It’s taken a while, but I can only say I am supremely impressed with the class with which Hillary Clinton has conducted herself since Obama clinched the nomination. No joke, no sarcasm, she’s really surprised me and I think all of us with how she’s acted lately.

And currently, she’s pissed off at Sarah Palin.

Mrs. Clinton’s friends said she was galled that Ms. Palin might try to capitalize on a movement that Mrs. Clinton, of New York, built among women in the primaries. And Democrats used strong words on Sunday to rebut the notion: Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts said that women would not be “seduced” by the Republican ticket, and Guy Cecil, the former political director of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, said it was “insulting” for Republicans to compare Ms. Palin to Mrs. Clinton.

…

Mrs. Clinton’s advisers said they expected that in light of the Palin selection, she would focus her efforts especially on working women — middle- and working-class, married and single — in swing states where she ran strong, like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

You gotta sympathize with her. She spent years working her way up through the Senate, building a huge base of support, and spent millions upon millions of dollars in a campaign for president that garnered somewhere in the vicinity of 18 million votes and lose in a hotly contested primary, and then along comes Sarah dang Palin who in her biggest electoral victory got 114,000 votes and thinks she can just ride on your coattails and act like she was part of the movement? BS.

Like I’ve said before, McCain was hoping he was going to take Clinton’s supporters by nominating Palin, but all he’s going to do is harden Clinton’s resolve and get her working extra hard for Obama.

Maybe I’m alone here, but I’m getting absolutely sick of the GOP suddenly being best friends with Hillary Clinton. I just saw an ad highlighting her brief praise of McCain, and in Palin’s acceptance speech she invoked how Clinton put “18 million cracks” in the glass ceiling and that she’d be taking the torch.

This is just treating women like morons. The implication is that McCain and the GOP think that women will vote for any woman at all even if they’re diametrically opposed. Apparently women don’t pay attention to politics, so no matter what woman’s running, they’ll vote that way.

Not to mention we’re really only talking white women. Go ahead, check out those videos fo PUMA activists and the various Clinton loyalists. Any black women there? No? That’s probably because they’re all over at the Obama rally. It’s a move that’s both sexist and racist. Sorry, that’s just how she flies.

Speaking of Clinton, I really think McCain shot himself in the foot there. One of the reasons people said Obama needed to pick up Clinton was that he’d get all the benefits of the Clinton machine: fundraising, stumping, media appearances, the works. Bill Clinton is a powerhouse and without his wife on the ticket, so the wisdom goes, there’s no way Obama will get any of it.

Let me ask you this: if Clinton is really that singularly-focused, that self-interested, does anyone honestly believe she wants to see another woman become the first in the White House before her? The answer rhymes with HELL NO. If it’s true that she’s miffed about not being on the ticket, the last thing she and Bill want is some other woman to get in there first.

By the way, did everyone get amnesia and forget how absolutely brutally the right vilified Hillary for the past few years? They called her shrill, they called her bitchy, they said men cross their legs around her, they said all they hear is “TAKE OUT THE TRASH!” when she talks. Sexist, vile attacks over and over. But now it’s “let’s give a hand to Hillary for her historic campaign, and keep it going!”

One more thing. Wasn’t it Karl Rove that was ripping into Richmond, VA for being a little city? Palin was mayor of Wasilla, AK. A city with less than 6,000 people in it. The entire state of Alaska is about 680,000 people. Richmond has 1.2 million if count the metro area (which I believe is part of the mayor’s jurisdiction). Not that I’m holding my breath for anything resembling consistancy with these guys.

Just when you thought Hillary Clinton had topped out on class, she actually stops the roll call vote midstream and calls for Senator Obama to be declared the nominee by acclamation.

To quote Will (albeit with fewer expletives), this takes the wind out of the right wing’s sails a full day or two; they pretty much have no choice but to actually cover the convention now.

Two things happened this week that fundamentally changed the way I see Hillary Clinton. The first was a big honking article by Eric Boehlert that made me feel rather dumb. The take home message of it is:

Fact: Many in the press have portrayed Clinton’s planned convention address, as well as the fact that her name is being placed into nomination, as an unprecedented, heavy-handed power grab.

Fact: It’s not. In years past, Democratic candidates who won lots of primaries and accumulated hundreds of delegates (sorry, Howard Dean and Bill Bradley) have always been allowed to address the convention and very often place their name into nomination. It’s the norm. It’s expected. It’s a formality.

So my venom at her for wanting her name on the ballot was woefully ignorant and naive; caught up in the media frenzy. Furthermore, Boehlert brings up instances where those who were snubbed the nomination not only got their names on the ballot, but they angrily denounced the candidate and all but told their supporters not to vote for the nominee. Hillary’s been stumping for Obama, if anything she’s been extra gracious, it’s her supporters that have been the assholes.

Speaking of gracious, that’s point #2. In her speech at the DNCC, she said something that was just so perfect, I couldn’t believe it.

I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?

