You said:

"I agree that we expect too much from the candidates. Yes, Clinton cannot "shake off" the supporters who (frankly) support her because they cannot see themselves voting for Obama because he is Black (mind you, I am not saying that this category of voters constitutes the majority of her supporters). But I DO hold her responsible for deliberately speaking to/inflaming those fears and doubts."

Here is what my friend just emailed me on this:

It's sad how Hillary has been targeting and exploiting the ignorant. How she has been able to get huge numbers of democrats in West Virginia and Kentucky to waste their votes on her-- clearly, a significant chunk of those people would not waste their time voting in a primary if they actually understood that she has already lost the nomination. They just wouldn't take

time out of their day to go vote, plain and simple. But because they don't follow the news, because they DON'T understand the way the process works, she is deceiving them into wasting their time and money, not to help themselves but to help HER.

The fact that she is making these speeches where she pretends to embrace the common folk, pointing at them and saying she wants to be their "champion" is just so very cynical, as cynical as asking them to all give her 5 dollars so that she can get her 20 million back

by August.

She says that "those people on TV" are all saying

she's lost simply because "they" have jobs and money and health care, so THAT'S why they are saying she can't win the nomination. Which is a pure lie-- the cable news people LOVE this fight, they LOVE the drama, and they would LOVE to cover Hillary stealing the nomination and going on to fight McCain in the general. They would LOVE it.

That's the reason why the media have allowed this

story to become a prolonged, drawn-out battle, long past the point where she stood a realistic chance of winning the nomination. She's actually managed to outpace cable news in the depths to which she'll sink-- even THEY have reached the point where they're opting for actual reality over false drama.

She will stand up in front of poor working people and lie to them because it will help her win another victory, and it will help her raise money so she can get paid back. And maybe it will also help damage Obama so she can say "I told you so" and possibly get another shot in four years. It's so very fucking cynical of her to pretend that this is about poor,

uneducated working people, when it's really just about her taking a last-minute shot at getting a few things for herself.

"Hey, you poor, working class people! I know you've had it rough, but I want to help you, and here's how: vote for me, so I can have a short term win. I can't win the nomination, so it's not like your vote will make me president so I can "fight for you" or do any of the things I'm promising. But it will give me a win, and I LOVE to win.

"Plus, I hate Obama and it will make me feel good to hurt him a little. Hell, I'd like to hurt him a LOT, but more on that later, in the general. Did I mention that I'm white?

"But voting for a person who can't win the nomination isn't the only thing you can do for me. You can give me your money. Yeah. See, I'm a mega-mega-mega-millionaire. My husband can make a HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS for a single speech. And that's a LOW number. Sometimes he can make THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS for a speech. Just a single

speech. I bet some of you couldn't make that much

money in ten years, right? And he loves to talk, so it's not like it's even "work" for him. How many of you "like" your jobs? I bet not many, right? Ha Ha. And that's just one way we can make money. We have so much fucking money it's ridiculous.

"But here's the thing: we recently "loaned" a little chunk of our vast fortune to keep our campaign afloat, since we had already blown all the money we had last year. And now, it's looking like there's a chance we might not get that money back. And we'd really like our money back. So, I'm asking poor people to give me

some of THEIR money. YOUR money. Because even though

it was my CHOICE to blow 20 million dollars on

prolonging a campaign I knew I couldn't win, I'd still like to have it back. Even though it's really not even like I can actually "feel" the loss of 20 million dollars, because even without it, I'm still super-super-rich. 20 million dollars is nothing to me.

"But I want YOUR money. Okay? Go to Hillary Clinton "dot com" and give me your money. Because I am your champion!

(under her breath) "Suckers."

My friends said they were shocked when they listened to the audio version of Obama's first book; they said he really got into sounding like the different characters. I haven't heard it (or read it yet) but I think I'll take it up on June 6th after Clinton's speech. As I've said, I feel confident that her speech will be HUGE, not just a nicely put concession and "go democrats" plug.