Is It Over?

All indicators say it is. My favorite is Bill saying yesterday in a speech that today (yesterday) might be the last day he ever campaigns like this. That can only mean that Hillary is giving up. The disturbing part is that sounds like he ISN'T going to be campaigning for Obama but considering the results of his campaign for Hillary it might be better if he sits it out for a while. It's sad that the only thing he has succeeded in doing is tarnish his own reputation.

The strongest indicator is the fact that she is dismissing her campaign staff. She is heading back to New York, has a speech scheduled for tonight and she has told all her top supporters (which means the ones with money) to be there. She has offered her staff a plane ticket that can either take them home or to New York to what looks to be a big party. If they do go to New York, however, they then have to pay their way home themselves. All are supposed to go home and await further, if any, instructions and to get all their expense reports in by Friday.

There is simply no other way to interpret that except that it's over. We will see tonight.

I have to say that now that it seems over a great deal of my animosity toward her is passing, hopefully all animosity on both sides will fade away as well and we will have a united Democratic party. Some of her supporters have proven to be downright scary. They all seem to be white women in their 50's and 60's and they are raging like it's the end of the world. They are accusing the media and the Democratic party of lying and cheating to push her out of the race when the truth is Hillary is the one who has lied extensively and is still lying today when she says she has the popular vote. The level of anger is just plain weird, and it seems that those who say they will not vote for Obama in November aren't mad at him or even think he's a bad candidate they are just too angry about Hillary not getting the nomination.

It seems to me that all these women see Hillary as themselves and are angry not at this election but at all the indignities they have suffered in their lives. Make no mistake about it, misogyny is alive and well and in my opinion is worse than racism in this country. And this generation of women have it especially hard because they grew up in a time where it looked like women would gain equal rights at last but didn't experience those rights themselves because these things take time. The generations that follow them are having an easier time of it. I think it's a lifetime of anger coming out right now and it's hard to find fault in that. Hell, they should be angry but they shouldn't displace that anger and put it all into this primary.

Barack has been nothing but respectful to Hillary. There were numerous opportunities he had to attack her the way she did him but he refrained. The last few weeks he has done nothing but praise her as a terrific campaigner and public servant. I've actually been a little pissed off that he didn't fight back harder against all the bullshit Hillary was throwing out but the most he would do is correct her when she was lying and not even say she was lying. One black guy called in to the Ed Schultz show and said Obama is doing that because a black man attacking a white woman is a HUGE taboo. I was kind of stunned to hear that but on reflection he might be right. Add to that the fact that the Clintons are highly respected in the democratic party and still wield a lot of power, so he didn't want to antagonize anyone too much. Fortunately, he seems to have no reluctance to attack McCain.

And hopefully we can all turn to the business of attacking McCain after tomorrow. I think a lot of the Super Delegates will come out for Obama after today's primaries tonight or tomorrow morning.