contest of submission

So Barack does not want to offer Hillary the VP slot (which I am glad about, because I do not want her to take it), and the noises-that-be are indicating that Barack still wants that up to fifty per cent of the country (horizontally speaking) that is politically moderate and that up to fifty per cent of the country (vertically speaking) that is working class.

Those who argue for him, however, are doing their best to alienate further all the already-alienated.

Bob Herbert, showing that flair for deadpan:

Only now is the party starting to rally around Senator Barack Obama, who has been the likely nominee for the longest time. No one knows how long it will take to move beyond the fratricidal conflict that was made unnecessarily bitter by Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Politico's Simon captures so perfectly the gloating tone found everywhere, in what is obviously an attempt to keep attention off the fact that Hillary Clinton is the only Presidential candidate who was not allowed to choose the timing of her own concession speech (but did anyway, deal with it if you can, just cross your legs or something). The word of the day is prance:

Barack Obama would like to remind you of something: He won and she didn’t. It’s about him now and not her. He has made history, and she is history.

Of course, it was always about him. Obama can't live in a universe that isn't about him. (That's why adolescent males (of all ages) adore him. Egocentrism attracts.)

And just to make sure that Clinton is humiliated for not bowing out on command (or at least attacked for daring to win pretty much all the big states, not to mention the popular vote) Politico adds a marvelous little caption:

The presumptive nominee may need to say no to his rival's push for the vice presidency.

That's what this is: unity by humiliation. Contest of submission!

Of course it never gets better than Maureen Dowd:

For months, Hillary has been trying to emasculate Obama with the sort of words and themes she has chosen, stirring up feminist anger by promoting the idea that the men were unfairly taking it away from the women, and covering up her own campaign mistakes with cries of sexism. Even his ability to finally clinch the historic nomination did not stop her in that pursuit. She did not bat her eyelashes at him and proclaim him Rhett Butler instead of Ashley Wilkes.

Yeah, he's historic, but how dare she have "feminist themes"*.

...by broadcasting that she’s open to being Obama’s running mate, she puts public pressure on him similar to the sort of pressure Walter Mondale was under from rampaging feminists when he put Geraldine Ferraro on the ticket. Mondale ended up seeming henpecked, as Obama would seem if he caved to the women who say they will write in Hillary’s name or vote for anti-choice McCain before they’d vote for Obama.

Well. That put us in our place, all right. We don't do our duty and the menfolk come across as henpecked, not all strong and manly as a man ought**.

Sad thing is, if Obama could have won legitimately, so many would have supported him - but he doesn't want to. His goal has always been to deliver our party to new masters.

Blame or gloat? Oh heck - if you're in the Obama camp, why not do both? It certainly was a lot of work to make sure the women (and a bunch of others) in the Democratic party knew exactly how much the Democratic party hates them. Why not celebrate?
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* Maureen no doubt thinks Hillary would have made a better candidate if she'd dyed her hair prostitute red and worn vampy dresses.

** If Herbert gives us irony straight-faced, Maureen gives us...herpes. I never know what to make of her. Or Rush. Or Ann Coulter. Or any of the wingnuts - either side of the political aisle. Someone should run on a truly sustainable energy platform based on harnessing the anger that is currently redirected via these columns. You could power at least Cincinnati.