Update: Well, this is certainly not the way I hoped to get my first ever diary on the rec list, but thanks to the many CLASSY Obama supporters for your thoughtful comments. Your's is a team I can be a player on. S.L.
I'm a Hillary Clinton supporter. Around here lately I've felt that that makes me a substandard democrat....a triangulator, an ideologically impure progressive. To those of you who hold that opinion....I still disagree strongly with you. But, you win....Barack will get my support from here on out.
I have not changed my opinion of who would be the most effective president, and I'm not angry over something Hillary's campaign said or did...at least not enough for that to be the reason I'm jumping ship. No, I have come to this very difficult decision because I'm ready for progressives to be on the same side again. I don't think Hillary will give up unless she loses two of the upcoming 3 big states. I think she is well within her rights to win the nomination with super-delegates, as the rules clearly say she can....but I don't think it would be in the long term interest of our party for that to happen. I also think that it's incredibly UNLIKELY that Obama would accept a VP nod from her under those circumstances. So, you win Barack....I hope you are as good as you say you are.
On a personal note I must say, in my life time there has only been one president who ever made a positive difference in my life and my family's lives....that president was Bill Clinton. My dad opened a small retail business in rural Nebraska in 1980, and by the late 80's Reaganomics had destroyed the town, and he was up to his eyeballs in debt at outrageous interest rates just to keep the business afloat. We ran a going out of business sale and moved to a larger town 150 miles to the east of where I was born and Dad reopened. Between 1993 and 2001, the economy started to work again....meaning, it was a fair playing field again for the majority of people. Dad payed off all of his business debt during those years and saved what he could for retirement. Then George W. Bush was elected and within 3 years we were back in a trickle-down cluster-fuck economy. This time, we just got out before we went into debt again. Since then both he and I had to enter new fields of business, which is fine, but he and my mom are not ready to retire....and won't be for some time even though they are 60 years old.
So, as I look back at my 30 years of life, that 8 year period in the 90's is what I remember most fondly....my dad didn't just dig himself out of a hole; he reestablished his personal dignity. He proved to himself that he could make it, in fact thrive as a business owner. He didn't want handouts and pitty....he wanted a fair playing field. Bill Clinton gave that to him.
So, for all of you whose new favorite hobby is to talk about how corrupt and evil the Clintons are, you might consider for 5 minutes that a HELL of a lot of people's lives got better as a result of their work in conditions that I could hardly call ideal. I believe in my heart that Hillary Clinton would be a phenomenal president, and coming from a family with more women than men, I would love nothing more than to see the first woman get elected. But her campaign screwed up and didn't build a 50 state strategy and it has cost them. I don't want democrats to fight with democrats for the next 6 months....and I don't want people to feel like the democratic nomination was stolen. At this point I belive that the most important thing for our party is for someone to establish the clear support to seal up the nomination and do it quickly....and I belive that Barack Obama is the only one in a true position to do it now. I pray to my God that he will be able to deliver the change he talks so elequently about....because at this point he has set himself up to either be a knight in shining armor or a complete failure....nothing in between. I guess I'm going to have to give in to the "Audacity of Hope" this time. Hillary, I will always love you and your husband for everything you did for my family and my country....please continue to fight the good fight in New York.
Respectfully,
Steve