Then in the most revealing sentence of the evening she said, "And I want the nearly 18 million people who voted for me to be respected, to be heard, to be no longer invisible."

Okay, a few people don't respect the folks who voted for her, that's obviously too true. But claiming that they've been "invisible" is ludicrous.

If when visiting a partly burnt out Chicago back in April 1968 anyone had told me that American voters in 2008 would select an African American as a major party nominee to be elected president, I would have asked if he was on LSD.

As much as it is disconcerting to watch the back and forth between the Clinton and Obama camps still going on, I can only admire the enormous progress that America as a nation has made in race relations in those forty years. (Don't get me wrong: there is still room for significant improvement!)

I am really in shock and awe - and what a nice shock and awe to be in! - that the night after an African American eked out a close victory over a female candidate, there is no difference in the bickering as there had been between, say, Carter and Kennedy backers, or Clinton and Brown backers after their primary fight were at last over.

The significance is that you take this historic fact (as, obviously, you would have, had the winner been the first woman nominee) for granted in such a way that in your bickering you perish the thought of the historic achievement. Don't get me wrong: I think that is progress.

Now, don't overdo it! You don't want to lose the opportunity to not only nominate an African American, you should now elect him. Not because he is an African American but because he will be the better president than the Republican candidate, for the US - and for us other mortals.

It would be much more productive to start a grassroots campaign for IRV and/or proportional representation.

Did you see Obama’s Speech? Wow! Anyone who can uplift a cynic such as Deeply has some power in his soul, some expectation, and yes honest hope about him. This man speaks better than any politician in Deeply’s lifetime. He is a modern Demosthenes who Deeply believes may be able to speak so well, so passionately to those governed and those who govern that by force of words he can persuade the congress to act differently. Embarrass the silly changeless Washington into behaving with care and concern for the American people. I know, I know... never happen. But Obama seems the best chance so far, in my lifetime, and Deeply ain't no whippersnapper.

Obama is an aristocrat in the best of senses... one of intelligence and talent, as opposed to the sorry sham who sits in the Whitehouse today, a Dullard of the dollar, and the kickback. A putz of privilege... Our Doofus...George W Bush.

And John McCain, well, he may win if the American people remain stupid and afraid. But if they see the possibility of man, as did those who founded our country, those who wrote our Bill of Rights and our Constitution, then perhaps, just perhaps... there will be some Hope for our nation. If we elect Barrack Obama.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T?

lol, nice analysis. Hillary doesn't want veep. What she wants is to leverage anything she can to keep the wound open and perpetuate the division between her supporters and Obama's. By overshadowing his win, questioning his legitimacy and flat-out direspecting his electability versus McCain, she's creating a situation wherein he can't offer her the position which her surrogates will use to stoke the resentment in her followers. And she'll use it as a thin pretext to hold her delegates till August. And she'll appeal Michigan. And the goal is to innoculate her supporters from the unify meme.

sirphred writes:

Early in the campaign Barack said Hillary's supporters would back him but his would not back her. That's why he'll NEVER get a vote from this Hillary supporter. His nasty wife said she could not vote for Hillary. Well, I have news for Michelle. I can't vote for Barack. They are the ones who are not loyal Democrats. Why are you putting that on Hillary?

Well, I certainly don't remember him saying that. Do you have a cite? Anyone?

I voted for him in the primary, but if she had won the nomination, I would have voted for her in November. Or Edwards, etc. Why? Because we've had a GOP in the WH for too long and it has been a disaster of epic proportions. Or haven't you heard.

At last, we Democrats can focus our attention on our true opponent: John "Grampy" McCain. Grampy will not win. He's an angry old conservative white man with a huge vindictive streak and a fondness for military action over diplomacy. He's also filthy rich and a born aristocrat. We do not need him, and when you put him side by side next to Barack Obama, all of his glaring weaknesses will become manifest.

Now, if we can get 60 Democratic Senators (not including that putz, Joe Lieberman), we might actually have a chance of rescuing this country from the downward spiral the Repugs have put us on since the damned Reagan MisAdministration.

make her go away.

Others have posted that obama doesn't have anything locked up, that you shouldn't count votes before they are cast (despite what they say to a reporter, the superdelegates haven't actually voted yet).

The clintons seem to be acting on that fact.

An interesting angle to this story is whether or not obama is going to pay off the clinton's campaign debts. They want their money back.

What does obama get? billary's withdrawal from the campaign? . . . in which case it would really be over?

Another example of clintons acting on behalf of clintons.

Hillary talks a good game about invisible voters when they happen to have cast a vote for her. Had she had her way with the Rules Committee and in Michigan she would have netted a mere 4 more delegates, which would have brought her no closer to a win.

My wife, who lived in New York for four years, wrote to Senator Clinton three times in response to a speech the senator had made at a function about Afghan women, an issue my wife cares deeply about. Senator Clinton and her office ignored her every correspondence. Moral of the story: Hillary Clinton is full of shit.

If McCain picks Romney as his running mate Obama would do well to pick Clinton. Romney and Clinton are both sneaky, unscrupulous, mud-slinging, typical, weasel politicians from opposite sides of the isle. Politics is all about compromise and if Clinton can secure the Presidency for Obama, then I'm all for it. But if she should become Vice President, I hope she is utterly and completely ignored by the Obama administration. Hillary silenced for 8 years--that would be just deserts.