Our greatest strength as Democrats is our greatest weakness:  independent thought and passion.

As a rag-tag group of independent thinkers, it is so very hard for us all to get on the same page.  We are each passionate--PASSIONATE!--about our personal issues and find ourselves sometimes unwilling to bend even in a discussion within our own party, let alone on the national stage.  Republicans have this figured out, they get in line and move on.  Whoever has the most votes carries the day (even if you have to get the US Supreme Court involved).  That's why, even with smaller demographics, they can still win elections.

Because they stick together better than we do.  Because they don't have our annoying penchant for independent thought and passion.

And 2008 is no exception.  Remember when John McCain was going to be the death of the Republican party?  Remember when Clinton and Obama were each capable of trouncing McCain in a runaway?  That may yet be true--we'll see in November--but what we KNOW is true is that the GOP got in line behind McCain (like him, love him, hate him) while some Democrats are drawing lines in the sand across which their votes will not cross.

Even when it's clear who our nominee is going to be.

Our first and second best choices are far, far superior to their best!

And yet, it doesn't seem so.  At least, not here at MyDD, where some seem to still be suffering the delusion that somehow Hillary will pull a bunny out of her hat (that, or a new single bullet theory will manifest itself).  It is a very curious phenomenon, the notion that states sanctioned for conducting their votes out of turn will suddenly have bestowed upon them determinative powers in the Democratic nomination battle.  This is one bunny that ain't comin' out to play.

I shake my head at some of what I read, all the backtracking, all the goalpost moving, the stubborn insistence that this thing isn't over.  Maybe it's not--maybe it's still a very close race--and maybe, just maybe, I'm half as brilliant as my five year-old thinks I am.

Maybe.

What I know is that Hillary Clinton is a testament to all that is right with the Democratic party and the state of Presidential politics in our nation.  That a woman should come so far and finish so close is cause for celebration!  While I was very disappointed with her statement last Friday--I'm sorry, but I just don't think at this late date you start dangling in even the most oblique way any reference to assassination as a reason to continue your campaign--I still have a tremendous amount of respect for Hillary the candidate and Hillary the woman.  It took tons of guts and courage to stand by her man after what he so publicly did, to keep her family together, to so honorably represent New York in the US Senate and then, in 2008, wage such an epic campaign.  She did it, and almost won.  Almost.

But this thing is over.

As hard as it is, as much as it hurts, denying the reality isn't going to get you anywhere.  Talk about reforming the caucuses isn't going to get you anywhere.  Talk about Mark Penn's catastrophic miscalculations (while accurate) won't get you anywhere.

Working to further the cause of Democrats in the fall will get us ALL somewhere!

As Mulder would say, "The truth is out there."

And it will set you free.

It's painful--and embarassing--to see such public denial of it.