I don't know what to say about your essay.  I found it a little hard to take that you were that overcome by your political beliefs that you had to act and feel like you describe. For the future, that kind of thing isn't good for your blood pressure.

An incongruous volvo?  

In the primary there were two different 'identities' that were also very similar.

Black Americans started to get really thrilled when Barack showed he had a chance of winning. Then anything that seemed to disparage his historic run was felt like a punch in the stomach, and coming from Bill Clinton it was extra hard to take.  

And whenever Barack said anything disparaging about Hillary, quite a few women reacted exactly the same way.  

Perhaps only African American women were in a position to feel punched from both sides.  

I'm willing to 'forgive' Barack for diminishing Hillary's race by mentioning her 'experience married to Bill,' and making his veiled and unveiled accusations, although not Bill Richardson, who was free to endorse any candidate he liked, but who did not have to say that she had 'lowered the tone' of the campaign. Or to Howard Dean for showing feckless leadership when both sides needed a talking to.

I think it's way overdo for these revisiting the primaries to go away. We can discuss it in the context of history, once Barack is safely in office.  

right now it's better not to remind anyone. Women still feel the sting, as to African Americans.  We're very alike in that way.  

Interesting diary.  Proof positive that the primaries heat was fueled not just by facts or differences in policies, but by emotions and ability to 'buy into' far over reaching generalizations.  One can take any kind of sound byte and turn it into somehing 'typical' (just look at the use of that word and remind yourselves it can happen), and that's no 'fairytale'.

In the end, I think most Hillary supporters will be onboard with Obama.  The ones who are not simply were the ones voting for the gender of Hillary, and not the substance of Hillary. Democrats, true Democrats, are better than that. Of course, as most of you have heard, I am now registered NPA because of how Democrats in Florida were treated by the DNC.  That's another issue, but I proudly sport the DNC's  " No third term, Vote Democrat" sticker on my truck.

We decry the vitriol that the McCain campaign has incited towards Obama, yet in some places, like dKos and even sometimes here, the same vitriol was incited towards the Clintons incessantly.  It was wrong. Folks tried to rewrite history  to make Bill and Hillary enemies of LGBT folks in order to support their hatred for them.  That was wrong.

Thanks for your acknowledgement that we are all on the same team after all.

sorry, but you're the type of Obama supporter that pissed me off during the primaries.

I think "does not compute" is pretty accurate though.

I'm sorry, but when I saw the diary title, I could not help but think of "the little old lady who lived in a shoe" for some reason.

Thank you for:

"...back when I realized that I, along with several hundred other principled but pretentious and impetuous Florida Nadarites, had propelled the idiot from Texas to the White House."

I have had a very hard time with Greens and Naderites since 2000...kind of same reaction you describe regarding Hillary Lady's sign. I did support a Green in a local election in 2005 but have held on to animosity. One of my main problems is that so few of them can say what you said. It makes all the difference to hear someone realize a strategic error. So thanks for saying it.

As to this year, I liked most of the Dem candidates, often for different reasons. In some ways Richardson was my favorite, though it was clear to me he had no chance due to a Mondale-like lack of personality. I tended to dismiss Hillary (my Senator) as too much of a collaborator with the Republicans over the last 8 years, and I predicted Obama's political path would match Howard Dean's. But I found all of them good in their own ways.

Obama has far surpassed my predictions in every way. I am quite impressed and am a solid supporter. I endorsed him shortly before the NY primary. Overall, I am proud to be a Democrat this year though I am also always a critic of some Democrats.

"back when I realized that I, along with several hundred other principled but pretentious and impetuous Florida Nadarites, had propelled the idiot from Texas to the White House"

Not forgivable.  How can you have looked at the campaign of a real live decent Democrat (Hillary) with such contempt when you yourself had shown such utter contempt for the Democratic party and this country when you voted for Nader?  That was not a principled stand but an incredibly arrogant one.  

I've been an Obama supporter from pretty early on and I tell you, you did not represent us well.

Personally, I thought we had two relatively average candidates in HRC and BHO, as far as progressive causes go.  I didn't, and still don't, see either one of them as liberal enough for my liking, but I recognized that both were better than any alternative on the other side, and I supported both--actually, all three, counting Edwards--in the primary.

But, I left dkos because of the anti-Hillary nastiness and found myself defending her constantly even on this site.  Not that I supported her over Obama, but I felt that the primary season Hillary-hate was over the top.

I'm 37--I'm not young, but I'm not old either.  I remember the Clinton years fondly and supported much (but not all) of what he did when he was President.  Compared to the last 8 years, well, there is no comparison--Clinton was outstanding.  And it drove me nuts and saddened me to see the bashing over-the-top Obama supporters doled out to Hillary and Bill as if they were in the same league as Bush.  I still feel it--I was out to dinner last night with my niece, nephews, and their partners, all of whom are mid-twenties tops, and the primary bickering reignited (me versus everyone else).

