Look, I voted for Senator Obama here in New York. He's a wonderful man and will make a dynamic and powerful President, but Senator Obama and the Hillary haters out there can cover their ears and shout, "I'm not listening! I'm not listening!" like my six-year-old does when I try to tell him something he doesn't want to hear. Not listening will not change the facts on the ground.
Just like the day after New Hampshire, yesterday changed everything.
As we saw in the last twelve races where Obama ran up the score, momentum is everything and his momentum was stopped in its tracks last night while she is going to be catapulted forward. She will be very hard to beat in Pennsylvania and if Michigan and Florida are done over she is favored to win them as well. Even though probably she will still be a few delegates shy of him she will have won most every major state except his home state of Illinois.
Coming into the convention they both will have equal arguments as to their worthiness and electability.
So what are we to do? Two things.
First, Obama fans have to stop hating on Hillary and pouting that if he doesn't get the nod they are going home with all their toys. My fear for some time has been that some Obama fans have been acting like the Naderites that delivered the White House to Bush. Naderites felt that there was no difference between Gore and Bush and we all know how that turned out.
And the more-recent phenomenon of Hillary fans being tempted by McCain has also got to cease. Both candidates need to be supremely cautious about triangulating their fire so that it wounds and defines McCain as well.
Hillary's 3am ad is an example of what cannot go on any longer if Democrats hope to win in November. Another example is Obama lumping Hillary in with McCain in supporting the war in Iraq. Neither is true. I realize that both are the most-powerful weapons they have been using against each other but if they want a Democrat in the White House they have to stow those weapons. Talk about the economy. Tell us that we're already in a recession and about your plans for getting us out.
After having the 2000 and 2004 elections stolen from us we Democrats need to show the nation and the world that among us democracy thrives and the nominee of our party is chosen fairly.
If Hillary does manage to get the nod she will have to offer the Vice-Presidency to Obama and if he is sincere in his commitment to service to this country he will take it.
If Obama wins I predicted here that he should pick Jim Webb but Hillary's Lazarus-like showing yesterday and the growing fervor with which women are coming to her campaign makes me think that for the good of the party he would have to offer her the second slot and she would have to swallow her pride and take it.
Or, if the fighting gets too ugly and they're both too bloodied, then behind closed doors Democratic leaders could float the name of Al Gore and he could be swept in on the convention floor. Then he'd pick Obama as his VP.
Interesting times.
Trey Ellis is the author of Bedtime Stories: Adventures in the Land of Single-Fatherhood.