On Hillary.

I think the rabidly Hillary crowd is endangering the progress that women have made in politics over the last 50 years. I think it's sad, but it's true. The longer that this increasingly heated schism goes on, the more Republicans are going to say, "Look at those women. They just don't know how to lose. They're spoiled and will hold their breath until they get their own way." Now before we start shouting let me just clarify the following.

• I know that all Hillary supporters aren't women.
• I know Hillary isn't the one roiling the water.
  
• and, I know that all Republicans aren't that simple minded.

With those things being said, I am increasingly concerned about the picture that is being spun. We find ourselves awash in blogs and opinion pages demanding that Hillary's name be kept on the ballot next week. These individuals seem to be huffing and puffing and can be accurately compared to the little kid who doesn't get picked for the team so he takes his ball and goes home. It's distressing to see this from the Democrats. But more than that, we're creating an image that the next serious female presidential candidate(perhaps Hillary herself) will have to overcome. Like it or not, people are going to remember this campaign as the first time a woman had a serious chance to win the Presidency and the Dems. run the risk of forever pigeonholing female candidates as week and unable to come to terms with reality.

For the record, I don't believe that...It's just how this will get spun.

I'm a supporter of Hillary's. I have been for a long time. She has battled for more good and survived more scarring than any human should be expected to. She's been demonized by the right for being too strong of a woman. She fought a soul shattering battle for universal health care. She lived through humiliation and disappointment and survived it all to become one of the greatest Senators of her generation. I am a big supporter of hers.

But, I'm also a supporter of Obama. I believe his energy and passion is exactly what our country needs after four years of ruination and political venom from the Republicans. He makes us want to believe in America again. In what we all can accomplish and build together. He has a long history of on the ground community organizing, getting real and palpable results for the people he helped. He brings a history of curiosity and gravitas to the office that hasn't been seen in generations. He is what Bobby Kennedy could have been.

I chose Obama because I needed something to inspire me again. It had nothing to do with race or gender. It's just that he does what a great person ought to do, inspire you to view the world in a different way and believe that you can make a difference.

But honestly. Here's what bothers me.
There are more important things at stake than bruised ego's and paradigm shifts. The next four years is going to see unprecedented challenges and equally unprecedented opportunity. Chances are, the next four years will see the departure of at least one Supreme Court Justice, and we will face locking in the court that will serve us for a generation. Do we want to risk Roe? Rights to Privacy? A President who will further Americas recent reputation as an intractable warlord?

The answer to all of that no.

It's time for us to all grow up. I'd say the same thing if Hillary had won. We need to see the next four years as an opportunity to fulfill the best of what America can be.

America, and I say this with full knowledge of how sappy it sounds, is the greatest experiment the modern world has ever known. It is based on using the greatest parts of each of its citizens to empower those whose voices are lost in the fray. We have not only the chance, but the duty to live up to this dream.

It's time for us to realize the responsibilities to ourselves, to our people and to our future.

Let's grow up and get to work.

Obama/Biden