Game Over (For Clinton)

Barack Obama will (finally) wrap up the Democratic nomination for President tonight. [Yay!] Fortunately, Clinton is being magnanimous by offering to be Obama's VP. Thanks, but no thanks. For all the talk about Clinton bringing "her" voters to Obama (as if any Democrat would lose California or New York, or win West Virginia), everything positive she may bring to the ticket is at least offset by the negative things that she brings as well. The fact that conservative voters hate her like poison and she would help energize a dispirited Republican party notwithstanding, how many times do we want to see this from McCain, et al. over the next five months?: Oh, and who in their right mind would have a Vice President who intimated that he might be assassinated?: No. She burned that bridge long ago. I'm willing to let all the bull$#!# go (mostly) as soon as she gets out of the way and falls in line behind Obama. But, I must say to Senator Clinton (hopefully, for the last time), cut the $#!#.

So, How Selfish Is Clinton?

The DNC rules committee has ruled on the statuses of the disputed Florida and Michigan primaries. Unsurprisingly, after much time (and disruptions by Clinton supporters), they decided to seat their delegates pretty much as anticipated - apportioning the delegates basically by the vote totals and them giving each delegate a half vote. This was not what the Clinton people wanted. Apparently, in keeping with their firm grip on reality, they were hoping Hillary would be coronated as the nominee right then and there. Actually, they want no resolution so they can continue on with her quixotic campaign holding up the banner of the abused Michigan and Florida delegations as justification for going on. [Despite the fact that before she found out she needed them, she didn't give a damn about "counting all the votes".] [Aside: If voters in Michigan and Florida think they have been mistreated in this process, they should vote out every Democratic official that supported moving up their primaries. They are the ones who broke the rules and they should be the ones who pay - not the rest of America with a McCain presidency.] The new magic number is 2,118 and Obama's about 65 delegates away. Clinton and Obama are expected to roughly split the remaining 86 elected delegates, which would put him about 20-25 superdelegates from the nomination and the word is that they are expecting up to a few dozen supers to announce their support for him as soon as Tuesday. The Clinton's are apparently convinced that Obama can't win in November and they seem determined to make it so. It reminds me of the kind of the self-fulfilling prophecies of the Republicans who say government doesn't work and then when they are in charge, they prove it. So, with Clinton proxy Harold Ickes threatening to push on to the convention, despite the fact that they have a 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% chance of winning at this point, the question is: How Selfish Is Clinton? We all know the answer: very. However, if Clinton is still in the race one week from today (in an attempt to make Obama lose in November and set herself up for 2012) the Democratic Party, led by Pelosi, Reid, and Dean for starters, will abandon her. So, the Clintons will be essentially destroying any clout they have with the Dems going forward. For what? So she can run in 2012? If she loses the election for the Dems this time, there will be 0% chance that she will get nominated in 2012. It is over. It has been over for some time. Somebody needs to wake the Clintons up to that fact. On Tuesday, Obama unquestionably wins the nomination and on Wednesday the general election starts. It's about damn time.

"McCain-Clinton Gas Tax Holiday"

[I love this. This is yet another good example of why Obama will be so much better as president.] McCain and Clinton, who apparently are coordinating their policies now, have proposed that the 18.4 cent federal gas tax be lifted for the summer to help people get through the summer. Only one problem. (Well, actually many.) It seems that many economists have come out against the "plan" because the temporary price decrease would increase demand, which would drive the price right back up and, instead of the money going to the federal fund that is used to build and maintain roads and bridges, it will go to oil companies, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, and Iraq (who will bank it and continue to let us pay for their reconstruction. Sorry, off topic). Tom Friedman pounds on it too. Anybody remember right before the 2006 mid-term elections when the Republicans, desperate to maintain their majorities in Congress, tried to push through a pander-rific $300 gas rebate? It was shut down pretty quickly as voters were quick to recognize that what was going on was attempted vote buying, not responsible policy making. Well, McCain-Clinton seem to be going to that well again. This is one of the most insanely idiotic proposals that I have ever heard. (But at least it is bipartisan idiocy.) What a couple of mavericks. The best part is that I read several articles that called it the "McCain-Clinton" plan. That seems appropriate since they are acting like they are running mates anyway. Here's their opponent, looking like a president (an honest - we haven't seen that in a while): Shillary W. Clinton, ready to say and do anything to be elected on day 1 (or day 2, or day 3, or hell, pick a day and tell her what you want her to say - I'm sure she'll oblige).

