Bob,
I mostly love your take, especially when you've got Bush in your sights, but I have to disagree with you on the necessity for bloggers to publicly choose between Hillary and Obama. Like Atrios, and Digby, and others, I say: Make Love, Not War. So for me, I'm holding my fire until exactly thirty seconds after the convention is over.
Yeah, I know that Democrats need adversity almost as much as oxygen. I also know this "kumbaya" phrase is code for a disgust for compromise -- especially in the face of a compromise with the devil, and the loss of a monumental "what might have been."
Yes, I understand, and I'm suffering a lot of the same pain. But man, why must there always be a wedge? I mean, at the extreme risk of going all kumbaya on you, just look above at that closing moment last night. I don't care if both warriors were just faking it, with plenty of slugging to come (as long as they can keep faking it, the same way, after September). With this country pulled apart, on purpose, by those freaks in the White House, this shot, married to all their platitudes offered to unity, has a lot to offer.
I mean, I don't think we can afford to tear ourselves apart, or leave ourselves vulnerable to what that callous shmuck, Howard Fineman, smugly prognosticated after New Hampshire would become "a civil war." (I also, by the way, don't think that liberal bloggers should be elevated to a new ruling class ... and I know Markos doesn't either.)
If the time is right for the transformation you're yearning for, let Obama take it to the people and let the people respond. Otherwise, at least for the moment (and yes, against my nature), I really do want to celebrate that the Democratic nominee will look like no nominee before. I do want to believe that we can take out McCain either way. I do want to appreciate how truly unique this photo is -- how much it is fraternal, interracial, intergenerational, and bridges the gender divide.
And more than anything else -- and I say this from as far left as anyone around here -- I want to win.
(image: Chris Carlson/AP. Los Angeles, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. Via YahooNews)
For more of the visual -- including more thoughts on the Kodak moment -- visit BAGnewsNotes.com.