Hillary

Kevin,

I was stunned when I read your comment about Hillary Clinton: "She ran in one of the toughest Democratic primaries ever, against one of the party's most talented politicians in recent memory, and she took a lot of ABUSE during that primary ? SOME OF IT DESERVED, most of it not."

No one deserves abuse, Kevin. According to Mental Health.Net, "Abuse occurs when people mistreat or misuse other people, showing no concern for their integrity or innate worth as individuals, and in a manner that degrades their well being. Abusers frequently are interested in controlling their victims. They use abusive behaviors to manipulate their victims into submission or compliance with their will."

Hillary Clinton was certainly subjected to a tidal wave of sexist abuse throughout the Democratic primary. It's tragic that most of Obama's millions of supporters, including their allies in the media, aren't even aware of their horrifying misogyny - they don't know the difference between respectful and abusive behavior. And Kevin, I suspect from your casual statement justifying the abuse of Hillary Clinton, that you, too, are unaware of your misogynistic tendences.

I am one of those Americans unable to wholeheartedly celebrate Obama's win today knowing that he passively stood by while benefiting from the trashing of both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin

Congratulations, America! We had a house party to celebrate :-D

And let's not forget the Hillary supporters who opted for unity and came through. My closest friend was a Hillary supporter but volunteered for Obama with no hesitation.

Bill too.

Here's my shout out to Obama and Biden:

We've been on a long, winding road since 1776, a new leg has begun. Hard, hard work is ahead. Too many forces are still arrayed to hold the human heart, mind, hope down. Yet we feel a surge of momentum, a push from the roots, for new growth, for transformation, for liberation on a more inclusive and complete scale.

Those are the grand ideals, the continuing story, the beautiful manifestation of reality that is the emergence of humanity, of the liberation of humanity, of America, the dream of freedom, love, trust, security, creativity, yet right here, right now, we have the struggle closer to our time and place, the immense challenges before us that have become even more immense with the inattention and negligence of those who came immediately before us, challenges we should have no fear to face and overcome.

This is another renaissance in human history in the making, born from the chaotic and ominous conditions facing our nation and world today. We have an explosion in connectivity, information sharing, knowledge, and awareness, developments that have no precedent in the life of humanity, fresh insights into physics, complexity, psychology, and learning, new avenues of political participation and financing resulting in the beginning of actual universal political enfranchisement, partially reflected in these electoral results tonight.

I want to congratulate Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and their campaign team, and embrace Obama, Biden and their administration to come. In these storied times, with these storied changes, amidst these immense movements in place, time and mind, I am confident that we have leadership that is up to the challenge, that is willing to embrace all the tools that are available for leadership and governance, that will openly and passionately embrace the application of intelligence, honor, reason, and compassion to address the great challenges of today, and the trajectory of these challenges into tomorrow, and to do so with full transparency and accountability to those who have elected them.

And let us not forget there are malignant forces throughout the world operating to injure us, to intimidate us, to commit violence upon us. We must defeat these forces, and without hesitation put them on the retreat, not only with our powers of imagination and positive example, in terms of liberty and freedom, reason and compassion, productivity and wealth creation, but through the rule of law and application of justice, such that there will be no sanctuary for those who would prey upon another, who would commit violence for the achievement of any aim short of imminent self-defense, who would extinguish hope, imagination and creativity in the human heart, because this is our destiny on this long road we've tread, as this torch has been passed, to protect and cultivate that which is most dear to us.

We must also not lose focus on the work we need to do at home, to perfect our union here, to root out corruption and cronyism, to return the government of Americans to Americans, to open the way wider for innovation and entrepreneurialism, to make essential services for the well-being of citizens more widely accessible - health care, education, transportation - and finally get down to the most serious task that science and ecology have laid before us, the ultimate task - to be stewards of the earth not only in our time for our generation, but in respectfully considering the generations ahead, the environment and beauty that will be present for our children, and their children, for only as sound ecological citizens will we continue to be gifted the resources to accomplish all the great things we are accustomed to accomplishing, as well as all the great things we can accomplish in the future, some we cannot even imagine, that will be left for our children and their children to dream and realize.

Please forgive me for my indulgence.

Mahalo.

And in the end do you suppose that the tough primary campaign was helpful to Obama? Of course it was.

Like Varecia, I also know Hillary supporters who worked their butts off for Obama. Thanks to them.

Congratulations to Barack Obama.

First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes, "and I will move the world." These men moved the world, and so can we all. Robert Kennedy.

When Robert Kennedy was killed forty years ago, his brother Edward Kennedy eulogized his spirit at the Democratic Convention in 1980.

"The Dream shall never die...."

Tonight, the Dreamer is Awake.

You are spot on, Kevin. Thank you for this timely tribute to one of the most amazing politicians of our time and one of the bravest women the country has seen in a long time. Hillary Clinton was instrumental in today's victory.

probably the best performance by the Dem runner up since LBJ in 1960

if Ted Kennedy can burn Carter and then still become the liberal conscious of the Senate, Clinton should be very productive and influential for the remainder of her tenure
hopefully she can get universal healthcare passed during the next eight years.

Thanks, Kevin and all those who post here, in support of this wonderful return to American democracy. We thought we were on the verge of losing it, but now our fears are calmed.

The internet has brought a new kind of fairness doctrine to our media and not a moment too soon.
Thanks again!

Kevin; you are right and right to place your thanks first. Small minded individuals like "K" and "anonymous" above should wake up. Hillary took millions of unfair cuts throughout the primary. Kos, for example, 'threw her out of the Democratic party' and Hillary supporters from his site ("It's a big web out there," he said. Nice.) Your graciousness helps to heal the lingering resentment.

