The Clintons, The Trenches, The Abyss, and you-Conclusion

If you can credit the Clintons with nothing, at least imagine what America would like without those eight years. They held the Right, more or less at bay for two terms. No mean feat, in this era of legions of politically active, yet politically ignorant Right wing radio listeners, euphemism as weaponry, and outright political sabotage.

And that's just the stuff that's out in the open. These are the weapons they don't even bother to cloak anymore. The things that are still worthy of subterfuge are almost unthinkable.

The Clintons sadden me now. They became what we needed them to become. They've seen their share of atrocities, in the political arena. They've become battle-hardened, in a war we on the Left sent them to fight. You don't see the things they've seen, and you don't survive the things they have, without becoming hard.

They fought the monster, they stared long into the abyss.

They are political animals, like all politicians must be. They fight on, because it's what they do. And they are ruthless, and they are seemingly insatiable for the rush of victory. I see their actions now, as the inevitable result of years of conditioned response.

I regret what they've evolved as, even as I recognize myself as a beneficiary of that process.

We have a new, charismatic, hopeful politician to rally behind now. He represents change at a time when, it's absolutely mandatory this country rights itself. We've been held down, and deprived, and misrepresented by another generation, of the men Clinton battled, and we're owed a chance at redemption, as a nation.

I applaud Obama. I support him. He won't fix everything that's gone wrong in our government in one term or two. But he represents a new direction, one off the path we're on now.

And if he wins, it will be a very hard won battle. The Clintons are scrappy, but tiring. Mccain and Rove and Co. are waiting patiently in the wings, likely salivating uncontrollably, and they will make the current fight look tame.

The Clintons are hopelessly compromised at this point, within themselves, and within their campaign. I don't think it's paranoid to suggest that anyone who shows up, out of nowhere as a Clinton supporter, and sounds like a neo-con, probably is. They've made no secret of their desires for an outcome in this fight. They've been campaigning against Hillary non-stop for four years now. They'd love her to pull it off. The worst they can hope for is a couple more months of bloody in-fighting in the Dem camp.

The Clintons are a very good example of what you become, when you live for the fight.

Before November rolls around, Obama is going to be scarred. He will become battle-hardened. If he gains the office of the presidency, there will be many people whose sole function in life will be to destroy him.

As we turn to a new hope, remember that victory comes with a price.

As we turn away from the Clintons, many of us will curse them for becoming, the very things we abhor in politics.

I won't curse them, but I have turned away from them. And I can't help feeling a tinge of regret, for leaving them behind, after the fight they fought against the monster, for so long.

Let's hope.