Most of us hated Bayh.

Some of us hated Kaine.

Still others disliked Biden as the choice for Vice President.

All three were the subject of significant trial balloons over the last three weeks, with the most significant being the possibility of Biden over the past 36 hours.

But with the developments today, I am now convinced Barack Obama has decided to pick....

John McCain claims he is an honorable man.

And now he has directly impugned the patriotism of Barack Obama.

Words have meaning.  And when we use them in a sentence, we intend to convey a meaning.  Otherwise, all we do when we speak is just make a loud, annoying noise.  

In order for one person to speak, and another to understand what is spoken, it is essential that words have a common meaning.   Indeed, words cannot be allowed to have their meaning changed, for when words are intentionally manipulated to have a new meaning, it is an attempt to create a new reality.  

Yet, during the Bush years, and even prior to that, we have seen many attempts by Republicans and conservatives to take words and redefine them for their own purposes.  In fact, not only do Republicans redefine them, they give the words their opposite meaning most times.

It is time to find out who is going and what panel, caucus and discussions you want to go to or are going to.

So I was purusing the comments this morning, when I stumbled upon this comment by a fellow Kossack:

In honor of the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight, I hereby am sending out the bat signal to call upon either Kid Oakland, Delaware Dem, DHinMI, or some other griseled vet to post a wise, group-hug/take-action type unifying diary that will calm this place down a bit so we get a look at the larger perspective.... perhaps maybe a JeffLieber for the humor factor.... or somebody who is good with words and umm stuff (LOL) to get us thinkin' again..

to the Batmobile!

Delaware is known as the First State mostly because it was the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.  But soon it will be known as the First State for another reason: it will be the first state in the United States to build offshore wind power.  

And the juxtaposition of this news against last week's news that President Bush and his protege, John McCain, want to build offshore oil platforms could not be starker.

If there is one thing I know about myself, it is that I do not have the mind of a passionate single issue activist, to whom the accomplishment of one goal is the end all be all of political existence and activity.

I do not take a setback on one of my cherished goals as the end of the fight.

I do not wrap all of my hopes and dreams and idealism up in one issue or one politician.  

I do not take my disappointment in the actions of one of my political heros as the end of all hope in the future.

...that human beings act like human beings?

All of us here are human beings.  All of us here have mothers and fathers.  Some of us have brothers or sisters.  Or both.  All of us have or had grandparents.  All of us have close friends who seem like family in our lives.

And all of us here deal with death in our lives.  Everyone that we grew up with and love one day is going to die.  Just as we one day are going to die.

We will all, if we have not already, suffer tragedies in our lives.  Sometimes these tragedies will come on suddenly.  Sometimes these tragedies develop slowly over time.

This is what I wrote in the last Roll Call diary on February 29, 2008:

Alright, the greatest primary contest in all history is nearly over (in my opinion)....

Wow.  Was I off, or what?  It reminds me of a Simpsons episode where the evil Mr. Burns, while speaking to his ancient 125 year old mother, says: "I'm sorry I pulled the plug on you mother.  Who knew you would pull through ...and live.... for another five decades."

Yes, now I can say that our long historic primary season is over.

Finally.

As we ramp down from that battle and ramp up to Netroots Nation in July and the Democratic convention in August, now is the perfect time to everyone to get to know everyone again.

We sit here behind our pseudonyms and computer screens, and yet we have managed to become a community.   And that is hard to do in this day and age of the Internets.  We have all seen various messageboards and other blogs that devolve into vicious namecalling and exchanges of ad hominem attacks.  Hell, it even happens here from time to time.  

But I have found that if you truly get to know the person behind the pseudonym, whether in person or not, it not only fosters community, but it lessens the toxic atmosphere that normally infects other messageboards and blogs.  For it is hard to attack and insult someone if you know them.  

This is why I post those "Roll Call" diaries every three months, so that we can all get to know each other better, even if we can't yet meet in person.

