Just a request for those on this site who like to spread gloom and doom about Sen. Obama's chances in the general against Sen. McCain, should Obama win the nomination.

Could you tag your dire pronouncements of the end of the Democratic party, Obama's surefire crushing loss, and the inevitably barn-red electoral map come November with a little disclaimer as to whether this is something you desire?

It's easy:

"McCain is going to crush Obama this fall, no contest, the Democratic party is toast for the next quarter century, you'll never get the Clinton coalition back." (^)

(^) I do not wish for this to happen.

Or:

"McCain is going to slice through Obama's weak-ass coalition like a hot knife through butter, the Democratic party has been irredeemably destroyed." (^)

(^) I do wish for this to happen.

It would make it easier to know who to respond to.

For those who don't want McCain to beat Obama--and I must give props to Alegre here, passionate Clinton supporter, who has declared she will support the eventual nominee--I feel you!  Let's make sure it doesn't happen.  It sucks when your candidate loses--or is currently losing--and especially when your candidate is as skilled, passionate, and intelligent as Sen. Clinton.  It's hard to switch gears, and I don't expect many will unless/until Clinton concedes.  (Which she really has no reason to do until PR has voted.)  So, I'm glad to know we'll be on the same side soon enough.  Some of your pessimism may be warranted.  It will be a tough GE, no doubt.  Let's get on it.

For those who claim to choose McCain over Obama: could you briefly summarize Clinton's agenda, and then explain to me how a McCain election will help further that agenda?  

Because it seems to me that Clinton's agenda presumably includes withdrawing troops from Iraq (something I don't support, by the way), her health care program (which I do), SCOTUS appointees to counteract the originalist coup and preserve Roe v. Wade, and (gas tax holiday aside) reasonable and progressive economic policies.  

I find John McCain an admirable man in many respects, and I'm not looking forward to the prospect of Democratic sites using the same bullshit tactics on him that they decry when used against their own candidate.  (If it's bad when they do it then it's bad when we do it, and don't even get me started on nicknames like "McSame" . . . weak fucking sauce.)  But a McCain administration would actively defeat and/or set back every single aspect of the agenda Clinton is running to implement.  Can you explain how helping elect McCain will, in any way, help the things Clinton's running for?

Cynical Koan wants to believe that, for many Clinton supporters wailing about a McCain landslide, it's not about getting a Democratic agenda enacted.  It's about some sort of personal validation.  Reasonable Koan would like to be persuaded otherwise.