Excellent post, Hotspur. Well put.

Joan does believe that there is something significantly different between awful Obama supporters and awful Hillary supporters. She consistently points to those qualities of the nasty or ignorant Obama supporters and uses them to draw meaning about Obama's campaign. I've asked her to justify this and she said she'd have to think about it.

Don't get me wrong. I understand the tendency. I just went to a Hillary blog and could feel myself about to generalize based on what those folks were saying. But I don't think it reflects reality.

At this point I don't think Joan has made the case (or even tried) that there is something to learn by looking at the most awful people supporting Barack and I don't think that she wishes to dig too deeply into the issue.

I wish I had a time machine and could see how things would be if for some reason Hillary ended her campaign a couple months ago. While it is true that Barack would be getting a little less practice, my guess is that there would be a very strong and forceful movement heading into the convention and beyond. In my view, things are really beginning to delapidate.

Joan has written an incredible piece that looks at the role racism is playing with the white woman older than 60 who are voting for Hillary in droves. Joan asks us to imagine if it were not a woman or if Barack was not black where those votes would go.

She isn't only fixated on sexism. She is aware that racisim is harming Barack and pointing it out courageously.

But Joan also knows that there is still a chance that Hillary can win this thing and Joan wants to fan that possibility because Joan thinks Hillary is more likely to beat McCain.

Joan really really likes how she thinks about Hillary. Tough, Smart, Responsible, Tenacious, Funny, Ready, Tested. To Joan all of those things seem self evident. But then Joan looks over at Barack and...well......he's sort of skinny and stand offish and doesn't really connect well with real people in her thoughts....she imagines him smug and with sense of entitlement and she watches his most awful fans and how they idolize this skinny smug weak man....and Joan really wonders if it shouldn't be Hillary that take over the show. In her mind Joan is seeing all these images and Barack just gets skinnier and wimpier to her. He complains, unlike Hillary. He makes missteps, unlike Hillary. He can't close the deal, unlike Hillary. He is not the victom of predudice, unlike Hillary. He doesn't sound like a regular person, unlike Hillary. He has weak little arms, unlike Hillary.

Joan's essay on racism is, however, stunning and well done as I imagine it.

Joan is also highlighting something very practical.

Barack is not almost perfect, at all.

Joan has the courage to repeatedly point out that the person who is, so far, winning the democratic primary is not perfect, will be attacked somewhat successfully by republicans, might lose the general election and has some awful people supporting him.

Joan is trying to show that in Barack Obama we have a flawed person. We already know that Hillary is flawed, so why mention it? Barack isn't perfect and won't solve all of our problems.

Joan knows that Barack might lose and she also knows that he can appeare weak and conceded at times to her inside her mind (that is where we must imagine how much more out of touch he is than Hillary).

Joan is just showing that even if Barack becomes president we must remember that he is lacking in ways we might wish he was more perfect, that there are people who support him who are very awful in a way that points to his own limitations and that his ability to make all the changes he talks about rests on factors that he can't control.

Joan is subtley asking us to not expect more out of these people than is resonable. Joan is artfully writing about the election in a way that points to our delutional relationship to those running. They are just folks running with flaws. It's up to the population to demand the changes!

Thanks, Joan!

Yea, good points. Think about it:

If we don't somehow get Hillary to win the primary, we will be stuck with a guy who is probably ok and can be a great speaker but who definitely has tricked millions of people.

The worst thing is seeing how much Obama enjoys winning! You can tell he actually gets a thrill out of people believing in his empty words.

We've gotta figure out how to make Hillary win, or we'll have to either not vote for the trickster or pretend that he's ok. Such sad options. What if he really is ok?