Not gonna happen

Tom Watson, bless his Hillary-loving heart, has announced that he's joining the "Unity Party" in his post: Speaking Loudly With a Single Voice

He starts off by praising Hillary's campaign and then says (emphasis mine):

Yet, I have to say this clearly: Hillary lost, and she lost squarely on the playing field as it was laid out for all candidates. Moreover, Barack won. And he really did win in the fullest sense of the word. There can be no question that Obama also faced a stern test in terms of our national mores and prejudices, and that his primary campaign was a testament to his skill and talent - and yes, his vision for America.

After a number of Hillary-supporters comments Tom felt he needed to add an update:

UPDATE: As always, I appreciate comments here. And I've come a long way with bunch of ya. But I have to say I disagree strongly with Clinton supporters who say they'll never vote for Obama because they feel personally disrespected, because somehow the Democratic Party doesn't want their vote. Spare me. A little tough love, people: if Hillary Clinton can deal with it, I damned well hope you can. Her policy - his policy - is simply better. So lick your wounds and make your choice. And as it turns, Hillary and Barack are meeting at her home right now - Senator Obama giving an overt and very public signal of respect for Senator Clinton. Buck up!

Oh, really? "Lick your wounds" and "buck up". Please, tell us emotional Hillary supporters what else we're supposed to do to help screw ourselves over some more. 

One of my favorite comments came from CAE:

The DNC cannot have both a purge and unity. Ya gotta pick one. They picked the purge. The purged ain't coming back for the unity.

I couldn't agree more.

Here's my response to Tom's post (in it I refer to a Lance Mannion post that I carried in the previous post):

I've been a Democrat for my whole life. My mother idolized FDR and I campaigned at my school for Kennedy and then Humphrey. I've voted Democratic for 36 years. Well, it's over.

I've learned over the years that the GOP would do anything to win. Cheat, lie, steal votes and disenfranchise voters. But somehow I thought I was a member of a party who stood for the will of the people. What I found out from this primary was that my party was every bit as willing and able to do "whatever it took" to force their nominee on us. 'Will of the people' be damned.

I've been more and more disappointed in "my party" over the last eight years. When Gore gave up. When Kerry gave up. When Pelosi and Reid decided to take impeachment off the table. They haven't done a damn thing I hoped they would do. But, by gawd, this time they actually succeeded at something. They really pulled off quite an impressive coup. They've managed to alienate about half of their own party. Who'd of thought that was possible? Of course they don't get all the credit. A fawning media, who praised anything Obama and savaged anything Clinton, with their repeated calls for Clinton to bow out and their unconcealed, over-zealous support of an inexperienced, unvetted, "Elvis" candidate really helped clinch the deal.

Lance Mannion, in his post, "Booze, burgers, and broads: The art of managing the National Press Corps" sums it up really well. Read the whole thing: http://lancemannion.typepad.com/lance_mannion/2008/06/booze-burgers-a.html (Oh, and to be fair, Lance is also hoping for an Obama win now that he's "won" the nomination.)

Several readers have objected to my fairly mundane and obvious observation in Saturday night's post that National Press Corps hates Hillary Clinton and really, really, really doesn't want her to be President and that this has helped Barack Obama shape the perception that the campaign was over before it was over because the only way Hillary could win was in a floor fight at the convention and that would tear the party apart. This led to the accusation that Clinton wanted to tear the party apart. She only cares about herself and her own ambition, the party and the nation be damned. The idea that Clinton is a monster of ego who will do anything to win has been pushed and pushed since before she announced that she would run.

The National Press Corps and the Village Insiders hate the Clintons and they cover them accordingly using the Clinton Rules of Journalism, Rule Number One of which is that anything a Clinton does is done from the basest and most suspect of motives and Rule Number Two of which is that the smallest ethical irregularity on their part or even the appearance of what can be interpreted as an ethical irregularity is proof of a serious crime that they're somehow magically covering up and Rule Number Three is that their ability to magically cover up this crime that the Press has divined is there despite the Clintons' ability to magically cover it up is further proof that the crime was committed.

This has been going on for over sixteen years now......

The Insider Media hates Clinton and that worked to Barack Obama's advantage.

I know there are lots of people who for whatever reason have to believe that Obama is going to win the nomination because he's a knight in shining armor and his strength is as the strength of ten because his heart is pure. I won't argue with you, for the same reason I could never bring myself to tell my kids there's no Santa Claus. They had to find it out for themselves because I'm an old softie.

But there are others who want to believe that he won through the sheer force of his brilliance.

And I can't deny it. He has been brilliant.

Not all the time. But enough of the time.

The difference is that I think a sign of his brilliance has been his ability to fight dirty while appearing not to be fighting dirty.

So Tom I don't feel "personally disrespected by the Democratic Party". I feel betrayed and outraged. I don't give a damn if they want my vote or not. They're not getting it.