In the Eisenhower years, the '50s, fewer women graduated from college than in the '20s.  I think Obama might have done better to stay home to watch the speech with his daughters, so they could be -- as he claimed they would be -- inspired by Clinton.

Democrat Hillary Clinton says she might include Republicans in her cabinet if she is elected US president, on the eve of a crucial primary against rival Barack Obama in Pennsylvania.

"I'm going to reach out to Republicans, all kinds of Republicans, because I think it's important that we try to have a bipartisan foreign policy," she said on CNN's Larry King Live.

On a broader note, exactly how do you expect a progressive agenda to be enacted through "postpartisan/bipartisan" means? Isn't that simply taking Bill Clinton's alleged "triangulation" to new heights, under curcimstances that should be far more auscpicious for Dems than the 1990s? Isn't that whole mindset (the brave new era of "bipartisanship" in the wake of the 2000 election and 9/11 exactly what led big-league Obama backer Wee Tommie Daschle to steamroller the Iraq resolution through the Senate, when Democrats had a majority?

If Obama can hypnotize troglodyte Oklahoma Republican Jim Inhofe into supporting legislation to combat global warming, then I'm all for it.

WASHINGTON - For many years, whenever a Republican senator looked for a Democrat to cosponsor a bill, one name popped immediately to mind - Hillary Clinton, according to South Carolina's senior senator, Lindsey Graham.

Collegial and quietly diligent, Clinton could be counted on to exhaustively work a bill through and cultivate support from both parties, according to numerous senators and aides interviewed by the Globe.

Boston Globe

And fer gawd's sake she is a member of the arch conservative GOP organization called the Fellowship. Guess you missed that one too.

Lieberman's public image as a "moderate" has always been rooted more in fiction than in reality. Lieberman's voting record indicates affinity and support for traditional left-wing causes. Indeed, Lieberman's voting record is in line with the likes of such liberal stalwarts as Dianne Feinstein, Hillary Clinton, and Ted Kennedy. Lieberman received a 0% rating from the American Conservative Union in 2004 (Feinstein's voting record was actually slightly more conservative than Lieberman's in 2004 and 2005 according to the ACU).

link

Hmm . . . methinks we have a racist here, under the current, rather loose definition. </snark>

I assume then, that you place more weight on Obama's consistent failure to vote in favor of cutting off funding for the war than for his six-year old speech opposing it? Isn't that the ultimate contraction between words and actions?

I like passionate, independent voices. That's what was here before the primary, that's what you'll find during the campaign and that's what'll be here afterwards.

I fear there will be much to criticize--constructively or snarkily, but there.

We need to stick together to try to make sure an Obama presidency, should there be one, will do the things we think are important. Like real actual universal healthcare. I cannot think of a time in our nation when it is more important than right now.

Recall the Bill Kristol, then chief of staff to VP Quayle, wrote a memo to the Repubs saying that it was existentially important that they deny Clinton his ability to enact healthcare legislation, that if it happened the Dems would be in power for the next few decades.  It would fulfill the promise of FDR for the Four Freedoms

With the help of Big HealthCo, the R's denied Clinton his healthcare promise to Americans.

Initially business seemed to realize that universal healthcare would benefit their bottom line, but they turned, for whatever reasons.

Now, I think, business has internalized the fact that having to pay separtely for healthcare insurance without real bargaining power is undermining profitability for both Big Biz and small biz.

What we need to do is get Obama on board, rein in his tendency to schmooze Big Biz and Big Money. For that reason, I see Hillary in the Senate as better than Hillary as VP.

I respect what Jeralyn does here too much to be disruptive. And I fear I would be.

Well .. tell you what, if Obama fanatics doubt her sincerity then I WILL make your wish come true by NOT supporting Obama, cause that is what YOU are trying to STILL imply that she is NOT sincere.

I will vote the undercard and let Obama's supporters deal with the top spot. And I will let them deal with the introduction of the Chicago machine into national politics. If they think DC is sleazy now, just wait until the boys from Chicago roll into town. Even the snowplows won't be able to clear the sludge out of the Capitol. That, of course, is assuming Obama wins, which is very unlikely. He has alienated too many people. Way too many people.

I'd probably lose half of what's left.

Thank you Jeralyn and BTD for your thoughtful and serious posts and for offering me a space to express my views.

I am saddened by this entire primary process, and am no longer identifying myself as a Democrat. I may again in the future - it's up to the party. I can't condone the behavior of the DNC and I am not okay with allowing the MSM to select our candidate.

That said, no one, save Barack Obama, can convince me to vote for him - not the media, not the blogs, not my family (though none of them are voting for him). He has a few months and an admittedly resistant audience (me).

All the best to everyone here at TL.

I'll come lurking again if any big legal events create a non-stop media discussion, but I cannot deal with irrational support of the democratic version of GWB.

What I would hope from Jeralyn and BTD is something like very liberal rules for making a substantive argument for or against Senator Obama, but calling out the explicitly and viciously racist, sexist, and misogynistic bilge coming out of certain, ahem, Quarters, for exactly what it is.

Have I mentioned that the coming campaign of character assassination against Michelle O. could well be unlike anything we've ever seen, given the potential for combining racist and sexist tropes --- could make the sexism and misogyny launched at Hillary look tame, and not because what she had to endure was anything but deplorable and inexcusable?

