When - oh God - When?

I suppose the big question on everyone's lips is not "if" but "when". When will Hillary finally accept the inevitable and step down?

The Huffington Post are carrying a story which claims that campaign officials for Hillary are stating that she'll be gone by June 15th.

A senior campaign official and Clinton confidante has told me that there will be a Democratic nominee by June 15. He could not bring himself to say the words "Hillary will drop out by June 15," but that is clearly what he meant. I kept saying, "So, Hillary will drop out by June 15," and he kept saying, "We will have a nominee by June 15." He stressed what a reasonable person Hillary is.

Another article in the same publication stresses that there will be many advantages to Hillary if she steps down sooner rather than later.

She has ruled it out, but a prompt withdrawal from the contest for the Democratic nomination offers Sen. Hillary Clinton the prospect of major rewards.

One of the most inviting is the near certainty that the Obama campaign would agree to pay back the $11.4 million she has loaned her own bid, along with an estimated $10 million to $15 million in unpaid campaign expenses.

Surely that can't be true? Why would Obama offer to pay Hillary back all the money she used trying to ruin him? How could he ethically use money which was donated towards his election and hand it to his rival? This strikes me as simply obscene, am I alone here?

Thankfully, others appear to think this would be illegal as well:

Under federal campaign finance law, the Obama campaign cannot directly pay off Clinton's debts, or the $11.43 million she has loaned the campaign, because that would violate campaign contribution limits.

Of course the article also offers Hillary a political reconciliation which I think is very premature.

"If she leaves the stage gracefully, as Gore did in 2000, she will be able to rebuild her political capital within the party fairly quickly, and over time most of her perceived and real sins will be long forgiven and/or forgotten," said Dan Gerstein, a Democratic consultant and Obama supporter.

I don't think they will. I think Hillary has tarnished the Clinton name by her shameless stances and by her despicable claims that the US was not ready to elect Obama because he was black.

Then there's the way in which she has campaigned, throwing the kitchen sink at her democratic rival whilst heaping praise upon her Republican opponent. It will be long time before I am ready to forget that. And that's before we get to the charges of elitism and the inference that both she and McCain had crossed the threshold to become President in a way which Obama had not.

No, no, it will be a long time before many of us forgive and forget the actions of Hillary during this campaign. By constantly hinting that the US is not ready to elect a black President I think she has betrayed many of the ideals of the democratic party. The democratic party is supposed to fight against such bigotry, but Hillary used it as an argument as to why the super delegates should elect her. She, in effect, asked that the opinions of bigots should not only be taken into account, but that they should be the basis on which the super delegates handed her the nomination.

That was simply shocking.

And I know that we should bury the hatchet and let bygones be bygones, but I would be lying if I said I had the same amount of respect for Hillary now as I had at the beginning of this campaign. In the early days I sincerely would have loved to see her become the first ever female president of the United States. However, as the campaign moved on I suddenly remembered how much I loathed triangulation and that cynical playing for the supposed middle ground voter that the Clinton's excel at.

What's wrong with simply believing in something because it is right? What's wrong with challenging some of these right wing talking points, rather than skirting around them as if they are written in stone?

That's why I support Obama, because he dares to question what the media tells us are the beliefs of the American people. He appears to have a faith in their better judgment which Hillary lacks.

I would rather Obama were beaten fighting for what he believes to be true than witness a Hillary victory based on cynical triangulation.

By fighting the democratic nomination in this way he has trounced the party's most formidable fighting machine. Next he will take that same formulation against the cynical McCain, a man who has changed his position on too many subjects to count in a cynical attempt to please the Republican base.

Obama will defeat McCain come November because he genuinely believes the case that he is making, whilst McCain will be arguing for positions which he previously opposed on subjects as far ranging as tax cuts and religious leaders. Will McCain be able to attack Obama for his friendship with Reverend Wright whilst he embraces Hagee? I think not.

So Hillary can step down whenever she wants, I'm past caring. She has lost the battle of ideas, Obama was simply braver than she was in that department.

And it is on that battle of ideas that I fully expect Obama to trounce McCain come November.

Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, US election 2008, Democratic presidential nominee