UPDATE #2: 8 PM:  Barack Obama’s officially clinched. It’s done. Deal with it, haters.

Oh…and McCain’s already in Kenner (suburb of New Orleans), attempting the same old tired right-wing talking points to bash Obama in. Really.

UPDATE (6-3-08):

Well…it’s almost over. Obama as of 7 PM tonight (Lafayette, LA time) is now only 5 delegates short of clinching the nomination; and he will possibly clinch that even before the results from South Dakota and Montana come in….and the superdelegates and Hillary Clinton delegates switch over.

Hillary may not concede now (more than likely, she’ll admit the math while giving a good face for her supporters tonight)…but my guess is that she will officially concede either tomorrow or later this week.

Now….the real game begins: and the bottom line question remains as it will ever be.

Is the popular hatred of Bush/Reagan/McCain policies and the desire to kick the GOP out on its collective asses deeper than the desire not to see a Black man occupy the White House?

Can McCain do the unenviable task of both separating himself from the Bush policies while simultaneously relying on Bush’s core electoral base and his abundant funding machine and dirty tricksters (read, Karl Rove and the Swift Boaters and Fixed Noise)?

Can Obama heal and bridge the rift between himself and working-class White and female voters estranged from him due to all the drama about Hillary?? And who will his Veep be?? Richardson?? Webb?? Hillary??

Will Bob Barr and/or Cynthia McKinney (or Ralph Nader) — or even Ron Paul — have any say in the matter??

Most of all….will the economy and the war remain steady enough for McCain to survive, or will there be further meltdowns?

These questions make all the difference between a too-close-to-call election where Diebold and dirty tricks combine with the usual White racism to keep McCain alive (except that this time, the Democrats control the House, which is fundamentally different from 2000); and a historic rout of Reagan-Mondale (or possibly Bush41-Dukakis) proportions where the GOP gets its collective heads smashed in.

Either way…the game will be officially on after tonight. Grab your chairs and some popcorn; it’s gonna get….interesting.

ORIGINAL POST:

Well…after all that noise and fireworks, the Democratic primary season will come to an end tomorrow with the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana.

And then beginning the next day, the remaining superdelegates will team up and rally around Barack Obama, putting the final touches on his delegate majority and sending a clear message to Hillary Clinton that it’s time to step aside and make way for the general election.

What Hillary does after that will be pretty much significant.

Will she see the reality that she just can’t win, and gracefully pull out, with promises of a Cabinet seat or a more substansial Senate role??

Will she stand her ground and take her fight for delegates all the way to the Dem convention in Denver, and then wait until she’s shut out then before she gives in??

Or…will she, powered by the anger and rage of some of her most strident and vocal supporters, decide that she has to destroy the Dems and trash Obama and work behind the scenes (or, even, publically as an Independent) to undercut Obama and give the Presidency to John McCain on a silver platter??

The optimist in me believes that Hillary is not that removed from reality to see the writing on the wall; and will begrudgingly accept a graceful withdrawal.

The pessimist, on the other hand, sees that Hillary is so caught up in her ambition, and the supposed entitlement of being handed the Presidency, that she is more than willing to torpedo Obama and allow McCain in so that she can claim the mantle in 2012. Not to mention, the absolute rage of a few of her supporters, who are so intense in their racism that they would even vote for McCain so that that evil Black man not contaminate their “White House”. (And NO, I am not saying that all or even a majority of Hillary’s supporters are stone cold racists; but you can’t deny that she has attracted a sizable lot of ‘em who want to stick it to Obama merely because he’s Black.)

And it doesn’t help matters when the likes of Larry Johnson of NoQuarters.com (one of the more strident Clintonoid Obama haters) attempts to unleash thinly veiled agitprop, directed towards Senator Obama’s (fully) Black wife, Michelle, as an anti-White bigot. (Note: he’s now reversed himself: he promised to release the offending “video” of Michelle spouting “anti-Whitey” smack today at 9 AM, but is now saying that the Repubs will hold on to it until October. Yeah, right….just another smear.)

