While Clinton herself has previously stated that either Democratic candidate would win in November, but she was a safer bet, apparently a strategic decision has been made to abandon whatever class and grace was left in the campaign and begin to explicitly undermine Obama against McCain.  Harold Ickes told Newsweek that McCain would "trounce" Obama.  Key quote and a few thoughts in the extended entry.

Oh boy. It seems fairly evident that after today, Rev. Wright's desire for the spotlight is going to become the major problem for the Obama campaign going into the Indiana primary and the North Carolina primary.

I hope the damage he will do to the Obama campaign will serve as a lesson to Midwestern African-American and Latino communities who have still not learned that racially fueled rage is counterproductive to 'our' economic and social advancement as 13% and approaching 24% of the U.S. population. While this rage it is certainly something that ANYONE who has ever been 'othered' whether that be because of weight, race, accent or disability can relate to, as Wright's big mouth tanking is proving, it doesn't get 'us' anywhere.

As a native South Sider, I want to apologize to all of the people who put their political faith and volunteer time in the Obama campaign. My fellow South Siders should be going to counseling instead of appearing before the National Press Club.

Growing up in what is one of the most segregated environs in the U.S., I certainly had my share of harrowing racial experiences, such as having my hair lit on fire in the middle of an English class, simply because of my race. I've been beat up in the basement of the Rock and Roll McDonald's by drunk Chicago Police officers who kicked me until I told them "I'm just another nigger" after they found my college ID in my wallet. Yes, I've had plenty of polarizing experiences but I do not let them define me or my relationships with white people. Grown ups get over things, put them in perspective and move on.

I left Chicago because I found the demands by my community to be angry and defiant. These demands would end in social isolation if one, as a man of color, didn't conform to this strange social norm: and yes it is strange in present day America. Nearly the entire Midwest is like this.One activist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Sara Tibebu even pressed false charges against me, telling police I was going to kidnap her (even though I do not have a car), and tried to get me kicked out of school because I refused to participate in that culture on the UW Madison campus. I was going to a top 50 University, what did I have to be angry about?

To the rest of my fellow Democrats of all races, I apologize for what this is doing to the party. Those who are the ilk of Rev. Wright, Rev. James Meeks and all the other rage filled creeps are only one, small faction of the Obama coalition. I don't believe Senator Obama, being a transplant, knew how insane these people could be. I mean that sincerely.

I hope the process of all you angry, angry people in the Midwest - angry as you go to good schools and drive luxury automobiles - totally ruining this thing for Senator Obama will serve as a lesson to all of you about what rage does when it is figured into  into equation for the velocity of hope.

These rage-filled people have held an iron-fist grip on the world of inner city activism. I hope that after what they did to Obama, this late in the campaign, they are driven from the fold of the Democratic Party forever. They have hurt us as a party for too many years with their counterproductive views mixed with a crabs-in-a-barrel mentality.

The Clintons' are also at fault for having not purged this cadre back in the 1990's then working to replace them with new leadership.

Maybe Nader will embrace them, he seems to be into pointless rage these days.

I am truly embarrassed for my side of the Windy City. Maybe those of us on the left need to stop avoiding the concept of a Black and Latino political class.

Inspired by Angry Mouse's conversion diary on dkos, I decided to come over to MyDD to see how thing's were going.  I've been gone for a while, which is sad really because MyDD was where I first waded into political waters on the Internet.  But I'm back now, and I felt as though this were a good time to write my first diary here.

I lurked for over a year here before I decided to join the conversation.  At first, I saw it more as a source of information than anything else.  Finally moved by irritation to speak up, I realized quickly that I had chosen the wrong time to become a vocal part of the community.  Presidential politics stir passions like little else in politics, and trying to make passionate arguments without having the basic etiquette down, and without having some reputation to stand on, was a frustrating experience.  What's more, many of the members and authors I respected the most seemed to be Hillary supporters, and I was most definitely on the ABC (Anybody But Clinton) bandwagon, for reasons that are not particularly relevant to this diary, but it will suffice to say that I was not a big fan of Bill Clinton during his Presidency.

That experience, along with the overt Clinton support, had me spending less and less time here.  It's not that I feel the need to be surrounded by people who agree with me all the time, but I became more and more interested in participating, and I found it difficult to find my voice in those circumstances.  To the contrary, I'm often considered among the most argumentative personalities on the non-partisan and apolitical message boards and forums I frequent, but the tenor of the discussions in those venues is remarkably different, and I possessed neither the netiquette nor the self-control to discuss Hillary Clinton and her opponents in a constructive manner.

Then in mid-January, I decided to just stop coming here all together.  I truly could not understand how you all could support her.