Fine. I'll say it. I won't vote for HIllary if she's the nominee.

[calimary]

267. I'm not totally convinced anybody else on our team has the clout to win it. I think she can win.

Just my totally amateur and subjective opinion here, as objective as I still try to be. My apologies!

But love her or hate her, Hillary's got way too much going for her and momentum. Anybody else in there from our side might make it awfully tempting for a jeb bush or somebody perceived to be "hmmm, a republi-CON I think I could live with" to make a run for it. And a jeb bush would have a whole lot more momentum and funding than anybody on our side. Not Biden, whom I just love. And not Bernie Sanders - much as I like, admire, and agree with him.

She's got the big, solid, steady and realistic numbers and I suspect there are two separate categories of voters whose hearts she's already won: First, those who voted for her in 2008 and thought - THEN - that it was time for a woman president and she was fully capable of running for that. Now they might feel as though their time has finally arrived (and perhaps, a wee bit, that they're owed?). And second, those who wish to take part in making history yet again. That's one of MANY things that motivated people to turn out in 2008 and turn out for Barack Obama: the chance to vote for the First African American President of the United States. It's hard to find an event more momentous in American history than that - and it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It's one of those events, political, historical, and cultural alike, in which people will remember where they were when they heard he'd been declared the winner. While the whites-only club has had to open its doors much wider, there's still one other closed door to break through: the men-only club. With Hillary running, I think that will add an extra current of wind at her campaign's back (assuming she runs of course, and this is only my opinion). Frankly, I hope it does. Women have faced so much obstruction - seemingly more by the day - that I think this statement needs to be made. And no one can argue that she's not qualified.

There are few other possibilities with an objectively realistic chance to win. It becomes a lot less difficult to work for keeping the White House true blue than if a less clout-worthy Dem had to carry the party standard. Unfortunately, the GOP becomes more competitive without the Hillary gorilla in the room. It's a lower mountain for them to climb, and there are people on their end who are, unfortunately, viewed as somewhat tolerable in a national campaign.