It's been a long hard and sometimes quite divisive campaign but it's finally over: Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee to go against John McCain. I know a lot of progressive minded people who are disappointed that Hillary Clinton didn't win and who are upset about some of the things that happened in the race, but for the greater good it's extremely important that all progressives unite up behind the Democratic nominee for reasons I've outlined before. Hillary was right to stay in until the last votes were counted and she come extremely close to being the first female Presidential nominee. Women ought to be proud of that and the 18 million votes she got and I hope in 2016 there are multiple strong female candidates in the race (with Barack Obama's VP being just one of those women). It may seem a long time to wait but the time will come and I know one day the Liberals will have a female leader as well. It remains important for women to know though that those who lead the Democratic Party and Liberal Party of Canada are committed to women's issues. I am certain Dion is and I am pretty sure Obama is as well and I believe they are both the right now to lead our countries.
I do hope all Clinton supporters can see that Barack Obama's platform was extremely similar to Hillary Clinton's and is committed to involving her in his administration (either as VP or in cabinet or perhaps endorsing her for Senate majority leader) and that Hillary's signature policies would become law under an Obama administration and she would receive the credit (I am also hopeful that a woman will be on his ticket whether it is Hillary or not). Virtually none of the changes that Hillary has called for would happen under a McCain Presidency and in fact women's rights would go backwards with McCain's next appointment to the Supreme Court.
It won't be an easy race but it would be dark days indeed to have another 4 years of a Republican Presidency and I believe in Obama's message so I'm certain the world and Canada would be much better off with him as President.
Be back later tomorrow tonight with my reflections on the race and thoughts about where it goes from here.
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