I can't believe that Handy beat me to this, but he just copped out with a link... I've taken a couple days to stew on this, and I've decided just how mad I am about this... After over a year of campaigning, Barack Obama finally sealed up the Democratic nomination for President. I can't begin to express how excited and proud I was to support him and I find great validation in his success.

Having said that there seemed to be but one person in America who didn't realize that he had won, someone who, perhaps, it should have been most obvious to: ol' Hilldawg Clinton herself.

Weeks ago Obama established a majority in the race for committed delegates. Graceful point of exit for Hillary's somewhat misguided and self-serving campaign, no? Apparently not.

On Tuesday, Obama crossed the delegate threshold for earning the Democratic nomination for president, but still, Hill couldn't bring herself to admit that she'd lost. It is beyond dispute, she cannot win under any legitimate circumstances, yet could not find the grace and intelligence to call it quits, not even for her party and her nation. In fact, she had the nerve to intimate that staying in the race was somehow better for party unity. Instead of conceding for the good of the Democratic Party, she said, and I quote, "Now the question is, where do we go from here, and given how far we've come and where we need to go as a party, it's a question I don't take lightly. This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight." There's no deciding, the Democrats of America decided for you; you lost, it just wasn't in the cards, even though you treated yourself as inevitable from the very beginning, and to be fair and honest, most people treated you the same way, so maybe not your fault, just maybe.

She even felt the need to throw in a 9/11 reference just to keep up with the en vogue politics of fear that the Republicans practice so well. Her speech, much like a majority of her candidacy, was duplicitous and utterly self-serving. It made me sick.

Obama's victory speech, while clearly intended to be a response to a consession speech, gave me the goosebumps. I thought he started soft, but was quite gracious to Hillary Clinton, giving her the credit she richly deserves (While I may seem inherently partisan in this conversation, a stance I won't deny, you have to give credit where it is due, you don't get to run for President by accident, you have to be a good politician if nothing else).

While his praise for Clinton was effusive, he then turned his sights on John McCain. With 20,000 inside the XCel Energy Center, and a further 15,000 outside, Obama stood on the same stage that will feature McCain's nomination and announced with a loud shot across the bow, that he was coming for him. By far the highlight was this quip, showing McCain that he's not afraid to play rough: "John McCain has spent a lot of time talking about trips to Iraq in the last few weeks, but maybe if he spent some time taking trips to the cities and towns that have been hardest hit by this economy—cities in Michigan, and Ohio, and right here in Minnesota—he'd understand the kind of change that people are looking for."

Two words: Oh. Snap.

Now, since I first started this post, Clinton has announced that she would suspend her campaign on Saturday. Two problems with this. One: Why wait so long? You lost on Tuesday, it ended then, you just don't get it. Two: Why suspend and not end? Do you need the vindication of people voting for you at the nominating convention, and thereby dragging out the process? Childish at best, dreadfully irresponsible at worst.

To weigh in on the Obama/Clinton "Dream Ticket," I'm not sure I care for Clinton to be the VP anymore. I think she guarantees Obama the presidency, but I think she blew it on Tuesday. While I would welcome whatever will help the Democrats retake the White House, I think Obama should look long and hard at people like Virginia's Jim Webb, and even Big Ed Rendell. If he plays his cards right, Obama can have this thing sewed up by my birthday.

Looks like things are going to be getting exciting... I'll try to keep up with all the fun right here, it's going to be a fun ride.

UPDATE: Text of the Obama speech, with one of the massively spine tingling moments:
"Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth."

UPDATE #2: Since I'm still all hot and bothered about this, here's the kind of speech we could/should have heard from Hillary on Tuesday, courtesy of none other than Ted Kennedy himself, circa 1980. Say what you will about him as a person, he is a consummate politician and this speech is one of my favorites of all time. I mean, the man was a raging alcoholic at the time and still manages to get through a Tennyson quote at the end. Simply amazing.

"For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."