In this second part let me run through a few posts that have stuck with me over the last month, starting with one I alluded to in the beginning of the first part:

Caveat Emptor

…And this is how Obama has learned to win, eliminating people in primaries, which meant he has never faced a real opponent in a general election, because in Illinois lately, the Democratic primary is the election. Read the whole thing and learn how delegates are apportioned, and there is nothing vague democratic about it.
…
He uses the rules to eliminate competition in the Democratic primaries, but he is actually going to face real opposition in the general election, and he has never had to do that before. He is a machine politician, and nothing more.

Steve Bates of The Yellow Doggerel Democrat:

For Obama
- Or -
Dammit, Hillary, Go Home…

From the beginning of this election cycle, I have pledged to support the Democratic nominee. It is now clear that Barack Obama will be that nominee, and for all my reservations about the nominating process to this point, he is a most impressive candidate, and I support him wholeheartedly.

I am not a single-issue voter, but for family and personal reasons, my primary issue this year is healthcare. No issue affects me personally, no issue has affected my family over the past two decades, more than healthcare coverage. For that reason, I initially supported John Edwards until he withdrew. Then, in the Texas primary, I voted for and caucused for Hillary, largely because of her announced healthcare policy. Many pixels have been spilled over the differences between Obama’s and Hillary’s plans, but it seems to me they have become more similar over the course of the campaign, and Obama’s policy is vastly better than McSame’s policy: McLame’s advice may well be expressed as “be born into a wealthy family which additionally has had lifetime government-paid health care coverage.”

So we’re ready for the battle. Now if Hillary would just admit that she has lost…

(Post title amended for clarity after initial posting.)

Kvatch of Ragebot:

Hey…Clinton supporters?! Your bullsh*t, “…we’re gonna take all our marbles and go home,” attitude makes you sound about as mature as the Chimperor. For God’s sake, McCain is promising you 5 more years of war and another 3/4 quarters of a trillion dollars in debt. If you won’t vote your own interests, then at least vote your children’s. And remember, a vote for McCain is really a vote for his Vice President, and that could be Huckabee. Just chew on that for a minute.

And you…Obama supporters?! Do you really think your gonna convince the other side to make common cause with you when you treat their candidate with the kind of contempt you used to reserve for Bill O’Reilly? And all that haughty, “We’ve won, it’s time for the Clintonistas to just suck it up and get on board,” crap? Smacks of the same sense of entitlement that you’ve decried in Senator Clinton for a year now.

We’ve got a pretty easy choice in November, the Democratic nominee or Bush III. McCain won’t give back one iota of executive power. He won’t stem the rush to complete executive secrecy, and he won’t quit giving freebies to the corporatists, because, without those tools, he won’t be able to continue the war.

I should note that every one of us, Bryan, Steve, Kvatch, and myself, started out supporting John Edwards to some degree, and later moved into the Hillary or Obama’s camp (or no camp at all). There are two trends in thought here and they are what’s left to be reconciled for myself. I used Steve’s basic argument-knowingly or unknowingly–with Bryan, and it’s basically the same thing Kvatch said; We should vote for the Democrat no matter what, not just because the consequences of a McCain victory would be devastating for whats left of our country after 8 years of the worst pResident in American history, but because we should have some kind of faith in Democrats.

Well, after seeing the results of the Democratic party coming to power in 2006, I don’t roll like that anymore. That’s the other trend. I don’t know how to argue with Bryan to get him to change his mind because it’s to easy to acknowledge the truth of what he speaks of, the anti-democratic nature of machine politicians within the Democratic party. I have entered the House of the Culture Ghost and IOZ is in ascendancy.

To be continued…