kthxbai

If Hillary had left the Democratic race earlier, I would have felt bad for her. I'm past that threshold now, because frankly, I'm tired of having my intelligence insulted by her tone-deaf campaign staff.

See, there's Good Hillary and Bad Hillary. Good Hillary is witty and speaks passionately about helping others. Bad Hillary is condescending and can barely hide how aghast she is that she couldn't just walk into the race and claim the nomination just because her last name was Clinton. Unfortunately, the more Obama wins, the more we see of Bad Hillary, who is just baffled that people are getting excited about her opponent's talk of bringing people back together rather than the fine details of her health care plan.

Don't even get me started on how premature that whole discussion is, by the way. Hate to break it to folks, but the new president, whoever it is, will have to make compromises with a Congress of 400+ people and 100 Senators. Whatever bill that addresses health care won't be a carbon copy of either Hillary or Obama's idea, so focusing so incessantly on that particular issue strikes me as just a waste of time.

After Obama's win in Iowa, the Hillary campaign tried to co-opt the "change" theme. Sorry, someone who's been in the public eye for the better part of the last twenty years can not turn around and cast themselves as a fresh voice. That's not to say that an Obama presidency is the only venue for such change. Had Edwards not dropped out before Super Tuesday, I may have voted for him, because I think he had a lot of the same virtues plus a better chance in the general election. The kind of "change" people are demanding goes a lot deeper than race or gender...it's about some kind of challenge to the system.

I won't go into how the Clinton machine did the impossible during the South Carolina primary (made me dislike Bill Clinton), but the most irritating part of all this is their constant, pathetic attempts to turn everything into a "Scandal." Going over every word Obama's ever said, desperate to get people outraged. Oh my god, Obama used lines from a Deval Patrick speech! Oh my god, Obama wanted to be president when he was in kindergarten! Newsflash: Nobody gives a shit. It's only a scandal if people actually care.

Never mind that her campaign's defense of her Iraq War authorization vote boils down to "I voted for the authorization, but I didn't think he would actually do it!" Give me a fucking break. She knew exactly what would happen, she just hoped we'd be welcomed with flowers and smiles instead of what we have now. She may not be consistent, but she's not an idiot.

Though her horizons look grim, I'm not counting her out yet. She may yet pull off another comeback in the next round of primaries....and if she wins the nomination, I'll do my best to resist the temptation to vote for Nader. Still, if she does pull it off, it better be by a large margin, because if these "superdelegates" override the will of the voters, we're up chocolate creek without a popsicle stick.