Diaries about Hillary.  Front Page stories about Hillary.  They don't stop.   They keep coming.   Detailing why she lost.  How she lost.  How she could have won.  Why she should be Vice President.  And why she should not be on the ticket.  Why the lunatics at Hillaryis44 should be paid attention to.   And why they should not.

I am not saying these are not legitimate topics for discussion. And the front pagers are all writing excellent stuff.  And I suppose it is better to get this over with in one day rather than drag out the postmortem all week.  But it just seems today that events have conspired to make today like the movie Groundhog Day, where instead of hearing "I Got You Babe" by Sonny and Cher everytime I wake up, I see yet another Hillary campaign autopsy.

And it is driving me insane!  

Insane I tell you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Are you all kidding?  I mean, really, is this what Daily Kos flame wars have come to?

John McCain's tan teeth?   His apparent lack of dental hygiene?

I offer no opinion on the merit of Kos' original front page story that started this latest brew ha ha.   But I do offer an opinion on the quality of the subject of our latest flame war.

I wrote before that you cannot ransom the Vice Presidency.   You cannot disrespect our Nominee and expect to be his closest adviser.   You cannot hold him figuratively hostage at gunpoint and expect him to embrace you.

If you want the Vice Presidency, if you want Barack Obama to be our next President, then you must first concede your race for the Presidency.  If you truly want to reclaim your and your husband's legacy, you simply have to acknowledge reality.  You simply have to embrace and endorse the next President of the United States, Barack Obama.

Our long primary war is over.   The longest and most closely, fiercely and passionately contested primary campaign in all history.  

It is now being reported that Hillary Clinton will announce tonight that Barack Obama has the necessary amount of delegates to be our nominee.

It is over.

Daily Kos, it is time to celebrate.

That is latin for "the Die is Cast."

And it is.   At some point this week, after Senator Obama wins both South Dakota and Montana, and after enough super delegates endorse him, he will pass the 2,118 threshold and he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party.

And at that moment, the division between Clinton supporters and Obama supporters literally ceases to exist.   At that moment, with Barack Obama as the nominee and thus the de facto leader of the Democratic Party, if you oppose him you oppose the Democratic Party.  Thus, the division that will be created will be between Democrats and defiant Hillary Clinton supporters.  

The Clinton campaign and all of her supporters everywhere must be embarrassed and humiliated by the rudeness of her supporters present in the meeting room.

These rude and disgraceful supporters do their candidate no service, indeed, they do her a disservice.  If anecdotal reports from the meeting and the protest outside are to be believed, then these supporters are expressing their intention to embrace the Bush Administration and all of their failures and crimes by refusing to support our Party's nominee.   If the same anecdotal reports are to be believed, many of the Clinton supporters present are passing out scurrilous flyers telling horrible right wing lies about our nominee, Barack Obama.   These flyers are calling him an adulterer and a murderer.

This is via Big Tent Democrat over at Talk Left:

In today's conference call, the Clinton campaign conceded any rules-based or fairness-based argument for the full seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations. The Clinton campaign declared that, unlike Iowa, NH and South Carolina, Florida and Michigan did indeed break the DNC rules and without justification. The Clinton campaign expressly disagreed with the Michigan Democratic Party's contention that the DNC had selectively enforced its rules by allowing New Hampshire and South Carolina to break the sanctioned primary schedule, that Florida was not entitled to a safe harbor or waiver, and that the DNC had acted properly and within the rules when it stripped Florida and Michigan of its delegates.

Markos has just informed us that today is Daily Kos' six birthday.   Markos began this blog so that he and other like minded Democrats can lament freely at the direction of our country under President Bush, and also lament at the timidity of both the press and our Democratic Party in opposing the deceit and lies that were at the time leading us to war.

Indeed, reclaiming the Democratic Party and infusing it with a spine was perhaps the most important goal of Daily Kos, for only a strong and courageous Democratic Party can truly oppose the Bush Republicans, correct a conservative press, and protect all of the progressive principles we have fought for for so many years.