The message from Bill Richardson's endorsement

This week and weekend has brought a cacophony of news, with the usual effect of obscuring the pure and simple.  Wright ... Race .... Speech .... Stock Market ....  Richardson .... Passport.  I think it’s important that we step back and think about Governor Richardson’s endorsement and its intentions.

Bill Richardson said that he had been thinking seriously about endorsing Obama for about a week, but decided that this was the time.  He wanted his endorsement to matter.  He wanted it to overshadow the Reverend Wright hysteria and to enhance the positive effects of the speech.  This is serious business.  Richardson has been a long-time friend and supporter of the Clintons.  He is the Western version of Governor Rendell.  Bill Richardson’s was a well-reasoned endorsement that was orchestrated to have a particular effect.  It is an endorsement that is being seen as symbolic of a change in the 2008 Democratic primary.  It may be the final nail in the Clinton candidacy.  With this endorsement, Richardson is saying ....  It is time to concede and endorse Obama.

Pelosi said the same thing but did not formally support Obama.  Others have said it but did not have the weight or timing to have such strength.  I think it is time for the Clintons to take five and think about what they are doing.

My interpretation of the mindset of the undeclared superdelegates, the Democratic leadership now symbolic of the Democratic Party itself, is this:

We have endured the attacks started by the Clinton camp but now involving both candidates,
We have heard the pro-McCain rhetoric,
We understand the math, the negligible chances of a Clinton victory,
And, we have waited for eight long years for this time to come ...

Please, please get out of the race and leave our party with dignity and in a position to win the Presidency in 2008.  Our time has come and the United States needs us.  And, Barack Obama is ready to take us to the next level.

In my opinion, it would have been more apropos for the collection of remaining heavyweights, Pelosi, Dean, Gore, Richardson, Carter ... others, to en masse endorse Obama with the first utterance of McCain praise from the Clintons, the “commander-in-chief threshold” comment.  We all know what Bill and Hillary are doing ... They HAVE given up and are setting the stage for the Hillary 2012 plan ... they are helping McCain to win because he cannot last for a second term ... they are blocking Obama because he can ... and, yet again, they are placing themselves ahead of the Democratic Party and the country.  I hate being so cynical but the last few months have given credence to such thoughts.  But, if this is their strategy, then the Clintons know that the jig is up and they have lost this election.  Why destroy what you have left, the legacy of Bill Clinton as President of the United States and a future Hillary Clinton Presidency?  Why leave a bad taste in the mouths of millions of weary Democrats?  

Why not follow the advice of Bill Richardson?

It is time to give up and start preparing your speeches for the Convention.  Democrats have waited too long.  We are ready to lead this country and to fill the void of the last eight years.

Please concede the election to Barack Obama.