Bingo. Fantastically put, Hillary. The people who will vote McCain out of spite for Obama or stay home to show some kind of loyalty to Hillary, to the PUMAs who don’t give a shit about party unity, aren’t just hurting Barack Obama, they aren’t even just hurting the entire Democratic Party. They’re hurting every single American citizen who would be better off under an Obama presidency.

So when more Americans lose their health care, the PUMAs will be at fault. When the war in Iran launches, the PUMAs will be to blame. And when middle and low class Americans get taxed to death while the rich like McCain himself get boatloads of money back, everyone can thank those “die-hard Hillary supporters” for helping him.

Kudos to ya, Hillary Clinton. I hope the troglodytes refusing to listen to everyone else will at least listen to you.

Honestly now, this is getting absurd.

When I first got sent this article, my first reaction to “McCain pulls ads from anti-Obama website” was the expected one of derision towards McCain himself. But then I actually read the thing (a rare occurrence, I know), and I noticed just what websites exactly were subject to the ad-pulling:

One Web site, called Stop-Obama.org, is a group blog written by disaffected Clinton supporters, some of whom are now supporting McCain. A banner ad featuring McCain standing side-by-side with Joe Lieberman was running on the site until Monday.

A recent post on the blog outlined the “simple parallels” between Obama and Hitler, and accused Obama’s audiences of having the same cult mentality that characterized followers of the German dictator.

McCain’s ads have also shown up on a pro-Clinton Web site named “Obama WTF” that accuses Obama of being “spineless,” having “communist influences,” “courting Jew haters” and being “in the pocket of America haters.”

The only real WTF here is that these Clinton nutters won’t let go of the grudge. Policy-wise they’re pretty similar, and let’s not forget that they’re stumping together now. If Clinton’s supporters really follow the woman, you’d think they’d follow her advice to support Obama. Yet here they are, pouring on the venom.

Unless…

Hey, wait a minute. What if we’re still dealing with Operation Chaos? The goal of the thing wasn’t to have Hillary win the primary. That’s why they didn’t support Clinton until she was way behind, if they thought she’d win it’d ruin the enterprise. Heck, if she was winning OC would probably be pumping Obama.

So the purpose of Operation Chaos wasn’t to have her win. What was it? Right what the name suggests. They just wanted to keep a rift in the Democratic party, and just because the primary’s over doesn’t mean they’re just going to pack up their bags and go home. Obama has just over half of Clinton’s supporters, and frankly that’s not going to be enough. So what better than to be one of those “independent” political groups and wreck the potential unity?

It’s not like the GOP’s never done this before. Let’s not forget the 2004 tactics against Kerry that involved spreading “pro-Kerry” messages intended to make Kerry seem so radical that he’d lose moderate voters. Amongst those tactics were fliers touting Kerry’s promise to ban the Bible and flamingly gay activists marching up voter lines in Florida talking about Kerry’s pledge to support gay adoption. Incredibly dishonest, painfully effective.

Now there’s another opening: keep the grudge from the primary season. Obviously no matter how much Clinton says otherwise, some of her supporters are going to still be bitter about how things went. Chances are, if left alone, they’d just bite the bullet and vote for Obama because, hey, it’s either that or McCain. Get a bunch of lunatic right-wingers to start fanning the flames some more, though, and now mob mentality kicks in and Operation Chaos can actually bring the genuine Clintonites along for the ride.

Mark my words, these are NOT actual Clinton supporters spearheading these efforts. In time it’ll all come out.

You know, there shouldn’t BE a rift in the Democratic party, and half of Clinton’s supporters isn’t an accomplishment. I don’t even blame Hillary, she’s stumping for Obama for all she’s worth. What I don’t get is why her damn supporters won’t follow.

I have no idea how this one slipped under my radar, but it apparently did. Apparently at some point, Hillary decided it would be smart to say that the United States under her watch would “totally obliterate” Iran if they attacked Israel. Unsurprisingly, Iran is not happy with this.

Iran’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, sent a letter of protest on Wednesday to the United Nations secretary general and the Security Council, IRNA said.

Mrs. Clinton made the comments in an interview on ABC last week. “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran,” she said when she was asked what she would do if Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. “In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them,” she added.

Mr. Danesh-Yazdi wrote in the letter that Mrs. Clinton’s comments were “provocative, unwarranted and irresponsible” and “a flagrant violation” of the United Nations charter, IRNA reported.

“I wish to reiterate my government’s position that the Islamic Republic of Iran has no intention to attack any other nation,” the letter said.

That is an absolutely terrifying comment to make, and I am entirely behind Iran on this. You want to know why Iran is pushing for nuclear capabilities? This is why. Last I checked Iran has, not once, said they would attack either Israel or the United States (ignoring the mistranslation bullshit with Ahmadinejad’s comments).

If you ever needed a reason to avoid Hillary as a candidate, you’ve got it. Enjoy.

Now, I’m a Pennsylvania resident, as you know. This means I’m privileged to see some of the most bitter and unhappy campaigning so far in the race. In one commercial break I caught two Hillary commercials and one for Barack Obama. At the 2nd of Clinton’s, something hit me.