Like I said before, look...yeah, I didn't support Hillary in the Primary, but give the woman some credit where it's due. You can't just expect her to deliver a speech like that on Tuesday, after the longest, most brutal primary ever in History. I thought it was unreasonable for people to expert her  to turn around and endorse Obama on Tuesday.

I look forward to reading your commentary on the campaign trail and beyond, though I'll be bloviating and ranting less. (Unbought, Unbossed Independence does that: I feel like I'm not "owned" and I don't owe.)

This has been a difficult and divisive campaign and there are hard feelings on both sides.  For me as a Clinton supporter, it felt like a GE campaign, except my candidate was treated like a republican, which is a novel experience for me.  (I think I learned a bit about what people mean when they talk about some democrats' "elitism".)  Hopefully time will heal these wounds.

This is a serious question, and I'm not trying to be snarky.  Try to imagine an ongoing portion of the campaign being Clinton working very publicly to help Obama, and having a much, much greater effect on the outcome than whoever Obama picks for the VP slot.  

She is obviously the best choice for VP.  As Wolfson said the other day, it is all Obama's decision.  Wolfie must have known how awesome she was going to be today.

That's not on the 18 million voters who supported Sen Clinton, that's not on women, that's not on any one sector that believes everyone has the right to constitutional protection: including three fair, transparent arms of govt.

Whoever gets the White House, this is on Congress. No SCOTUS guilt here; no bullying or guilting me will ever work on me. I did my bit.

Now they are saying that Obama is the first progressive since 1968! Okay so that's why I can't support Obama. I can't endorse the revisionism that goes on in his name.

He just doesn't have the fighting spirit that Dems need to win the White House.

I will vote for him, I guess.  But I hope, as Hillary did in the primaries, that Obama will find his voice in the general.

And that I can be happy to cast my vote on his behalf.

I am one of those who will bid TL a fond farewell.  I may lurk from time to time but my convictions are not up for grabs.  The primary season was just too much for this former yellow dog.

I would also like to thank ALL my new comment-friends I made along the way here at TL who have been kind enough to visit my blog and/or email me.
It was my pleasure to be part of a thoughtful and engaging crowd.  I am also a proud supporter of Talk Left financially.  I only give my money to things that I believe in:  and I believe in this weblog.

Cheers to all.  Good luck to all candidates in the GE.

As I mentioned a few days ago, this is the first election in some time where I wasn't able to set aside my lukewarm feelings for the candidate, and focus and advocate for the bigger picture that was the Democratic party.  Yes, I know those ideals that Dems are supposed to stand for should be a reason to get behind the candidate the party has propelled, manipulated, cheated and shoved down our collective throats, but I'm just not feelin' it.

I would love to see some posting here on what needs to be done within the party, with the primary system, the caucus debacle, etc.

Right now I'm still angry enough over the way Hillary Clinton was treated that I remain highly disaffected from the party and its presumptive nominee.

Moreover, what makes us think this misogyny in the media and our party will go away if we do nothing, sit back and say, "sure sweetie, we'll vote for you."  That overt sexism and deeply held misogyny will simply recede back into the recesses of Olbermann's rotten heart, waiting to surface in 2012 in its most vicious of forms against Hillary, should she run again.  But it will also wait, again to surface against any woman who dares to step out of her place.  It won't need to be so vicious against this hypothetical woman, whoever she may be, instead it will be a more gentle form along these lines: "well, if Hillary was rejected by the American people, what makes you think you will be acceptable as CIC (or whatever)?"  No woman will ever again (at least not in my lifetime) have the unique set of talents, experience and fortitude that allowed Hillary to get this close.  The women to follow won't be savaged -- they won't need to be -- they'll be scoffed at.

Women, if we are going to make a stand to save our democratic party, it must be now.  We must reject the candidate the DNC foisted upon us, and do it with the same vigor and determination Hillary has shown.  If we do not, if we just return to that metaphorical coffee pot and ask Obama: "sugar or cream?," we will have lost our voice for generations, just as our foremothers did in 1872 when they did not insist, loudly and firmly: "yes, absolutely, the right to vote for black men, but the right to vote for us too."  

Susan B. Anthony said it well when she asked "how can any woman support a party that does not support her self?" Indeed.  Those words resonate today just as strongly.  We must fix our party now by rejecting it's current guise or we will be stuck at the back of that ever more crowded bottom of the bus for generations to come.

I have truly enjoyed lurking here for many months, and commenting these past few days.  Thanks you Jeralyn for a marvelous site, and thank you, too, BTD, for being the sole comprehensible Obama supporter I have heard.  I will stay and participate as this turns into a democratic party blog unless asked to leave, which then I will do with what I can only hope will approach even a fraction of the grace my Hillary showed today.

I will not vote for Obama and will not lift a finger to support him, and ever speak in his favour... I never thought I'd feel this way about a Democrat.

as the putative leader of my former party, it's up to Obama now to bring the party together. if he can't do it good luck getting anything done after November.

IMO, these Obamabots are basically Limbaugh dittoheads 2.0. their MO is the same-shout down, insult, slur anyone with a different opinion. one of the reasons I'm not on the Obama train.

I guess that these are the new people that he has brought into the party-you know, the ones that Brazile felt could replace the bitter typical white women like me still clinging to the idea that the Democratic Party still stood for something. his first test of leadership is gonna be to rein in these peopl