I have a friend who is an amazing activist; she never fears to put her body on the line for the progressive causes in which she believes. She is very pragmatic and recognizes that the Democratic Party, with all its foibles, represents the best means to achieve her objectives. She voted for Barack Obama in the primary in her state, and we agreed to disagree about who should be the nominee of the Democratic Party. Yesterday, she sent me an email that said:

I really, really need an explanation of his vote on FISA. He's a former Constitutional law professor, for Godssake...how could he vote for something that abrogates the FOURTH AMENDMENT? I MUST know his reasoning on this vote. It's the only thing that's gotten to me about all of this campaign silliness. It's big.

In the immortal words of Bill Clinton, let me say that I feel her pain. I reminded her in an email that I sent back that Obama's ascendancy was none of my doing, but given the deal on the table, that is, John McCain or Barack Obama, I am backing Obama without hesitation.

Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama

So we're 116 days out before we start counting electoral votes, and that is a lifetime in politics, but if you're the Republicans' Apparently-Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Presumptive Nominee, you have got to be noticing some distressing things.  Like, say, North Dakota.  

People who argue that it's okay that McCain become president often like to argue that Barack Obama isn't experienced enough to be president. For the sake of argument, we all can concede that McCain has more years of experience than Barack Obama.  McCain is a quarter century older than Obama, so it's a given he has more experience.  McCain's experience is that of a Reagan Republican; Obama's is that of a progressive Democrat.  Fine, we have been around and around on these issues.

I believe there is much more to this experience issue than meets the eye.

Last Tuesday night, after Obama had enough delegates to secure the nomination, I decided to post a diary that would announce my intention to remain loyal to the nominee of my party, even though that nominee was not the woman I had supported during the primary process. The transition has not been easy for me.

One of the issues that people who oppose Barack Obama's election to president like to trot out is the issue of his experience.  I plan to take on the qualitative argument in a future diary, but first, let's put away the exceptionally silly historical quantitative argument based on age, number of years in office, and tenure at different levels of office.

Only three men in the history of the United States, Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland, and Franklin Roosevelt, have won the popular vote in three elections.  Two of these men, Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland, failed to achieve a majority of the votes in the Electoral College in one of their three popular victories, and therefore served only two terms as president even though they won three popular elections.

A number of people have proposed that Barack Obama's years of experience in elected office are not suitable to election to the presidency.

(N.B., I am DCDemocrat in most of the blogosphere, but when I registered here at MyDD, the registration wouldn't let me have my usual moniker.  I am really Mike Meyer, but I go here by the name of Beltway Dem.)

The Internet is a place where people can find like-minded persons and share one's thoughts.  There are many things about it that recommend it as a way to organize and commiserate, but I have discovered it also has a downside in a closely contested nomination battle.  In the final analysis, this diary is about that, but let me make a few points about who I am.

My credentials as a Hillary supporter are elegant.  It's possible that I was the only recognizable blogger on the World Wide Web who stood with Hillary for the first three months of her campaign.  You cannot imagine what that was like.  It was pretty awful.  I went from being DCDemocrat of the golden Democratic credentials to being troll-rated on a regular basis. There was so much enmity towards Hillary in the early months of the campaign that the bloggers who now continue to fight to make Hillary the nominee (even after Hillary has endorsed Obama) were no where to be found, and the people who didn't stand up in those months included the names of all the bloggers who became Hillary's most ardent defenders and now are being sung in diaries in the progressive blogosphere.  

I truly was alone.

In this moment, there are tears in my eyes.  The woman I have supported for the presidency of the United States since she announced in January 2007 is conceding that she has lost the race for president.  Her speech is gracious, expansive, impassioned.

She is standing with Senator Obama to say, "Yes, we can."

Years ago, Bill Clinton said, "I am a Democrat by history, conviction, and temperament."

I too am a Democrat by history, conviction, and temperament.

I have been taking a tour across the Blogosphere today, and I must confess that no where in all of it is there a place where Hillary supporters and Obama supporters are reaching out to one another like we are here on this web site.  So let me congratulate all of you, the supporters of both Hillary and Barack, here at MyDD.

I have observed here that we who supported Hillary have been very gracious in defeat.  I also have observed here that you who supported Barack Obama have been very gracious in victory.