We must move forward, but not by forgeting the contributions of ALL.

Jerry: And it was egged on and encouraged by you Kevin.

Total BS. On the contrary, Kevin frequently defended Hillary during the madness of the primaries. You could check the archives instead of mouthing off.

It is remarkable that Hillary came through in such a big way after her devasating primary loss. Thanks, Hillary!

It is exciting that Obama won, but my heart and head are still in conflict. Had it been Hillary who gave the final victory speech, my excitement would have been uncontained, my passion unleashed, and my tears unstoppable. To all the women of this country, let us hope that Obama will fight for our rights, and that within our lifetimes, sexism will diminish and we will see a feminist in the White House, a woman representing the true majority in this country, WOMEN.

This is not the time for negative comments. But any final verdict on Hillary has to include this: the entire premise of her campaign turned out to be wrong, wrong, wrong. That premise was that Obama COULD NOT WIN. That he couldn't win white, working-class voters ("hard-working white people," as she called them). That he couldn't win the big industrial states. It was on the basis of that argument that she insisted on pressing forward long after she was hopelessly behind in the delegate count, insisting that the "super delegates" (remember them?) were obliged to overturn that count for the good of the party because Obama COULD NOT WIN. And in the process of keeping the primary fight going, despite the improbability that she could persuade the supers to back her, she rolled out a series of arguments designed to hurt Obama in the general. And they did hurt him, especially her poisonous insistence that only she and John McCain "met the threshold" to be commander-in-chief. Having to build up his state organizations during the primaries ultimately helped Obama, but that does nothing to justify Clinton's tactics, which were despicable.

So, sure, give her due credit for campaigning for Obama. I'm willing to think that this has earned her some measure of redemption. But let's not whitewash her history as a candidate. She deliberately tried to cripple Obama in the general election even when she knew she stood almost no chance of winning the nomination. I may ultimately forgive her for that. But I won't forget.

Real sister I could not have said it better. Let's remember that black males had the right to vote long before 1920. I think we were the majority then too. I am still bitter with the way Hillary was treated and I don't know when I will feel better. Seeing John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and all the other males who have claimed to care about women's issues I would like to see how Obama's cabinet shapes up. I think we will see Duvall Patrick, John Kerry in some very prominent positions. I hope Hillary does not get sidetracked. She would be better as the leading voice in the senate.

I agree with everything you said, Kevin. You said it exactly right.

I can once again say "I'm proud to be an American."

We've been a long time in the wilderness. We can come home now.

Today I'll indulge in some silent gloating and schadenfreude, as a catharsis. My Obama signs are down, but my American flag is up. Tomorrow I pledge to devote my efforts toward ending the partisanship that's brought us to this deplorable state of affairs.

"With Malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds... to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." -- (Abraham Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865).

Hillary well deserves the props given here. As do the many Hill supporters who looked at the stakes and took up the cause for Barack.

The night was awesome. The morning on 3 hrs sleep and a hangover is really darned good, too!

Cuttie: "give her due credit for campaigning for Obama. I'm willing to think that this has earned her some measure of redemption. But let's not whitewash her history as a candidate"

That's very kind of you, KD, very generous; We should be generous in victory. I'll give Clinton props for eventually doing the right thing after she conceded the Democratic nomination. But I agree totally with Cuttie's point.

Jeez, John McCain played from the Clinton playbook through most of his campaign: the experience card, the racist card, the class card. Some of Obama's victory yesterday can be attributed to John McCain's attempt to play the gender card of Sarah Palin.

the Harry2 comment was to respond to cuddles comments.

jimbob said about Rev. Wright: "The fact that Hillary pressed this stuff earlier made it old news"

That's a LIE, a flat-out lie.

It's clear CDS is still alive and well.

Some of you really need psychological treatment.

Does anyone else notice the pattern of lights on the stage looks a lot like a missile?

Conservatives will say for years that had Clinton beat Obama, they could have made some of the tar and feathers stick to her and they could have won.

It is indeed possible, in trying to envision an alternate universe where Clinton won the nomination. She still would have had a lot of Bill's baggage with her (deserved or not), and this election would have been even more about culture wars than it was.

If Hillary had won the nomination, the general election might have been considerably different. I'm not saying McCain would necessarily have won -- especially after the economy plummeted in mid-September -- but his campaign would have taken a different direction. Sarah Palin certainly wouldn't have been his running mate; maybe it would have been some black Republican such as J.C. Watts in an effort to woo part of Obama's base. I'm not saying that would have worked, but I can't imagine Watts at his worst being as much as a drag on the GOP campaign as Palin turned out to be.

Moreover, Hillary would have been perceived as a restoration of sorts, with little newness other than her gender. I doubt she would have galvanized young people and minorities the way Obama did.

There is a certain role for Hillary Clinton, one she can be very good at: becoming an effective leader in the Senate, along the lines of Edward Kennedy. He too was part of a political family and had his presidential dreams thwarted. But he overcame that disappointment and in the ensuing quarter-century has become a legendary legislator. Hillary can do likewise, especially if she proves to be more progressive and less corporate than her husband.

I think HRC was correct when she worried BO could not win the general.

Me too. If McCain had chosen a "moderate" running mate, e.g. Romney, and/or if the economic sh!t hadn't hit the fan when it did, this could have been a very different election. We forget this at our peril.

Having said that, yes we move forward, and yes, we celebrate.