So I've got a couple thoughts.

[gcomeau]

Good grief it's been a long time since I browsed through DU. And what do I find when I peek back in here? Clinton and Obama supporters going for each other's throats like rabid dogs. Well that's just a lovely thing to see. I'm sure it makes any Republican's day, they probably stop in here on their lunch breaks just to cheer themselves up watching the circus o' idiots. Yeah, I said it... idiots. Before I continue with the rest of my thoughts on this primary I'd like to get this out of the way first. If you are an Obama supporter who is being flat out derogatory and insulting to Clinton supporters, or to Clinton herself, you are a moron. You are hurting Obama, you are hurting the Democratic cause, and you are acting like a child. If you are a Clinton supporter who just got the urge to post something snide and gloating about what I just said about those kool-aid drinking Obama cultists it goes for you jackasses too so check your impulse to leap upon your keyboard and go stand in the corner, facing the wall, and take a time out until you can stop acting like a 6 year old.

That out of the way, a few points. They've been said elsewhere, but they bear repeating so I'm going to repeat them.

1. Barring something resembling an act of God, Obama is the nominee.

Don't start waving your hands and punching delegate numbers into your calculators and talking about how if Clinton just wins these and these sates by these ridiculous margins and they seat the Michigan and Florida delegates without making them re-vote even though Obama wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan and the superdelegates swing the vote her way then yes, YES she could still be the nominee!!!!

It isn't going to happen.

They are not going to seat Michigan and Florida without a re-vote. That is settled. If there is a re-vote, with the proportional awarding of delegates, and with only Obama and Clinton to choose between at this point in the game, does Clinton pick up a hundred and fifty or so delegates on Obama in two states? No chance in hell. None. Get a grasp on reality for cripes sake. Whether they end up working something out in Florida and Michigan or not, it won't change that Obama will go to the convention leading in pledged delegates.

The superdelegates are NOT going to swing the vote against him when that happens. The reason they will not do this is because they have no particular interest in torpedoing the entire democratic party for the next 15 years or so. They're not that stupid. Whichever candidate goes into the convention with the most pledged delegates is going to walk away with the nomination. Yes, it is a hypothetical possibility that the superdelegates would vote for a candidate that lost the pledged delegate race, but it's not happening under these conditions. It just isn't. Not with GE polls showing that the candidate leading is also the candidate performing better against the presumptive Republican nonimee, and with a massive incredibly highly energized base of voters the party has been unsuccessfully trying to get up off their asses to vote for the last decade. They're not going to turn around and give that voting block the finger now that someone has finally managed to mobilize them.

The media may be playing up the "there's still a lot of delegates at stake, and neither of them has it clinched omg it's down to the wire!!!" angle for everything it's worth. Of course they are, it makes the race exciting. Exciting races get ratings. But the reality is this race is over, barring a miracle for Clinton or a catastrophe for Obama.

2. Clinton is letting her ego get the better of her.

Let me make this clear, I've never had any real problem with Hillary. Going into this primary I was perfectly fine with the idea of her winning the Democratic nomination. But since the week leading into the Texas and Ohio primaries she has crossed the line, and she has placed her personal ambitions to make herself the president ahead of the far more important consideration of keeping the republicans from actually managing to put one of their own in to follow Bush/Cheney and mostly carry on their policies. She went hard negative on Obama in a way that she never should have done. At that point in the race he was the very high probability Democratic nominee (he has only gotten more so since, his delegate lead is higher now with less states to go) and having a high profile member of the Democratic party declaring to the world that he isn't ready for the presidency and is nothing but a collection of good speeches is inexcusable at that stage in the game. Especially when that person clearly doesn't belive it herself considering she made overtures to him for a vice presidential slot.

Right about now there is someone getting all fired up to write a reply to make the argument that he had to be exposed to those arguments now because the Republicans would make them in the general election. Do grow up. The difference between having the Republicans saying those things about him and having the other major contending Democratic presidential nominee say them is so ridiculously vast it can be seen from space. Let the Republicans say it. They're expected to say it. They're the bloody Republicans, of course they're going to say it. And because it's them saying it there's a large cross-section of the country that wouldn't listen just because it's them saying it and that's business as usual. The Republicans are criticizing the Democratic nominee... news at freaking 11. Hillary doing their job for them changes that dynamic. And she needs to knock it off right now. She isn't going to win, all she's doing is inflicting damage on her way down. It's stupid and spiteful and it needs to stop. She is polarizing her own supporters against the person her own party is most likely running for President and every day it continues she's boosting McCain's odds. And there's no excuse for it any more than there is any excuse for the supporters of both parties to be tearing into each other HERE.

And before anyone points at my opening and says "Aha! How you're attacking Clinton!" I'm criticizing her chosen course of action. There's a profound difference.

3. The whole "cult of Obama" line.

What is the deal here? Seriously? Are people actually complaining that the prospective Democratic nominee is able to inspire fervent devotion in his supporters? Aren't we looking for someone to run for the office of the leader of the country? Isn't a fairly fundamental criteria for the job of leader the ability to actually get people to follow you? And that's what we're going to tear into the guy for?

Yes, the man gives a hell of a speech. GOOD.

Yes, the man inspires enthusiastic devotion in those he brings into his tent. GOOD.

Is that all he is? Charisma and a nice vocabulary? Sure... because that's exactly what gets you, say, Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Law and editing the Harvard Law Review, a gift for pitching your voice well and making people like you when you talk. No other qualifications required, that's exactly what those guys look for... come on people. We've got a candidate with actual brains and we're complaining that it comes wrapped in charisma too. What a horrible thing.

In summary: Obama's going to be the nominee unless there's some kind of act of God. That is not a bad thing. Knock off the damn internecine warfare and flinging of rhetoric at each other, line up behind the guy already, and turn it on the Republicans for cripes sake. I swear, it's like there's a whole giant faction of people in here who just plain like losing elections.