Dear Hillary, Thank You

You and Barack fought tough campaigns, grounded in reality and hard work. You and Barack received a tremendous number of votes - more votes in the Primaries than FDR received in the General Elections when he beat Herbert Hoover and Alf Landon in the landslides of 1932 and 1936 and more than John Kennedy received in the General Election when he beat Nixon in 1960.

Could you have won the nomination? Could you have won the White House? Yes, I am proud to say. It's not about gender and it’s not about skin color. It's as Martin Luther King dreamed - it's about ideas. And it's about us. All of us. Male, female, white, black, brown, red, yellow, and green - especially Green. Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Moslem, agnostic, and atheist; Native American, and immigrants; whether we came four years ago, or our forbears came 400 years ago, whether they sailed on the Mayflower, or they walked across a land bridge over what is today the Bering Sea.

Obama has won the delegates he needs to be the nominee and we, progressives, moderates, and conservatives, we the people, your supporters and Barack's, our children, and our parents; we need to help Barack win the White House. We must win. Whether by a slim majority like the 112,827 votes with which John Kennedy beat Nixon, or by a landslide like the 12 million votes and 42 states with which FDR clobbered Hoover in 1932. We must win. Not at any cost but because the cost is so high. We need to prevent McCain from serving "Bush's Third Term." Because McCain, like Bush, will serve the country to the special interests.

We must win the states you won - New York, New Jersey, California. We must win the states Barack won - Iowa, Illinois, and Hawaii. We must win the battlegrounds like Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. We don't need to win all 50 states. But we need to win by a majority large enough so that the Republicans can't steal the election - again. We need to carry enough seats in the House and Senate so the Republicans can't stop the policy initiatives we must push thru to rebuild this country. And we must rebuild so we can compete today in the 21st Century.

We must rebuild the schools, roads, railroads and factories. We must redesign the education systems and business models. We must redesign and rebuild the safety net Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson worked so long and so hard to build; the safety net Hoover couldn't conceive; the safety net Bush, Cheney and McCain can't abide.

We need to win where there are people who go to college, people who went to college, and people who can't afford college; people with health insurance and those who can't afford it and thus who don't have access to health care - 1 out of 6 of us - and Earth to George W. Bush and John 'W' McCain - the emergency room is for emergencies; it is not for primary care. We need to win because people are struggling to pay their bills and have to choose between food, medication, fuel, and rent.

I would love to see you as the Vice President. And I would really love to see you in the Senate for the next twenty years - in the Senate giving the Republicans a measure of what they have given us. I would love to see Bill Clinton the Ambassador to the United Nations fighting for the New American Dream - fighting for all the children of this Bush-whacked world.

So, Hillary, lead your followers from this Bush-whacked country. Campaign for Barack and for America, and ask Bill and Chelsea to do the same. Then go back to the Senate and whip Joe Lieberman into line. And Arlen Specter, Orrin Hatch, John "W" McCain and all the rest. They are stupid, pompous and arrogant - like Santorum claiming to diagnose Terri Schiavo - over TV. And Larry Craig claiming 'I'm not gay (I just fool around with guys)'. Give no quarter. Destroy Norquist the Traitor - before he destroys the country. Put them into place - out of the closet and into retirement. And if they are so aghast at government spending take away their pensions. Filibuster them into submission. Torment the so-called moderate Republicans and the hard line "Republicanista" who put Party ahead of Country, who make policy via lobbyist, who rant and rave against drugs and homosexuality and then go buy drugs and solicit gay prostitutes, who savaged George H. W. Bush for daring to raise taxes to pay for government programs, who tried to destroy your husband, these ‘chicken-hawks’ who send young people to war then take away their veterans benefits and health care. They should be ashamed of themselves. But they have no shame. They have no honor. They have only greed and false pride and arrogance.

Dare to be great. With Honor.