Where Were You...

...on the night that history was made in American Presidential politics on June 3rd, 2008?













Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination this evening, the first African-American Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

I was working and didn't get to hear the full speeches, just snippets. Of course, the snippets I heard were Obama praising Hillary Clinton on a hard fought campaign, and being a better candidate for having run against her. And what I heard from Clinton was more of the same: how she has won the important swing states and how she won states equalling 270 electoral votes, as if this were a general election. What I didn't hear was a concession speech or even a congratulatory gesture to Obama for a "win", just a "run" of a good campaign.

I was just listening to Dan Abrams on the late night primary coverage on MSNBC asking why Clinton not conceding tonight was a big deal. She's lost. What's the difference if she conceded tonight or if she does so tomorrow or later in the week?

Here's why, Dan. For as much as Barack Obama was praising Hillary Clinton and showing her respect with his kind words, her non-concession speech was a slap in the face, in my opinion, to Obama. For as much as Hillary Clinton wanted "the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected,” she was disrespecting the nearly 18 million voters who voted for Barack Obama in denying them the celebration they deserved after winning the Democratic nomination.

It seems to me that for all of Hillary's bluster these past weeks of having every vote count, she really means every one of her votes. Continuing to claim that she has won the popular vote, all the while discounting the caucus states she lost and the 45% of uncommitted voters in Michigan is proof of that.

That is what's wrong, Dan. It's time to face reality. And the "conference call" earlier today in which she was asked a planted question on whether she would be interested in the VP slot and answered, "I'd be open to that" reads as completely disingenuous. Painting Obama in a corner and putting him in the awkward position of having to offer Hillary the running mate position in public is not at all a classy move - just as the non-concession was not. I say this because now if Obama asks her, then he compromises his true change message and if he doesn't offer it to her, party unity will be compromised with all those hurt Hillary supporters who feel they've been cheated out of something.

That brings me to another topic: Clinton supporters need to stop the whining. There is nothing that Obama did that would cause you, supposedly Democrats, to vote for John McCain in the general election. If you think Hillary was treated poorly by the media, or perceived misogyny or sexism during the campaign, that's your prerogative, but that wasn't Barack Obama. No matter how many times Bill Clinton accuses Obama of smear by proxy, it doesn't make it true.

From Bob Cesca's live blog:

10:18
Extended tribute to Senator Clinton...

**********************
OBAMA: That is particularly true for the candidate who has traveled further on this journey than anyone else. Senator Hillary Clinton has made history in this campaign not just because she's a woman who has done what no woman has done before, but because she's a leader who inspires millions of Americans with her strength, her courage, and her commitment to the causes that brought us here tonight.

We've certainly had our differences over the last sixteen months. But as someone who's shared a stage with her many times, I can tell you that what gets Hillary Clinton up in the morning - even in the face of tough odds - is exactly what sent her and Bill Clinton to sign up for their first campaign in Texas all those years ago; what sent her to work at the Children's Defense Fund and made her fight for health care as First Lady; what led her to the United States Senate and fueled her barrier-breaking campaign for the presidency - an unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, no matter how difficult the fight may be.

And you can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory. When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen. Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
**************************

Woman hater.

Woman hater, indeed. So please, think of the big picture. Don't vote against the Democratic nominee for spite. What a tremendous mistake that would be.

On a lighter note, after watching a bit of what John McCain calls a speech, it made me feel a little better looking forward to the upcoming contest. There he was, standing in front of a green background with "A Leader You Can Believe In" plastered behind him and his fake grin, and as Jason Linkins, who was liveblogging for the Huffington Post noted, "when you Google McCain's "'A Leader You Can Believe In,' this happens.

Time to kick some McAss!

...And Conservatives FREAK OUT!

This made me chuckle.

There was a palpable sense of shock both in the audience and among the advisers [at the Conservative Political Action Conference] after Mitt Romney abruptly announced on Thursday that he was exiting the presidential race.

Screams of "no" and tears came from the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C. One attendee lamented the "bombshell."

As the speech was made, Romney's wife sat quietly in the front row. Cameras zoomed in on her mostly expressionless expression, occasionally broken by a slight smile. But not all of the campaign's associates were as composed. Behind the curtains, Bay Buchanan wiped the moist from her eyes. "This is rough," she told the Huffington Post, "very rough."

What was originally thought to be a small earthquake on the east coast at the time of Romney's announcement wound up being Rush Limbaugh falling out of his chair at the radio studio.

Boy, they really can't stand John McCain!

Commenters at Michelle Malkin's site were not faring much better.

(h/t Bob Cesca)

Mitt Romney Drops Out

Well, he "suspends" his campaign.

"In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror... beep, bop, boop, ditditdit... I feel I must now stand aside... beep, bop... for our party and our country. Does not compute. Does not compute. Does not compute.''

Edwards To Drop Out of Race Today - UPDATED

The only remaining candidate to run an honorable campaign thus far is bowing out of the bid for the presidency. John Edwards will make his announcement at 1pm today.

The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate in what is now a two-person race for the Democratic nomination, said one adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement. Both candidates would welcome Edwards' backing and the support of the 56 delegates he had collected.

Edwards waged a spirited top-tier campaign against the two better-funded rivals, even as he dealt with the stunning blow of his wife's recurring cancer diagnosis. In a dramatic news conference last March, the couple announced that the breast cancer that she thought she had beaten had returned, but they would continue the campaign.

Let's face facts. The only remaining candidate willing to take on corporate interests and insurance companies, and whom corporations viewed as the most dangerous of the three top Democratic candidates, was John Edwards. He also played a major role in the Democratic debates and on the campaign trail, focusing the discourse on the issues rather than on backbiting. Edwards will be sorely missed.

You can call me a conspiracy theorist if you want, but you have to believe that the mainstream media shut Edwards out because of his message. He was the only candidate consistently talking about poverty, the saving of the middle class, corporate greed and lobbyist corruption. The MSM is owned by corporations and therefore ignored him completely even after beating Clinton in Iowa and being outspent by his opponents 9 to 1.

UPDATE: TIME - Why Edwards Never Caught On

...The strategy at first seemed shrewd: build on Edwards' surprisingly good showing in Iowa in 2004 and make his native South Carolina his firewall while garnering union support. It was designed to take on the establishment candidate that everyone knew was going to run: former First Lady Hillary Clinton.

What no one, not Clinton or Edwards, was prepared for was the insurgency candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. Suddenly Edwards was running against a version of himself in 2004: the young, fresh, optimistic face, the Washington outsider with a thin resume but lots of charm, ruffling some feathers as he jumped the line. Except this version was an African American celebrity candidate with a cult-like following. Big and small donors flocked to Obama, the freshman senator from Illinois, as did the endorsements, and suddenly Edwards seemed like a third wheel.

...Edwards leaves the race having made a big impact on the two remaining candidates. His populist rhetoric forced his rivals to compete for union support, and he was the first out of the gate with detailed plans for universal healthcare and education, putting pressure on the field to match him. The former trial lawyer arguably won a majority of the debates, time and again challenging his opponents to refuse money from lobbyists and speed up their plans for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq.