Much Congratulations for Obama

There has been great wailing and gnashing of teeth, as they say, on all sides throughout this Democratic Primary. The foundational Talking Point through it all has been, the Democrats will unite behind the winner when this mess is finally settled. Now, we get a chance to test this meme.

One thing about Unity. It doesn't mean you have to love, or even really like, those with whom and behind whom you are unifying. What it means, simply and beautifully from the perspective of our republican institutions, is that there is common ground which all have an interest in staking out.

At present, the tracts of common ground are enormous. So what, for example, if Clinton and Obama's health care plans are almost the same, a little different, or widely different? So what if Obama's Health Care plan doesn't fix the whole shabang at once? The point is, if Health Care was a selling point of HRC's in a voter's mind, then they now can cheerfully vote Obama, because of common ground. In short, at least the man acknowledges there is a problem and seeks solutions to it. This puts him in a different category altogether from any prominent Republican.

Similar arguments can and should be made for the gamut of issues foreign and domestic. Because of common ground, HRC supporters ought not withold their votes from Obama come this fall. It really ought not affect things for her die-hards one way or the other, whether she is chosen to be his running mate. In fact, the only argument Harrogate can think of for Obama offering her the Veep spot, is simply as a gesture of genuine respect for someone who garnered so very many votes, who pushed him so hard (and thus arguably at least, made him a better politician), and who in these last few months seems finally to have learned how to give a real political speech. Such, probably, won't constitute enough of an argument, with so much metaphorical blood on the wall.

Obama is going to want to go in a different direction, and that is of course his right, and must be respected as such by all parties involved.

So congratulations, Senator Obama. You practically owned, this season, a demographic of voters that many politicians in both parties have persistently refused to recognize: No, Harrogate is not alluding to race, though that will be all the rage for the next several months. Harrogate instead refers to the burned-out, the bitter, the apathetic. The non-voter, in short, has been pursued this season, and pursued vigorously. Adding this suddenly viable block to the aready substantial block of Democratic loyalists, Obama thinks he's got a shot at winning the White House.

Time will tell if Repubs' Death Grip can be loosed this November, O Readers. Harrogate is deeply skeptical, but with lives in the balance, it would be unethical not to hold out a shred of hope.