By time the process is over whoever is ahead in the popular vote should be the nominee.

Hillary was the political traitor. She needs to leave the Democratic party, or retract her comments and clarify that she does not endorse McCain over Obama.

Agreed.

I also think this is the best solution. As you can see from this diary and the one I wrote yesterday, no one agrees. Mostly because they hate Obama, or hate Clinton after all the water under the bridge.

However, the way I see it, there just isn't another plausible solution to this primary. And Obama/ Clinton is the only order that works because of the pledged delegate lead Obama will likely have. All the other metrics that Clinton supporters are going to try (big states won, popular vote, etc.) don't work because they are all either subjective or disputable (for instance, popular vote - do we include caucuses? FL and MI?).

pieces of what you wrote. So I will give you a rec for at least trying to "unite".   :)

Progressive Blue

honestly, i don't think either one would would select each other.  Granted, it makes sense, HRC's ability to sell to the folks that were critical to our losses in 00/04, and Obama's passion is something HRC needs.

I still say the best option for both would be John Edwards.  For HRc, that's a passionate individual to her left.  For Obama, it is an individual much further to the left than he is, and someone that's able to sell an economic plan that would boost our hopes in the elections.

That said, other possibilities exist.  Obama could use a strong foreign policy guy, and Webb makes sense, particularly since I buy him reaching out into rural America.  Strickland makes a lot of sense for HRC.

Sen Obama can't reach the magic numbers either.

The real issue doesn't seem to be what the candidates want. It is what the party needs. Overlooked is that Hillary has enormous support within the Latino and Asian communities as well as among gays and lesbians. She also has brought a lot of new people into the system. And raised turnout among women, Asians and Latinos. Not putting her on the ticket alienates these groups to the point where some will not vote Dem in Nov.

Polls show that up to 25% of her voters will not vote for Obama. This needs to be taken into account.

Big Dog had some words on this today:

"I know that she has always been open to it, because she believes that if you can unite the energy and the new people that he's brought in and the people in these vast swaths of small town and rural America that she's carried overwhelmingly, if you had those two things together she thinks it'd be hard to beat. I mean you look at the, you look at the, you look at the map of Texas and the map in Ohio. And the map in Missouri or -- well Arkansas's not a good case because they know her and she won every place there.

"But you look at most of these places, he would win the urban areas and the upscale voters, and she wins the traditional rural areas that we lost when President Reagan was president. If you put those two things together, you'd have an almost unstoppable force."

Exactly what I was saying yesterday. People it's time to end the squabbling. A unity ticket is the answer.

All Clinton supporters should just leave the Democratic party. An Obama bot told me that today lol I wonder how they think they will do without us.

And the whining begins immediately!

There is no way that this would be of benefit to the country or to Obama. The ONLY one this would benefit is Clinton and she has made sure to close that door. The Clinton's fouled this water again in the last week.Besides that Obama is head and shoulders above these two in character and integrity -not to mention that Michelle would probably put the kaboosh on this ---who needs the most divisive and conniving woman in politcs today to pollute the pool. She needs to go with McCain who is much more suited to her.The DemoRupug party--McCain/Clinton--maybe they could have another vodka party or two?

Seems odd to comment on my own diary, but here goes.  Reading the comments here just reinforces what I said previously.  The few thousand "I won't vote for her/him" bloggers will be left behind by the winds of political necessity.  This is a shotgun marriage made in heaven for the rank and file of the party.  The Clintons are well aware of this and have been signalling heavily all week.  Working the refs a lot, but still signalling they are open to a deal.  Lets get this done and move on to beating McCain in the fall.  Obama/Clinton 2008  Together, they will make history.  Thats our campaign slogan.  Thats the next 16 years.  Get on board and lets help make history.

No way should she take 2nd place to someone that is NOT QUALIFIED to be president.....

I'm pretty sure Obama's going to get the nomination, and I say that as a Hillary supporter. But--also as a Hillary supporter--the last thing I want to see is her accepting one of the least powerful positions in Washington. As he says on The West Wing, the only Constitutional duty of the VP is to have a pulse. There are administrative assistants in Boise with more power.

Hillary needs to run as far as she can, and if/when she loses, she needs to start seriously working her way towards the ACTUAL second-most-powwerful position in Washington. Namely, the one now held by the lily-livered Harry Reid. That's a spot where she could do some unbelievably good work.