I may never grow to understand how Democrats think, or not think. And I will never, in this election cycle, understand how Senator Obama’s charisma alone has carried him to where he is now. It’s no surprise, really, just incomprehensible. If your stereotypical Republican thinks with his wallet, your stereotypical Democrat thinks, or at least does not, with his emotions. This primary process has proven disastrous for Democrats. Not just for the next nominee, but also for the party. The soft underbelly of their inconsistencies and hypocrisies are front and center for everyone to see. Sen. Obama’s celebrity status has allowed him to glide smoothly by, but these days he’s more and more a nominee and far less the deity that the media has portrayed him to be. While reality is hitting him hard, Sen. Clinton is showing just how well she does politics.

In her victory speech last night she was glowing brighter than the inside of a house painted by Thomas Kinkade. Sen. Obama’s speech made him sound tired, desperate, and clinging at straws: a man in position for victory yet fighting from a position of weakness. Closing a gap in a key state from 25 to 10 points is not a victory, it is damage control. The problem with Sen. Obama is that while he may not be as vicious, his supporters clearly are. And while the same can be said of Sen. Clinton’s supporters, Geraldine Ferraro has been the clear example that there are certain criticisms of the Senator from Illinois that will not be allowed to fly in today’s political climate.

What amuses me more, beyond the nature of Democrat discourse, is the way some of the pro-Obama folk have behaved. The running accusation is that Sen. Clinton acts “entitled” to the nomination, and by extension, the presidency (Andrew Sullivan: The Worst Of All Worlds For The Dems). What escapes Sullivan and his mental ilk is that the rules have been written and agreed upon by both parties and they are playing by those rules. The Democrats, in their stupid assessment of what is fair and what is not, have agreed on a proportionate delegate distribution that prevents a clear winner from emerging. To think, there are folk who want to implement this on the level of the Electoral College (Fairvote: Reform Options for the Electoral College). The resulting chaos isn’t really as bad as the reactions of party illuminati demanding Sen. Clinton to back down.

Why should she? She has a thesis in her mind and is more than willing to present it to everyone. The rules of the Democrats have allowed for this possiblity, how little the chance, and now everyone needs to play. She could have floated the idea of changing the rules in mid-game to a winner take all system, which would have given her the nomination at this point. She didn’t. She intends to play by the rules of their game. Obama supporters are instead whiners demanding of the Superdelegates to announce their allegiances now—NOW, DAMMIT—in order to settle this and “heal” the party. What they fail to realize is that the Superdelegates are there exactly for a situtation like this. Being the lords of the unwashed Democrat masses, they can make decisions that can overturn the raging mobs that may nominate an undesireable candidate. Sen. Clinton knows the game and she has been courting the Superdelegates, no doubt (John Podhoretz: The Big Superdelegate Suck-Up).

Sen. Clinton in this primary has been a story of the underdog. She has the media stacked against her (Jeralyn Merritt: How the MSM Treats Hillary: One Video Shows It All) , she has been called epithets at a level that would be unacceptable were similarly bigoted comments were levelled at her opponent (“nutcracker” being a common one), and even in victory she is painted as a loser by pro-Obama media outlets (Ann Althouse: And Hillary gets her 10 point margin.). Perhaps the most telling sign is the attitude that those who voted for Sen. Clinton don’t really matter. Assuming that trend from one comment alone may be an exercise in tea leaves, but there is something to glean from the Google News search results, too.

The ugly disdain for undesired voters is the Democrat behavior that has haunted them, election after election. That a large portion of voters of Pennsylvania have been labelled as racist, or portrayed through statistics as uneducated, for not voting for Obama reeks both of in-party and media hubris that is simply beyond belief.

I post here, for my posterity and that of my handful of readers, the words that have marked Barack Obama’s doom as a presidential candidate:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama said. “And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

This is one that will never go away; his attempts to spin it into something it is not has made the situation worse. In doing so, he has placed himself in the league of Ted Kennedy: the man who never took responsibility for his role in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. In so doing, Senator Kennedy placed himself in a position of distrust that kept the presidency away from him, and quite rightfully so.

The man who ran on the “audacity of hope” is now the man running on the audacity of doublespeak. The highbrow condescension with which he spoke those words are truly audacious: he had insulted and denigrated an entire demographic whose value systems would, in his mind, not be in place were economic circumstances run in their favor.

To call this moment of his a gaffe is to make light of a dark vision into his psyche. Humorous as the depictions some may be, Obama has revealed a side to him that I was expecting to see not now, but when he won the presidency—having run on a messianic platform that even now bewilders the rational mind. I admit delight, though, at the humorous paraphrases: Obama To Rural Pennsylvanians: Vote For Me, You Corncob-Smokin’, Banjo-Strokin’ Chicken-Chokin’ Cousin-Pokin’ Inbred Hillbilly Racist Morons (Ace of Spades); Obama reaches out to the gun-humpin Jesus freaks! (Gateway Pundit).

But lest the laughter distract me from the point: this is a man who has lost his bid for the presidency. In this I echo the conclusions of many, including those of John Hinderacker, but not for the reasons he cites, not just for the very words he uttered. Obama has danced on his own words, spinning them in the hope that an attentive electorate would ignore the context of his statement while placing context in others. He has shown, in his first term—one handed to him by a svelte and lovely woman at that—his great ability to be clearly unclear. He has grown to be a quintessential senator, whose nuance rivals that of John F. Kerry. He has practiced well; I reckon he will need it in his lifetime career as senator of Illinois.

Senator Obama has identified himself as the man whose words will have to be explained to the unwashed masses by his circle of interpreters. The man described by Harry Reid as articulate has proven himself articulate beyond comprehension. This is the same man who days before was the darling of Carter and Gore, so much so that they were willing to bring their combined power upon Hillary Clinton in an attempt to prevent the self-destruction of their party. I beseech these buffoons to reflect upon their arrogance at even intimating such action.

This is, in contrast, to Senator McCain. I have expressed my dislike of the man for his politics: for teaming up with ideological opponents when he has seen fit. But I will laud him for the image of integrity that he has placed in front of us. I have yet to hear him backpedal upon his words. I have yet to hear him explain his words to those who lack understanding. His rejection of Obama’s “apology” or explanation is his invitation to the Senator to play on his terms, and Senator Obama and his cult following just can’t seem to grasp that they are no longer running this election period on theirs.

References: (Hugh Hewitt: Obama Wasn’t Just Insulting Pennsylvanians; Glenn Reynolds: on April 11, a roundup; Tom Maguire: I was born in a small town; Victor Davis Hanson: Why Orwell Matters.)