Look Who's Stealing My Ideas Now: Cenk Uygar

A couple of people have brought to my attention this piece that appeared yesterday on the Huffington Post by Cenk Uygar and the fact that it totally rips off this post that I wrote on Friday! I would also like to point out that I didn't use the hedging "phrase-my-accusation-in-the-form-of-a-question" crap like he did. I threw down! I make a definitive statement! So, I have two challenges (one sarcastic, one not - see if you can guess which is which): 1. Cenk Uygar, I expect some damn credit! 2. Senator Clinton, cut the $#!# and prove you aren't trying to sabotage Senator Obama by GETTING THE HELL OUT OF THE RACE! PS: In reality, I'm glad that people are talking about this. The Super delegates need to break hard for Obama and force her out of the race. Step up, cowards.

Cut the $#!#: Clinton's Staff Knows She Can't Win

From Politico: "One important Clinton adviser estimated to Politico privately that she has no more than a 10 percent chance of winning her race against Barack Obama, an appraisal that was echoed by other operatives. In other words: The notion of the Democratic contest being a dramatic cliffhanger is a game of make-believe." So, basically, the Clintons must have a masochistic love of self-destruction because the overwhelmingly likely outcome of the Democratic primary will be what it has going to have been since Iowa 2+ months ago: Obama will be the nominee. So, two questions: 1. Why keep fighting? As easy as it would be to simply chalk it all up to the legendary Clinton hubris and stubborn arrogance, not to mention sense of entitlement, (all of which are most certainly at play) I think the real motivation is, sadly, more sinister. She's taking the Mitt Romney route and setting herself up for another presidential run in 2012. Romney had to drop out when it was clear he couldn't win because he couldn't be seen to hurt the party's nominee. That wasn't so bad for Romney because, frankly, McCain probably won't win and a salt-the-earth-for-McCain-even-though-I-can't-win-the-nomination campaign would have soured Republicans on Romney in a way they wouldn't have forgotten in four years. Since the momentum in the country right now is fiercely anti-Republican, Clinton doesn't have the same luxury. If Obama wins the Dem nomination, he'll probably win the Presidency and then, unless she wants to give him a primary challenge in 2012 (unlikely, but see above hubris, etc. comment), she's going to have to wait until 2016 to make another run. By then she'll probably have to compete with Obama's VP (cause it ain't gonna be her - Go Jim Webb!) and a whole crop of names that we probably don't even know right now - most of whom, if all goes well, will probably be trying to emulate Obama, something Clinton can't do even with 8 years of practice. (She would have to add more to her public persona than being able to pretend to cry.) So, the answer to this question is, quite simply, Clinton wants Obama to either have a spectacular collapse before the convention so she can be the nominee, or have a spectacular collapse after the convention so McCain will win and she can run again in 2012 with Obama so stained by his loss in 2008 that he won't be able to run again and she'll be able to say, "See? You should have listened to me last time. Now shut up and get in line, peasants!" (Alright, she probably wouldn't say "peasants".) 2. Why the hell is the media pretending Clinton can still win the nomination? Answer: The Horse race. The Horse race gets ratings. The Horse race sells papers (if people still bought newspapers). I touched on this last month when I commented that less than 7,500 votes and a healthy dose of the media in love with the trite, hackneyed "Comeback Kid" storyline (the kind of story they love because they have a Word doc with 75% of the story already written saved on their laptop) kept this crap alive. The Politico story actually does a good job of pointing this out. (Kudos Politico!) In summation, the Democratic nomination process is over. Don't give me this crap about letting everybody vote; when the hell has that ever happened in a primary? The fact that it actually went past South Carolina (although it shouldn't have) is noteworthy in primary history. So, listen up Clinton, I've said it before, I hope I don't need to say it too many more times: cut the $#!#. Seriously. You are not more important than America. You are not entitled to be either the Democratic nominee or the President of the United States. Ever. Stop embodying the stereotypical selfishness of the Worstest GenerationTM and get out before you do irreparable damage to your party and its nominee, Barack Obama.

THE Speech

This is what a President looks like. More importantly, this is what a leader looks like. Full text here. For God's sake Clinton, you cannot beat this guy - you can only help McCain beat him. So please, for your own sake, for the good of your party, and more importantly, for the good of the country and the world, cut the $#!#. I'm not saying quit (although I want you to), just cut the $#!#. [Check out V's take. This is an example of what Obama can do.] Update: Apparently, Obama wrote this speech by himself. When's the last time W did that?