The Triangle Snaps Shut, At Last

Oh how I've longed for this day. Ever since primary season started and I decided that I'd rather have an optimist than a revenge-bent fearmonger for my candidate. I've been hoping that Obama could pick up enough delegates to win the nomination. And now, at long last, he has.

Dude's not president yet. And we are Democrats, so even though the current president sports historically low popularity and his presumptive successor proudly boasts of wanting to continue almost all his policies, we could still blow it in a big way. If we've learned anything this year it's that you can't take sure things for granted.

I'll be interested to see how this affects the polls. As you know, rightside bloggers have boasted for half a year that McCain was polling higher than either Democrat. Now that there is only one Democrat, that will probably change no?

Something we won't know until November is how many people were bluffing during the primaries. Ann Coulter famously said that if McCain wins the nomination, she was going to vote for Hillary. Presumably now she would have to simply not vote. Assuming that she's allowed to vote at all after the last time. We also have the legion of Hillary supporters who claim they're going to vote for McCain rather than Obama. Some probably will. Some, like Amanda Peyser of the New York Post, clearly have always hated Hillary but still claim they were going to vote for her. Sure, Amanda.

There is no question that the right was pushing for a second Clinton candidacy, and now they're angry and frustrated. They didn't get the person they wanted on either side! How does a depressed attack dog behave? Stay tuned.

Whither Hillary? My hope is she'll put her skills to good use, and by skills I mean dirty politics, skullduggery and thirst for vengence. And most importantly, I hope she'll apply them to McCain and Co, not Obama. After all, Obama has only tormented her for one year; the Republicans have grinding away since 1992. Hillary Clinton could be our party's Karl Rove; if that's overreaching then she at least could be our party's Dick Morris. (I know, but that was then. This is now.)

Ironic, isn't it? We start the race earlier and earlier, and when we come down to the finalists they only get 6 months at each other. Think of all the money we could have saved! No, I have no idea how to fix that one. All I do know is that it's rapidly becoming a country where every candidate is either on the side of the corporations, or the trial lawyers and unions, because they're payin' for all the advertisin'. Which means that no matter who loses, TV networks win. Hmmm... I'm going to give this some thought.