But Larry Johnson is but one example of this newly minted Obama hating: witness this nice rant by a “Manhattanite” named Harriet Christian after she was thrown out of the infamous Democratic National Committee meeting attempting to resolve the delegate count mess in Florida and Michigan:

Harriet Christian (Clinton supporter/Obama opponent) ranting on DNC decision not to seat more delegates for Hillary (from YouTube; hat tip to Raw Story)

And, of course, there is all this smack from the agrieved parties that they will cross over to McCain in the fall as a protest to Obama getting nominated (or Hillary getting “screwed” out of the nomination; as witnessed by this article from another disgruntled Clintonoid (reprinted from here, via here):

Here’s just a few reasons why:

The claim that anyone who won’t vote for Obama is a racist.

The claim that anyone who won’t vote for Obama is stupid. So stupid, in fact, despite record turn out in Florida the smart people stayed home because they knew their votes wouldn’t count. So if we count Florida’s results in total we are disenfranchising the brilliant people who disenfranchised themselves.

The claim that Michigan shouldn’t get a full ride because Senator Obama (like his smart Florida supporters) disenfranchised himself by taking his name off the ballot and denying his supporters the opportunity to show their love. By the way, can I just say that again? HE TOOK HIS NAME OFF THE BALLOT. THERE WERE NO RULES THAT SAID HE HAD TO. WHY DIDN’T HE TAKE HIS NAME OFF FLORIDA’S BALLOT AS WELL?

[Note from Anthony: Actually, that's not quite true; under Florida's rules, Obama couldn't take his name off the ballot in Florida because he wouldn't be able to be placed on the general election ballot, either. That particular fact has been noted and corrected in the original post.]


The claim that the popular vote doesn’t matter; it’s all about super delegates. Hello? Were you just not alive in 2000? Did you never refer to President Bush as illegitimate because he lost the popular vote but won the because of the Supreme Court and the Electoral College?

Here’s a new one I adore. Puerto Rico doesn’t matter because they can’t vote in the General. I actually went over to the dreaded Huffington Post last night - I showered immediatly - and the mocking of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans was over the top. Memo to the Obamanation: there are more Puerto Ricans living in the US than in Puerto Rico. Way to help your man get in with the Latinos!

Holding the Supreme Court over my head as a reason to vote for Obama. You know what? Let them overturn Roe vs. Wade. Let it go to the states. Let politicians no longer have the excuse that it’s the law and they can’t do anything. Make them accountable. Make the young women who have always had a choice fight for it like we did.

Ahhh, OK….never mind that no one in the Obama camp has ever even claimed that all Hillary supporters were being racist, or that they were stupid (any more than the majority on the Clinton side complaints that Obama supporters were a “cult”, and that he was an anti-White, anti-American Muslim hiding his true pro-terrorist agenda behind his super secret madrassa upbringing and his evil White-hating Christian church. (Gee, he’s now both a radical Muslim AND a radical Christian….at the same time???? WTF?!?!?)

And you just gotta love a supposed liberal who claims that Hillary is being screwed because she’s a woman and a feminist….then in the next breath suggests that voting for the antifeminist McCain and allowing him to torpedo Roe vs. Wade and allow states to banish abortion (and other forms of reproductive rights for women) would be quite a suitable means of revenge for the evil Black man standing in her way.

Liza Sabatier brought up the perfect word for what these fools are under the influence of: “Archibunkocaine”. Emphasis on BUNKKK.

As you all know, I’m not a fan of Obama, either, for the fact that he panders to the Right a bit too much himself (and the recent incident of him breaking off his former church because of the remarks of one of its pastors doesn’t give me much hope, either). My vote’s still going for Cynthia McKinney and the Green Party; I’m basically through with the Democrats forever. But….that doesn’t mean that I can’t express my utter disgust at the open and explicit pandering to vile White racism that the Clinton campaign has been perfecting for the past two months in desperation to save themselves from their own mistakes.

Face it, Clintonistas: Barack Obama simply out campaigned you, out fundraised you, and just plain ran a better campaign than you did….and you had all the advantages of incumbency and a popular President in Bubba behind you. Whether you like it or not, he played and won by the rules; it’s time to face reality and accept the facts.

Now, if you want to destroy yourselves and cross over to McCain and allow your own spite get in the way of defeating the Republicans…well, that for you to decide. But, you can’t blame anyone but yourselves for the results….not even Ralph Nader.

