Hillary was 44 during by far most of 1992, when the photo at right was taken.  This was the "Hillary headband" era, of which Google Images coughs up not a single shot.

She was gorgeous.  Pretty, yes - and that hairband showed she had her funky style - but not even primarily due to that.  It was her very being, her gestalt.  She was smart, successful, witty, exhilirating.  Two other women in contemporary politics spring to mind as examples of her type: they are -- not coincidentally -- Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Edwards.

If you liked smart women, strong women, kind and caring women, women who rejected cultural limitations, women who could compete with the men and be better than the men, then you looked at Hillary and thought that one reason to support Bill was that he had somehow been good enough to land the likes of her.

What Bill Clinton seemed to be to George H.W. Bush, she seemed to be to Barbara Bush.  The antithesis.  The negation.  The cure.

I was going to re-enter the topic of Hillary's comments about the RFK assassination using the cutting edge of humor to explain how crass and how gauche those comments -- which I take to be a previously written, once-used and long-discarded draft of an explanation for why she is justified to remain in the race -- truly were.  I left some examples in comments; I won't even link to them here.  But I've taken some time away from the computer today and I'm no longer in that mood.  I don't think that's any longer the point that needs to be made.

This diary is aimed not at my fellow Obama supporters, with many of whom I argued yesterday at length, taking the position that we did not need to and should not inquire into her motivation in making those remarks, because even the kindest interpretation told a horrible story.

This diary is instead aimed at Hillary supporters, which is why I will (as I usually do not) cross-post on MyDD.  I want to explain the reactions of my cohorts here.  I want to explain what it means to be an Obama supporter these days -- and especially yesterday.

I want to give voice to our fears.

A Katrina-level hurricane may ravage Indiana today; we have to be ready to report on its path of destruction through the state.  We have to make the real imaginable to those who are not there, just as we did in 2005.  This hurricane will pound at the pillars of democracy, blowing countless voters out of their polling places -- because they do not have the proper state-sanctioned photo identification.

Low-income voters, the elderly, and young students would be affected the most.  They are the ones who may not have needed to get proper identification in the past, or who may not have maintained it as current into the present.  The first two groups are those least able to take time away to work their way through the bureaucratic requirements needed for them to be able to exercise their most basic democratic right: an equal opportunity to vote on who will lead their nation.

A terrible lesson in voter suppression may be taught today.  We need to collect individual stories and make sure that people see it for what it is: the political equivalent of Katrina, in which the legitimate demand of the less privileged for protection is intentionally ignored, to widespread shock and outrage.

I have been searching for a way to convey to Clinton supporters -- such as those who predominate here -- how offensive I find her attempts to change the topic from the Tuzla Fables to the Wright sermons ever since the former undercut her campaign.  If fanning the flames of white racial resentment against Blacks is her only path to victory, she has no path to victory.  It has struck me the old consciousness-raising technique of recasting acts based on race, gender, sexuality or religion as if they reflected one of the other dimensions of difference, may shed some new light here.  Being a Jew who originally wanted Russ Feingold to run for President (despite some misgivings about his electability), it occurred to me that we can examine the legitimacy her actions are by imagining how they might translate to a situation where religion, not race, was the concern.

Having posted this elsewhere, where people tilt more towards Obama, I'm offering this for your consideration as well.

Join me, then, in the parallel universe where it is Russ Feingold rather than Barack Obama who won Iowa, drove John Edwards out of the race, and now had an insurmountable pledged delegate lead over Hillary Clinton.

In this universe, controversial sermons from Feingold's rabbi have recently come to light.  How might the Clinton campaign respond?

This is part of a series of diaries rolling out the Congressional campaign of Ron Shepston -- the veteran, aerospace engineer, athlete, and grandfather whom you may know as CanYouBeAngryAndStillDream.  For anyone who doesn't yet know, Ron is running against the ethically-challenged Rep. Gary Miller, who apparently believes that his role in Congress is to make money for his out-of-district friends, in CA-42.  I'm running his campaign full-time.

Something significant to our campaign happened yesterday.  We met with a representative of the DCCC.  More below.

A few months ago, another member of this community and I made a pair of expensive decisions -- decisions to do what we felt we were obligated to do as patriotic Americans.  He -- the good-looking, likable, established-in-the-community one -- decided to run for Congress if I would manage his campaign full-time.  And I agreed to manage his campaign (at a steep discount from standard "Democratic consultant" rates) if it would be more than a token run.

A brain trust of Southern Californian bloggers - people like thereisnospoon, hekebolos, Shockwave, OrangeClouds115, occams hatchet, dday, atdleft, vernonlee, honorary Californian clammyc, and many others - were there at the beginning and have provided support and sage advice since.  Others have joined the train since then.  Tomorrow at 9 a.m. PDT, with the announcement of the name and handle of the nominee, the train leaves the station.

We want you on that train with us.  We're ready to crash that train right through the gates of Congress - and you know that that means we're going to make a lot of noise.