There will be a Primary, and if Hillary wants to be President

[calimary]

24. I'm a Hillary supporter just basically on the premise that a D must keep the White House.

That's the sheer Machiavellian in me. If she's the party nominee, I'm most certainly going to vote for her. And I've made that case here before.

HOWEVER... I am hoping that what we're seeing in the past few days and/or weeks is a national gut check. Maybe we're seeing a critical mass starting to be approached - where enough of us and our fellow Americans have just finally had a belly-full. I've been wondering if we've reached the "okay - seriously. Enough is ENOUGH!" The Fed-fucking-UP point. I kinda hope we have. Hesitant to get too excited about it, but I think I'm noticing something. It's the police brutality/Ferguson/"I Can't Breathe" protests that won't stop. It's the uproar about torture. It's the accelerating Elizabeth Warren movement as though a latter-day Joan of Arc, making a VERY loud, VERY public, and VERY attention-getting case for the little guy, the Main Street guy, middle class families. As we've seen NO ONE else do with such vigor and so articulate. Telling truths. And naming names. She's caught fire. As all these other things are coming to massive public attention. Occupy was only the beginning.

And I believe Hillary Clinton is way too smart not to notice. I am HOPING that it pushes her leftward. Hoping To God. IF FOR NO OTHER REASON that she recognizes what might well be turning into a national sea change, the end of an era, WAY more than a trend - a new mood flowering and solidifying across the land. I hope she does. I hope she decides to go with the tide. I was on the phone with a friend today who speculated that Hillary has already blown it, because she hasn't said peep about a LOT of things coming to a head at the moment - toward which she should be showing leadership. Whether she decides to run or NOT. Where is she on torture? Where is she on holding those responsible accountable for their actions? Where is she on Michael Brown's case? On Eric Garner's case? Where is she on grand juries - she should be issuing position statements or comments on these things, especially with her lawyer background. Where is she on police brutality, police militarization? Where is she on Wall Street and how Dodd-Frank has just had a big hole shot in it? Where is she on too-big-to-fail? I'm troubled by that.

I admire her brains like nobody's business, and I think if anybody's in a strong position actually to break that last glass ceiling, it's she. Nobody else has the resume or the gravitas or the experience. And she was the first person really to try seriously to fix America's health care system. But she needs to weigh in. She needs to come out of seclusion and say something. And take a stand. And let us see what kind of national leader she really is especially in tense times like these. I HOPE she starts taking the left more seriously. It's the most progressive Senator other than Bernie Sanders who's actually out there, vigorously pushing this new populism, and showing that leadership. She's also demonstrating a need that hasn't been filled in a LOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNG time - and filling it! We have a champion on this increasingly urgent and relevant cause, and it ain't Hillary. At least not yet, or so far. And I'm wondering if it will be. If it could be. If she's to be our nominee and the first woman President, I think she's gonna have to. And I suspect she knows that, even if she doesn't or won't admit it. The time to be Wall Street's friend appears to be OVER. And I think she's going to have to get with that very seriously, or her aspirations just might become hamstrung.

The thing is - Bottom Line: WE HAVE TO KEEP THE WHITE HOUSE. That is IT. That is the End-All-and-Be-All for 2016. We have to go with our best shot. I'm watching and waiting - because it's going to be telling how much momentum Elizabeth Warren gains. If she turns into a speeding freight train, that might just change the calculus. Or if her prominence and the prominence of her issues force Hillary to evolve.