John Hodgman, known popularly as the PC guy in those Mac ads, is actually a great writer who makes some great points re: Clinton's refusal to exit gracefully from the race. Sadly, Bill and Hillary Clinton have come to embody everything I distrusted and disliked about the Republican (or any other major) Party. They are overly aggressive, dishonest and ruthless. Those videos floating around of Hillary supporters vowing to vote for McCain only solidify the choice I made many months ago.

IT IS NOT THAT I DIDN'T expect her to be tenacious. But I think anyone who gives it real and measured thought must conclude that she overplayed her hand.

TO VIGOROUSLY OPPOSE and even undermine your Democratic opponent in the heat of a hard fought primary contest is one thing.

...TO WITHHOLD her support, as she did last night, and indeed to actually undermine his legitimacy in public is pretty poor form in itself.

BUT IF SHE REALLY IS SEEKING TO LEVERAGE HER VOTERS against a VP slot, or some other prize, how is openly blackmailing her own party's nominee going to help her?

...IRONICALLY, (actually ironically), if she had held her cards a bit longer--if she had conceded and congratulated and endorsed Obama last night, she would have looked great. She could have easily conducted the same negotiations behind the scenes in private, and arguably from a much stronger position.

AS SUSANNAH MEADOWS knows all too well from my rantings yesterday in the park, as of 24 hours ago, I was even feeling that, should Clinton make a graceful exit, adding her to the ticket would be unavoidable, appropriate, and smart.

NOW, HOWEVER, I think caving to her open bullying would be disastrous to an Obama campaign and presidency.

Read the rest of the article here. It is well-written and 100% correct.

I realize that Obama is not the antithesis of modern politics as we know it. That the two party system is inherently undemocratic and corrupt. But he is the first viable alternative to the status quo that we've had available to us in a long time and I'm happy to support this step forward.

Labels: obama, politics