As a Hillary supporter I have tried to open my mind to Sen. Obama because it has looked like he was heading for the nomination. I knew there was a radical pastor in his life and I knew he had the Resko(sp) thing to still be vetted and I worried about that and wanted Hillary to stay in the race in case he imploaded. His speech made it impossible for me to support him ,it came to late for me to respect him at all. Yes, it was a good speech and he showed a clear understanding of the confusion and misunderstandings that are part of our society today. If he had made the same speech when the issue of race first surfaced instead of cynically allowing the Clinton's and their supporters be branded as racist he would have won me over. As it is he has reinforced my original view of him. He is a political opportunitist who learned early how to use white guilt as a manipulative tool to enlist people in his own personal ambition. Every decision he has made from chosing the church with 8000 members in the middle of his district to accepting the help early on from questionable allies ( Ayers, Wright, the owners of maytag, lobbyists, nuclear industry interests, Mayor Daley) to dropping people who were inconvient in the pursuit of ambition (the clean government candidate that Daley's people opposed) to enlisting the help of the establishment.Odd thing the insurgent has the support of all the powerful players in the Dem party. Is it possible that they correctly see Hillary as the agent of change.Does anyone seriously believe the old goats want change in their cushy fiefdoms? Not a word about the unbelievable sexism leveled at Hillary and her women supporters.He has gamed the caucacus system, invited Republicans and Independents to make the decision for the Democratic Party who our candidate will be, he is currently making sure the voters of FL and MI will be disinfranchized. He is the one who is distroying my party and they deserve what they will probably get ...defeat in the fall.I for one will write in Hillary and let the post feminist women who have been so quick to use Rovian talking points against Hillary worry about the courts. The Democratic Party will not get another dime from me or a minute of my time. I will turn to other volunteer pursuits.My voice is not valued in the party or on the blogs..I am done. P.S. Hillary haters just spare everybody your diatribes we have heard them all.

The people on this post disrepecting Joan for her objectivity should just move over to the Daily Koz where they ban people who don't agree with you. You will find yourselves right at home with the Obama Politiboro blog. They would just love Xrandadu Hutman and his redundant rants that clog up this thread.

Not all but a majority of the Media must met somewhere during the weekend and decide the meme of the upcoming week. This week is has been "Hillary should drop out for the good of the party." Just look around online,read the headlines,read the papers,listen to the talk shows. There are variations on the theme but they pretty much follow;1.stop talklng about Rev. Wright,2.don't dare follow Sen. Obama on vacation because he is going to need to build back up some strength, but be sure to get as many of his supportersas possible on your shows or quoted in your pieces to play hardball while he is resting, 3. worry out loud about the damage that Hillary is doing to the party and how much the GOP hates her.

Yet,she stays very close in the polls,Sen.Obama's numbers are collasping with Indies,her supporters stay as strong as she is and people are tuning out of the overheated horse race coverage. Viewers know all the commenter's bias's because there has been no attempt to stay neutral so everyone considers the source and moves on.

Hillary is still very much in contention and should stay until the end. We will see, but as unfortunate as it may be Rev.Wright's opinions are not going away. The Republicans now have all they need to galvanize their base. Sen.Obama looks weaker as a leader as time passes and his themes seem more vague and less plausable as the economy starts to impact everyone except the top 3% of the country.