I support Obama.  But the way Hillary and Bill were treated was inexcusable.  Everything they said was warped into a 'racist' comment, even though from almost any rational view, that was stretching the bounds of credibility.  I'm just glad it's over now, and some folks are coming around to realize that things went a little too far--perhaps even on both sides.

I think we can all agree that ""Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign.  And Obama ran a good campaign here." is nothing more that a racist comment.

Just like suggesting that LBJ had anything to do with passing civil rights.  The 3 am add was racist.  Hell HRC is white she must be racist.  Bill Clinton is a white man he must be racist if he deoesnt support BO.

i can speak for one HRC support.  I will vote for BO, and will give him and the DNC money but after the race baiting smear campaign run against Bill and Hillary by his supporters he will never by my president.

And my guess is BO supporters would be voting for McCain if HRC had won the election.  In fact how many times have i heard BO supporters say they wouldnt vote for BO if HRC as the VP.  Just saying your post is typical.  HRC and her supporter are nothing but low info racist voters.

But now we have to vote for BO.  Well at least you are right about the last part.

david

Thanks for this post, thanks for your reflections on the fevered primary campaign.

I think that the passion on the Dem side indicated how much we knew that this time we would win and how how much we care about this country.

For me, I am still a dedicated Hillary voter, more now than ever as I have watched her discuss the economic hurricane hitting us now.  I still feel terrible pain when I realize her brain and her fighting spirit will not be in the Oval Office.

I plan to write her name in the ballot this November.  Of course I can vote my heart this year, for a change, because I live in California and Obama won't need my vote.  No way would I ever let my vote be part of his losing the election, but I know that this scenario for California would be as likely as the DOW shooting back up to 14,000 next week.

I still have my anxieties about Obama's toughness and whether he can act as well as he can think.  His temperment is great; calm, even phlematic, cautious, deliberative and pragmatic, all qualities I want in a president, especially one facing terrible challenges.

But I still don't feel like I have a handle on his bedrock principals, because I haven't seen him act under intense pressure.  His career has not given him many experiences of battle, the big exception being this presidential election.

Some of his decisions have given me qualms and some have reassured me.  The FISA vote and the pandering to Israel, the revoking of his pledge to accept public campaign funds, all of these have cast him in the mold of an unprincipled opportunist.  The way he has run his campaign has been mostly reassuring of a smart and decent politician.  So for me, Obama has a confusing and contradictory persona.

Now, as the economy teeters at the precipice and people all over the world have lost faith in all institutions and fear is overtaking us all, I wish Obama would step up now and take leadership on the economy by announcing right now his economic team and proposing his strong economic policies and strategy on the crisis.  Instead he seems to be taking a cautious approach, keeping to generalities in order to preserve his advantage for the election.

I hope this won't continue to be his approach.  The best way to sell himself as president is to act like a president, not a campaigner.  I don't think this is a risk at all at this point.

It's not as if he will be outdone on this approach by McCain.  McCain has already cracked and crumbled in voters' minds.  

While its great to bring new people into the Democratic Party fold, we learned a hard lesson in how difficult it can be to deal with party neophytes who take primaries too seriously.

Being a Edwards then Clinton supporter was one of the worst experiences in my many years of political activism.  My hat is off to those like me who had to deal with the narrow minded, knee-jerk, reactionary attitudes of Obama supporters.  I can't help but believe if Hillary had been the nominee, things may have been different, the party still very much divided.

Here's hoping that you and other Obama supporters continue to stay politically involved, gain more experience and perspective, lose some of your intolerance and remember that the Republicans are the enemy, not your fellow Democrats.  Remember that half this party has forgiven the insults, embraced our candidate and hopes you don't make those same mistakes again.

And above all, learn not to let the GOP and the news media manipulate you.

I just hope you take the time to teach your child about tolerance of others political views and undue any impression you left on her and that your reaction to Clinton was not based on a lot of fact,  but on your emotions.  I fear that your child, having this type of experience and mimicing it will not develop a very tolerant understanding of the Democratic process.

several times. I have had some explaining to do since the Clintons began brilliantly  stumping for Obama. What can I say? I was a hotheaded, big-mouthed jerk--an Obama supporter analog of Steve Schmidt, but without the high-profile campaign position. For what it's worth, I think I've learned the err of my ways.

Don't worry about the boy. I've already undone most of the damage, and, though we had our moments, we were usually fairly restrained when he was in the car. As much as it hurts (and it really hurts), we're even trying to remain objective about McCain when we're around the boy.