn't ready for this fight. He didn't have the experience to know that he couldn't control the media and that they would one day turn on him, and that he couldn't control any of his past associates. He could say his version of events and his points of view, but on questions of 'history' even more than on questions of 'values,' there are always many plausible versions.  

I'd congratulate him for taking his campaign far far farther than his experience warranted, and for thus being an historic candidate, not merely for his ethnicity, but mainly for his courage to run on such a slim resume and do great.  He's a terrific motivational speaker and I think a genuinely nice man.

I hope there will be enough 'distance' in time for him to be our vice presidential candidate. I'd love to see him living in Dick Cheney's house. I wish him and Michele the best and I'll be wanting to see his name on the ticket.  

Clinton-Obama '08