After reading through the various diaries tonight, my (almost) ulcer is threatening to become full-blown. Again. I just sent the following letter in one form or another to Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer (my senators). It's time for them to show some leadership and help end the Clinton nightmare.
Dear Ms. Pelosi,
I am writing to urge you to lead the remaining undeclared superdelegates to declare for Obama now rather than later in an effort to bring an end to the psychodrama that continues to unfold in our primary race.
Although I have been an Obama supporter from the first time I heard him speak at the convention, I originally thought Hillary had a lock on the nomination and figured I could vote for her -- not with enthusiasm maybe, but certainly over any Republican that was running. (I am a former Republican, 50-something white female from Southern California who changed registration years ago to uncommitted.) However, along the way, during the course of this campaign, I have lost all respect I had for her and I cannot tell you how sick I am with the way her campaign has been run. She can blame it on whatever, but she is the one responsible for the conduct of her campaign and the decisions that have been made along the way, as Barack is also responsible for his own campaign.
In any event, I have been supportive of letting this primary season play itself out. I felt that as long as she did not continue to tear Barack down and work to defeat him that she should be allowed to make her decision to exit the race with grace and dignity, which is, I believe, the way Barack has been handling the situation. We do need to come together as a party, the sooner the better. However, given her recent behavior and the things that she and her surrogates are saying loudly and clearly to whomever will give them a listen, it appears that she is not going to bow out gracefully or any other way. As long as she continues to stir up her supporters and tells them that she is going to win, how unfair everyone has been to her and how abused she has been, etc., etc., the longer this drama will go on and the harder it will be to bring them into the fold. She should, in my humble opinion, be using this time to ease the transition, not to feed the delusions of her supporters. Unless, of course, the superdelegates would actually decide to "select" (apparently the Clinton word of the day) her over Obama and over the votes of all Barack's supporters, over the votes of all the young ones he has energized and all of us older ones who have found hope and inspiration again in the political process.
Again, I urge you to lead our party in our task of uniting behind and around the most exciting candidate for President in my lifetime.