You just couldn’t leave well enough alone….couldn’t you, Senator Clinton??

Running the most right-wing “populist” campaign in Democratic primary history wasn’t enough for you.

Pandering to the worst of the racist hardhats and hard core right-wing rednecks was bad enough.

Playing upon your female status and Bill’s former power in order to be annointed with the nomination just couldn’t cut it.

And even with all that not working, and you getting your sorry self blown out by an upstart rookie Black US Senator who simply had a better strategy and a better message than you…you just couldn’t take the hint and get out while you were behind.

Instead, you just took a brush fire….and promptly dropped a nuke on it.

OK…so  I might be willing to take your excuse and half-hearted “apology” that you were only quoting Robert Kennedy’s assassination as a chronological point to say that presidential campaigns can continue long into the summer.  Fine enough….except that RFK in 1968 was a late arrival in a truncated nominating process that didn’t even involve the kind of primary/caucus voting, or the long and winded political process of today. (Remember, Hubert Humphrey was nominated the old fashioned way, through backroom deals and appointed delegates; neither RFK or Gene McCarthy had much of a say over the ultimate process back then. Indeed, you could say that RFK’s run was designed to deflect attention to the success of McCarthy as the “anti-war candidate”.)

And no, Hilary, not even your husband’s “comeback” in 1992 counts either, since Bubba had already wrapped up the Dem nomination by as early as March, dispatching Paul Tsongas during the “Super Tuesday” sweeps; the only issue with the Cali primary was whether then Governor Jerry Brown would play the role as resident “populist” spoiler.

Funny, though, that Hillary is closer to  Jerry Brown in reality than she is to Bill; since she has basically no chance to win the nomination, unless she can somehow intimidate the majority of superdelegates and claim all of the disputed votes in Florida and Michigan as hers.

And that is the entire point of all this mess: a last gasp effort to smear Barack Obama as unelectable for no other reason because he happens to be a Black man (even if only half-Black), and because he got in the way of her coronation and anointment as “The Chosen One”. Pandering to the “working class White Americans” (as if Black folk aren’t quite “working class” enough); parroting right-wing “populist” memes like the “gas tax holiday” and secret fundamentalist group meetings; and never backing away one inch from her support of Bush’s wars….all of that is meant to do nothing more than to preserve her mighty ambition to follow her husband to the ultimate political prize.

And if she manages to so beat down Obama enough to hand the 2008 election to John McBush…..errrrrrrrrr, McCain….on a silver platter; all the better to set herself up as the modern day Joan of Arc which will rise from the swamp to save the Democratic Party in 2010 and 2012.

But that’s not even the worse of it….certainly Hillary Clinton is smart enough to know that Black folk are rightfully afraid of a genuine assassination threat to Obama or any other Black major political official who challenges the dominant political discourse; since it has happened far too often (remember Malcolm X; Martin Luther King, Fred Hampton, COINTELPRO???) OK, so Obama isn’t nearly as radical as these folk, but even the notion of having a person of color not to the right of Clarence Thomas or Alan Keyes even within shouting distance of the White House would be enough in some corners of our nation to give them some….you know, ideas?? Was she asleep when Mike Huckabee ran his “there goes that Barack, running for cover from the gunshots” attempted joke with the NRA Comedy Club earlier this week?? Is she even aware that Obama has been under Secret Service protection due to death threats from as early as March?? Because, if she did manage to think about that for, say, one second before opening her piehole and inserting her leg up to her thigh, the word “assassination” would not have even ventured from her lips.

But then again, if she had thought about that, then she would have seen the reality of her situation and conceded the nomination to Obama a long time ago when it was obvious that she wasn’t going to win.

Instead, she’ll have her lieutenants, Mark Penn and Terry MacAuliffe, paint down on her the rosy scenarios about how she is now ahead in the popular vote (yeah, right, if you exclude states with caucuses only rather than primaries, and throw in Florida and Michigan’s disputed votes all in her corner); how she should be anointed the nominee because “she wins in states Democrats need to win while Obama leads in states that have no chance to go Democrat at all” (but I thought that the idea all along that she would be the candidate to win the “swing states” which didn’t go Democratic at all??); and how she is at the very least deserving of the Vice Presidential slot as a “unifier” who will assuage women voters who don’t like how she has been “bitchified” and bashed (now, she does have a point there about the mass misogyny of some in the media towards her; but how that justifies her “scorched earth” campaign strategy remains subject to debate).