Both sides of the Dem battle have agreed that we dislike John McCain. We don’t want McCain to win it no matter what. This is going to give us a bit of a problem because, as much as people are forgetting, this primary season isn’t the end of the race. The day after one of the candidates drop out, we’re all going to have to rally behind the other.

Unfortunately, that attitude hasn’t been fostered too well by, frankly, either of the candidates (Obama’s trying, to his credit). Things are a little on the bitter side, and that’s what struck me. The ads are hard to tell apart from standard campaigning. They’re not playing this like “we’re both Democrats, but I think I’m the better choice”, but instead “I’m a good choice, my opponent was spawned of Satan’s seed.”

This is going to make things pretty damn awkward once the race is set. Either all the Obama people or all the Clinton people are going to have to, overnight, drop all of the anger and rally up behind the other person. Democrats are like cats, we aren’t renowned for our cohesiveness. I’m not worried about the party actually “splitting”, just the lack of foresight.

I didn’t really want to tackle this one, but I live in PA so I figured I should at least touch on it. I caught this article detailing the latest back-and-forth over Barack Obama’s now-famed “bitter” speech, and there was one comment of Hillary’s that I just felt obligated to mention.

“You don’t have to think back too far to remember that good men running for president were viewed as being elitist and out of touch with the values and the lives of millions of Americans,” Clinton added, referring to John Kerry, the defeated 2004 Democratic nominee.

“I think it’s very critical that the Democrats really focus in on this and make it clear that we are not (elitist). We are going to stand up and fight for all Americans,” Clinton said.

There are a few problems with this.

One is that, to anyone who’s actually read the damn thing, he wasn’t being elitist. If anything, Obama was incredibly understanding by pointing out the anger and hurt that Pennsylvania residents have felt over lost jobs and unfulfilled promises. I come from a city that went from a bustling steel town big enough that Germany considered us a military target to an area that looks like it never quite caught up with the passage of time. I know what he’s talking about.

The second is that, to anyone who’s taken a quick glance, the whole “so-and-so is a liberal elitist” debate really screwed the country over. By focusing less on who has the better policies and instead who “I feel like I could drink a beer with,” Americans turned the presidential election into a popularity contest, voting for who they thought was a nicer guy instead of who would do a better job.

Frankly I don’t care how arrogant my politicians are, as long as their policies are to the country’s benefit. And if this stupid little comment hurts his campaign I am going to lose my bitter little mind.

Folks, the time has come to do something I don’t really like to do: play politics.

Look, we know the Republicans are going to play dirty. That’s just how they do things. Even if the GOP will put on an image of keeping their hands clean, we know the hardliners are going to come out with their guns blazing no matter what. Rove may say to avoid attacks on Obama, but it’d be just naive (which I readily admit I was feeling earlier) to think that will stick, and that he won’t do his normal thing of launching vicious attacks while attempting to keep himself clear.

In the past few weeks, my inbox has been bombarded with conservative propaganda. NewsMax has started flooding my box, and my Google page is coated with ads from right-wing hack sites. Right now the right has a massive advantage: they have a candidate and we don’t.

For some reason, most media outlets aren’t calling McCain anything more than the “presumptive” nominee (maybe it’s a safety plan in case Paul springs an upset…), but he’s got it. John McCain is the Republican nominee. As such, the right can now focus their guns on us and attempt to screw things up.

Rush’s little fit about voting for Hillary in Texas, which apparently worked to some degree, has to remind us that Hillary Clinton is a massive lightning rod for the right. There is no politician right now that can rally the ire of conservatives more than Clinton save maybe Ted Kennedy. She’s not the most liberal, but that’s not the point. She is outright reviled by the right, and by a fair amount of the middle as well.

Just as Bush can bring the left together to simply go on a “vote blue no matter what” blitz, Clinton can do that for them. Rush et al may talk about supporting Hillary over McCain, but that’s empty rhetoric from empty heads. As soon as it gets down to McCain and Clinton, you can bet the absolute ugliest attacks imaginable will start.

Not to mention if there’s one thing we’re learning about Clinton, it’s that debates do not serve her well. Every time she and Obama had a debate, he gained a little and she dropped. Combine poor showings in debates and an onslaught of negative attacks and you can bet your ass 2008 is going to shape up to be a painful election for the left. Obama, by contrast, excels in debates and deflects negative ads incredibly well. Note his little back-and-forth with McCain for reference.

All of this might be excusable if she was such a vastly better candidate than Obama. You can give her a little nudge on experience (ugh), and perhaps health care, but by and large there’s no advantage she has that trounces Obama. Even if we accept the rather misleading articles that suggest they’re nearly equal politically, all that means is that the choice between the two comes down to who’s more advantageous in a general election, which goes for Obama.

Rush keeps talking about tearing the party apart, so let’s try something new this time: not playing into their hands. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s time to recognize that Clinton has far too many weaknesses, far too many easy wounds for the right to rip open and pour salt into, to make her a viable candidate.

I hate to make this a “vote whoever” blog as the election season amps up, but at this point I’m genuinely worried that the Dems might shoot themselves in the foot by putting up a candidate who will get demolished by the right-wing machine.