I wanted her to leave the race with dignity...

I'm an Obama supporter (migrated from Edwards), but I can't help but have some real respect for Clinton in this race.  She's a fierce and powerful opponent and though she's by no means someone I wanted to be President, I understand why a lot of people were supporting her campaign and I have real respect for the intensity with which she ran her campaign, even if I didn't agree with the ethics of all her choices.

Indeed, Democrats can learn a lot from her willingness to fight, fight, fight and fight, without fear of the consequences.

I'd very much hoped, though, that Clinton would exit this race with some shred of dignity about her, some way to show that her supporters that their time and effort wasn't wasted, and something that gave them all a sense of closure.

That opportunity is now gone.

So here's where things stand: I don't much care what the intent of her comments were.  They were completely and totally inappropriate for whatever reason she made them.   I'm so far beyond anger on this that it's not the fire of range but instead a dull, throbbing, ache.

I'm just amazed, saddened, and disappointed.

I wanted the first woman to run as a serious candidate for president to either win or lose in a way that showed a real chance for her.  She had opportunity after opportunity to exit gracefully, to provide a sense of dignity and to work with her supporters to transition them to supporting Obama, but she was never interested in that.

But that's irrelevant now.  

What's relevant now is that she can't stay in this race, not any longer.  She needs to find a way to exit from this race as quickly as possible, and she needs to do so while taking responsibility for having invoked the assassination of a young, charismatic Democrat while running a campaign against a young, charismatic Democrat.

She needs to find a way to get out of this race with whatever dignity she has left, and I hope this finally gives her the message that it's time.  It's too late to concern ourselves with the psychological needs of her supporters and it's too late to be worried about what effect this has on the race as a whole.

She can't stay in this race any longer.

Period.

I think she knows this.  

I think she's known this for some time now.

Now it's just a matter of whether or this most recent incident is enough for her to go beyond knowing it to actually admit it.

I wanted her to leave this race with dignity.

Now I just want her to leave.