And, she will have her groupies and media wolfhounds (see Taylor Marsh and Susie Madrak, whom has degenerated so rapidly from a fighting progressive to become a simple yes-woman for Hillary) attack the messengers and spin her mistakes around to attempt more smears against Obama for being such an evil person to get in the way of her “historical” candidacy.

Do us all, and especially the Democratic Party, Hillary, a real favor.  Give it up; acknowledge you are beaten; give Barack Obama his well-earned victory..and then disappear for, like a year or five. The way you are going right now, you will be less electable than even he will….and you will drag the Dems down with you into the sewer hole. Considering how low Dubya and the Repubs are at this time, that would be a significant task…..even considering the regularity of Democrats for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Oh, and one other thing: this recent mauling of Keith Olbermann for his righteous and pithy recent Special Comments whacking Hillary for her dense remarks and for her entire strategy is a bit too much.  I find it quite funny that all the newly minted KO haters had no problem applauding him when he busted out the whupping sticks at Dubya and the Republicans for their crimes and scandals and war games…but let him raise his voice one decibel against Hillary’s tactics, and they become like…well, Fixed Noise agents. Sorry, but I didn’t know that he had to gain your approval for thinking for himself…any more than he has to gain BillO’s or Steve Doocy’s.

Doesn’t bother me any, anyway..since as of right now my vote’s still going for McKinney, and I still consider Obama to be a different kind of conservative Democratic opportunist panderer.  But Hillary still deserves all the razzing she gets for running such a horrid campaign….and using Black voters as a stepping stone for her blind personal ambition. Sounds familiar…doesn’t it??

The relevant video follows:

Sen. Hillary Clinton Addressing Argus Leader (SD)  Editorial Board (via YouTube; crossposted to Huffington Post)

Countdown with Keith Olbermann (MSNBC): 5-23-08 Special Comment on Hillary Clinton’s “Assassination” Gaffe (via YouTube)

Let’s see: first the Repubs lose supposedly safe Congressional districts in Illinois, Louisiana, and Mississippi (well done, Rush….so much for Operation Chaos!!). OK, so the winners are mostly conservative Democrats, but in districts which averaged 55-60% majorities for Dubya, it’s still a bombshell.

Then…..Dubya decides to use the anniversary of Israel’s founding to attempt to smack down Barack Obama as the second coming of Neville Chamberlain playing “appeasement” to the modern-day “Nazis” called Hamas. And McCain decides to join in on the fun with his own slam. Which only results in doing what not even the Democratic Party appratus couldn’t do for all of three months: unite Obama and Hillary and Howard Dean and John Kerry and even Joe Biden (who called it “bullshit”) together in universal outrage.

And to make things so much better, the Repubs send a dimwit wingnutter to attempt to sell this “Obama = Chamberlain” meme on Chris Matthews’ Hardball…which only gets him smacked down hard by the host. And considering Tweety’s….ummmm, respect for McCain, you gotta go pretty low to earn that.

Hardball with Chris Matthews: Tweety Smacks Down Right-Wingnut Kevin James on “Obama = Chamberlain” Meme (via YouTube)

The moral: don’t come to a gunfight with only the same old Hannity talking points…and read a history book or five.

“But…but..butbutbutbutbut….we’re talking about APPEASEMENT!!!!!!” Yeah, right.

And finally….you have Keith Olbermann, once again applying the whupass to Dubya for his latest inanity of an interview; including the unfortunate quib about how our President-Select is more than willing to sacrifice his golf game for the solidarity of the troops dying for his wars. Even after their 17th tour of duty.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann: May 14th Special Comment on Bush Interview (Parts 1 and 2) (From YouTube)

Actually, I’d rather that Dubya NOT “shut the hell up”…the more he opens his piehole, the better the chance that his party gets rolled flatter than a pancake come November. At this rate, even Walter Mondale might be cracking a smile.