I am ready, believe me, I am so ready, for the nomination contest to be over. For the full-on assault of an aggrieved populace against a miserable ideology to roll over that ideology and its adherents like a tank.
But there is the question first of who shall lead the charge. Per all the rules and regulations of the party that is going to do the steamrolling, the candidate with the most delegates is that leader. We all know the dynamics of how we got here, we all know that in some respects this drawn-out primary has gotten more people invested in the political process than ever before. But there's a crucial thing that has to happen before it continues. People keep telling us, here on Kos, that the Obama movement needs to embrace the Hillary partisans and wrap us all in a glowing fog of lovin' before we can continue on with the charge.
That's great. But there's a problem.
I've tried to approach this several ways, and by no means am I the source of sweetness and light in this world. I self-assess as a pragmatist and a realist and a skeptic. I do not suffer fools or nonsense.
I'm willing to compromise to get things done but I don't tolerate bullshit. I prefer people who stick to the facts and belittle people who make things up. Sorry. I don't have time for fairytales or the people who tell them.
There's a nut of a problem here that is going to be hard to overcome. The Hillary campaign has, to sustain itself since February, entertained several delusional notions that cannot be suffered anymore.
In order for there to be unity, the party must accept Obama as the legitimate candidate. In order for that to happen, Hillary has to walk her supporters back from the cliff she's talked them to. It's a hell of a high cliff, too. Listen to enough of them and it's a thousand-foot drop onto the jagged Cliffs of McCain below, and no mean ol' sexist Obama Campaign can possibly talk them out of rushing over it like a herd of fucking lemmings.
This cannot be fixed by Obama supporters. We are told that there is NO FUCKING WAY he can be the winner, because she's ahead in the popular vote. Because Michigan voters have been disfranchised. Because caucuses don't count. Because she's won more states (since some arbitrary date which is not the beginning of the primary). Because Obama is unelectable. Because she has more Electoral Votes. Because McCain has more valid experience.
Hillary has fed these absurdities to her supporters. Every time the Obama partisans see the light at the end of the tunnel, more absurdities arise. Every time he wins big in a state like North Carolina, or crosses the threshold of the pledged delegates, or settles an issue such as Michigan and Florida, Harold Ickes or Bill, or even Hillary herself goes out and says something so mendacious it can scarcely be believed. And since Hillary supporters are listening to her version of the events, only Hillary can convey the message. That it is time. To stop.
Hillary is the only one who can stop selling the myth that she is ahead in the popular vote. I have had arguments with supporters about this. They literally are incapable of viewing the world without this made-up metric. They cannot count caucus states. They cannot stop from counting Soviet Michigan.
Hillary is the only one who can stop selling the myth that caucuses don't count.
Hillary is the only one who can reverse her judgment that McCain and herself have passed the CIC threshold, and Obama has merely made a speech.
Hillary is the only one who can put the charges of sexism to rest.
Hillary is the only one who can make the admission that phantom Electoral Votes are not the measure by which the primary is won.
Hillary is the only one who can concede.
Every time an opportunity exists for Obama to claim victory, at a time when you would expect the gracious loser to concede and admit that yes, it is in fact over, and that the Obama movement might lean over and give the defeated but friendly opponents a hand up so we can join together and move on to the real fight, the Hillary movement gives us the finger. Every time we turn to calm ourselves from the storm, we get a spear between our ribs.
Just today, we have had the hokey-pokey AP announcement that Hillary would, then later WOULD ABSOLUTELY NOT, concede the nomination. On the eve of the end of the primary, when a clear leader in pledged delegates is still going to be ahead no matter what happens. When the phonied-up issue of Michigan and Florida has been clearly and unambiguously resolved, by the STATES THEMSELVES I might add, dripping with derision and sarcasm for those who think those solutions were imposed on the states by the RBC.
There is nothing left to contest but a scorched-earth campaign to Denver where history suggests we will destroy our party and ensure another generations' domination by Republicans.
I've tried pointing out the obvious. For Hillaryites who are planning on taking their ball and going home, or even worse, voting McCain, I have provided diagrams of coathangers and homelessness, maps of Iraq and photographs of flag-draped coffins. This is not a vanity contest. This is not a popularity contest (though, in some ways it actually is). This is a quest for the leader of our nation at a time of burgeoning crisis. It is not about who we like the most. I am not a TV person and I have actually listened to/watched only one or two of Obama's speeches. I'm not into this because of how I personally feel about him. I am into this because I have seen that he has the leadership abilities required to get the United States out of the hole that 30 years of inept Republicanism have dug us into.
And I'd love to stand down on Hillary. But her campaign keeps charging like Don fucking Quixote. The Obama camp cannot bury the hatchet if the Clinton camp keeps digging it back out and swinging it at our necks.
Hillary. Must. Concede. She must stop making these claims. Her supporters will NEVER stop the hysteria until she does. And if she doesn't, I really don't think this thing can make it to November, even with Mr. Short Temper and Shorter Memory McCain as the opponent.