Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with clear premonitions of events that will happen at some point in the future.  My wife calls this "News of the Future," and I've been right often enough that she at least listens patiently before going back to sleep.  Last night the News of the Future was frightening enough that neither of us could get back to sleep.  Yes, last night I woke up with an advance copy of a Hillary Clinton speech lodged in my brain.  

It is a sad commentary on the Katman’s life that he awakens with Hillary Clinton on the brain, but, as many of you know, the Senator has earned her place in my nightmares.

According to my premonition, below the jump is an advance copy of her speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on June 5, 2008.  You will certainly understand why I was not able to get back to sleep after hearing it.

This site is full of diaries calling for an end to the campaign.  The inevitability of Obama's nomination has permeated the reality-based community.  Everyone but Hillary seems to understand she's finished, but she continues on.

There are imprecations to anyone who will listen.  Somebody needs to put a stop to this nightmare:

The superdelegates should rise up and smite down the Clintons.  But the supers aren't monolithic. They've all got their own agendas, and they're not likely to step forward en masse until the primaries are over in June.

The Democratic leadership should tell the superdelegates to move.  But let's tell the truth. The Democratic leadership hasn't been able to stand up to George Bush, let alone the Clintons.

Al Gore and John Edwards should call a meeting and broker an end. Get real. Not going to happen.

So what's the solution?

I'm sitting here in my hotel room in Madrid, eyes bleary from following returns all night.  It certainly didn't go as I'd hoped -- I wanted tonight to be a knockout blow, but it's going to be more like death from attrition.

I've had the benefit of not being able to watch CNN or MSNBC.  All I've got here is a pretty slow Internet connection and my own wits.  

I can't believe all the whiny, defeatist diaries and comments I'm seeing tonight.  Winning an election requires months and months of perseverance.  Sometimes things go really well and you win 11 in a row.  Sometimes you lose a couple.  But all the bandwagon jumpers on this site have got to remember to keep their eyes on the ball.  More below...

The MSM just can't get it right on delegate counts.  Depending on the numbers they use, they've got Obama ahead by a few or Hillary ahead by a few more.

But you can't mix and match on the super delegates.  Early endorsements mean very little, and many of the supers who have not endorsed are holding back waiting to see how this all plays out.  It's really about the voters and who they're choosing.

The facts are pretty simple:

Obama has a pledged delegate lead of about 88 votes.  That number is likely to go up to over 120 tomorrow.  And the MSM meme about Clinton waiting for Texas and Ohio to get even is ridiculous.  More below.

Al Gore will be the keynote speaker at Joint Venture: Silicon Valley's annual State of the Valley Conference at the McEnery Center in San Jose on Friday, Febrary 2.  The event is Joint Venture's annual report card on the health of the Valley's economy and quality of life.

Gore's speech will be on "Thinking Green: Economic Strategy for the 21st Century."  The event is CLOSED to the press, but enterprising bloggers may want to cover it.

More on Joint Venture and the event below, but the program includes a who's who of Valley luminaries from the public and private sectors.  It's a bit pricey, but full of information not available elsewhere.

Register for the Conference

Kentucky

Bunning Tries to Avoid Late Collapse in Kentucky Senate race
AP, October 25

This time, the Kentucky Republican's problem has been a series of embarrassing gaffes that have eroded his lead over Democratic long-shot challenger Daniel Mongiardo to 6 percentage points and produced editorials questioning whether Bunning, at 73, is mentally fit. First, he compared Mongiardo's appearance to one of Saddam Hussein's sons. Then he made an unsubstantiated claim that opposition staffers beat his wife "black and blue" at a political picnic. Most recently, he admitted he wasn't aware that a group of Army reservists had refused a convoy mission in Iraq, saying he watches only Fox News for information and hasn't read a newspaper in six weeks.

More states below the fold