so long as the Clintons continues their scortched earth campaign. I'm ok with her staying in the race, but without going negative. When she stops doing that, the healing can begin. But not before. It makes no sense for him to reach out his hand until they stop this. And yes, I fully well realize that this SEEMS to contradict his "unity" and "reach out to the other side" rhetoric, but what people failed to realized about that is that he meant reaching out to and possibly uniting with people on the other side who are READY to be reached out to and unite with us, and who are prepared to abandon Rovian-style politics. He never meant that he'd reach out to people who won't play fair. And until the Clintons do, he's not going to do any reaching out. It would be pointless, stupid, and a sign of weakness (which the Clintons would no doubt pounce upon--they are sharks and anyone who doesn't see this is naive).

And in any case, it's not the campaign itself that needs to be reached out to, but her supporters. Some of them have acted awfully, but most are, I'm sure, simply loyal, and hurt. And sure he'll need to reach out to them--and will. And most will come around eventually, I believe. Of course, if she tells them to not make peace with Obama as some sort of ransom to extract conditions from him, then all bets are off. When you lose, you LOSE. I'm not saying that he shouldn't and won't cut some deals in the end to make everyone happy. But on his terms, not hers. Presumptive presidents make deals, they don't have them dictated to them. He'd just appear weak and hurt himself in the general otherwise. He can't be seen as a provisional nominee who needs her support to win. He needs to make it clear that he's the leader of the party, not the shared leader.

I suspect, though, that she'll try to cut some deal with him, and be foolish enough to be too adamant about. She's a smart policymaker, but a terrible politician, and tends to overplay her hand, and do so poorly. She's clumsy, inartful and tone deaf, and tends to overestimate her strengths (a sign of insecurity and political tone deafness, IMO). He can't let her succeed in this. Not out of vanity or foolish pride, but to lay down the law and let everyone know that he's the one and only nominee, and will not have terms dictated to him. Only then can any healing begin. He'd be a lot weaker against McCain if he caved to any such demands from Clinton and looked weak, than he would with some of her supporters refusing to support him if he stood his ground.

I hate to say it, but Hillary's set herself up to be this year's Sister Souljah. And don't think for a second that he won't do to her what Bill did to the original back in '92. He will. He'll have to, if she forces him. Successful politics is about strength before it's about compassion. Always has been, always will be. But if we'll need healing, sure, fine. But only on his terms. That's the way it'll have to be.

is a miserable choice because it looks like he'll just be an extension of what we have now.  However, not everyone is a Democrat, and the mud slinging between Clinton and Obama is making those voters uneasy.  They're both flawed and both damaged.  The trick is to get the rest of us to see that McCain is even worse.  It's too bad we have another election where non Democrats are faced with the lesser of two evils.  The most important thing  we need to remember is that any congressional or senate seats up for grabs MUST be won by ANYONE but a Republican.  We might survive a Republican Pres, but not a Republican House and Senate.

Has Clinton conceeded and I missed it?

Should Obama go public with an offer to make her Majority Leader?

BTW, do President elects have authority to choose Majority Leader?

As much as I'd like to see Obama extend an olive branch to the loosers, they're tuned into a different wavelength at this momemnt.

Huh? I thought the Clinton side was supposed to be the tough one--especially at 3am.