Last night should have been a big night for Obama. He could officially declare that he has won a majority of the pledged delegates awarded during the primary season. That's fantastic news, as it essentially means he cannot lose unless all the superdelegates flock to Hillary in the next few weeks (which is incredibly unlikely when you look at the fact that he has gained an average of about 4 a day to Clinton's usual 0-1). But I wasn't very excited or happy last night when he reached that milestone.
I'll explain my personal reasons for being unhappy below the fold.
It may be because Hillary is not allowing him to have his moment. By staying in, she throws a wet blanket over any good news that comes his way by her comments, speeches, surrogates, etc. I guess she feels it is justifiable since he stole her moment. After all, she was to be the nominee of the Democratic party before the primaries even began. The votes were merely a formality as nearly everyone (including the media that she claims is biased against her) knew that Hillary Clinton was to be "the one." Because of this, maybe she's staying in to ruin his moment. I think deep down she knows she cannot win, but obviously I can't know that for sure. She's a very intelligent woman and didn't get this far by ignoring facts (though I'm sure some would disagree with this statement, I guess). She knows that all the superdelegates will not come to her rescue, and she even knows that if you add in Florida and Michigan according to her own rules she still will not overtake him in the delegate count, including both pledged and super. But by staying in, she is preventing Obama from having his "moment" and allowing him to begin the process of uniting the Democratic party behind his candidacy. That brings me to another reason why I am not as happy as I could be: her supporters.
The campaign has already begun on blogs, etc. across the internets and even through her supporters on TV to delegitimize Obama's likely nomination. By citing the popular vote, (which many of us here know is a very flimsy metric because of the mix of caucuses, closed/open/semi open primaries, and the fact that no matter how many times you said Michigan and Florida were legitimate elections, they were not) they have planted the seeds needed to make Obama's win seem like it was unearned, which makes me incredibly unhappy. Don't do that to me and the millions of Obama's supporters. This nomination is won by delegates, which is the same way your own husband, Bill, gained the nomination. These rules have been set for years. You knew them going in. You know the popular vote total is not an approved or official metric, yet you continue to use it as though it is the deciding factor and delegates are secondary. If I feel that you have sabotaged Obama's nomination in any way I will absolutely never forgive you. Obama has brought so many new voters into the Democratic party (myself, a 20 year old, included), and the fact that you are so selfishly attempting to bring Obama down or somehow insinuate that he is not the choice of the Democratic party is unbelievably shameful, hurtful, and disgraceful.
I am hopeful that this will end amicably, but each day you carry on the way you have that hope grows more and more dim. I am afraid you are creating a rift between Obama supporters and your own that will not heal as well as if you had ended this earlier and been more civil throughout the campaign. If any one group of people were to dislike a candidate, it would be Obama supporters disliking you. You have insulted is, from your "Facebook voters" comments to "hard-working whites." Obama has never given your supporters any reason to hate him, yet more of your voters say they will not vote for Obama than Obama's say about voting for you.
Maybe all this worrying is pointless and I just need to relax and be happy, but I'm finding it hard to. Hopefully I just needed to vent a little bit, as the amount of lies and spin that have emanated from Hillary's campaign has led me to the point of explosion. If that's the case, I thank you for indulging me in this moment of expression and leave you with a little poll.