So I was intrigued to read about the results of a MilitaryTimes poll about Obama, the writeup of which was full of choice quotations such as this:

“Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers, nobody has confidence in this guy as commander in chief,” said one lance corporal who asked not to be identified.

There is a caveat to the poll results that's buried rather far down:

The responses are not representative of the opinions of the military as a whole. The survey group overall under-represents minorities, women and junior enlisted service members, and over-represents soldiers.

What's left unsaid is that what you're left with are the heart of the professional corps of servicemembers that make our modern military.  As such, these results are somewhat disturbing - is there a point where military members will publicly and vocally disagree with their chain of command as with the Revolt of the Admirals?  What about DADT?  (My fears about DADT are actually a bit overstated - I believe that as older members retire, resign or simply leave the service you'll see a shift in attitudes rather quickly.)  My biggest fear is that the military will reach a critical mass of politicization and will then be forever lost to a whole other segment of the population - one that isn't conservative and Republican - with dire implications for the right (or wrong) leader who happens to either cross that ultra-politicized military or charm them into doing his/her bidding.

The debates unnerved both candidates. When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."

from Newsweek

40 hours and counting...

Being an naval aviator on a carrier and claiming you know and understand nuclear energy is like living next to Russia and claiming you have foreign experience.

I suppose we're at the grade-school level of discourse with the McCain campaign now.

Contrast that with the outright pity I feel for my friends across the aisle who, in John McCain, seem to have a guy that would have been great to run in 2000... but is now far past his prime and struggling to keep his head above water.  Witness the extent to which he's staking his campaign on his foreign policy experience - and then witness the extreme and repeated gaffes such as "Iraq-Pakistan border," "Czechoslovakia," and then the latest issue of the timeline of the surge vs. the Anbar Awakening and effects of one upon the other.  The fact that the Iraqi PM explicitly endorsed Obama's stated plan for withdrawal from Iraq vice the muddle that is the McCain plan only serves to further push McCain out to the edges of electability. 

Indeed, it would appear that right now, he only has a few things going for him: fear of an Obama presidency, fear of a Democratic presidency, his reputation from his pre-2000 actions and the fact that the press fawns over him.  At the same time, that just might be enough - get him some decent handlers and gifted speechwriters (along with a LOT of practice at speechifyin') and who knows what situation we'll be looking at in October.

"He shook my hand and said, 'Thank you for being here; I'm sure it's not easy,' '' said Stevenson of her meeting with Obama.  "I thanked him and said that everyone involved in his campaign had been so gracious. I didn't know what to say, so I mentioned that my daughter works for a federal health clinic. And he knew right away which program I was talking about. He said, 'Oh that's wonderful.' ''

...

The whole evening had been filled with similar graciousness and kindness, Stevenson said. 

godly; marked by kindness and courtesy; marked by tact and delicacy; characterized by charm, good taste, generosity of spirit, and the tasteful leisure of wealth and good breeding; used conventionally of royalty and high nobility

Hillary let the world know with the timing and delivery of her speech that she does not intend to be perceived as gracious in any sense of the word.  Obama's speech was delivered about an hour before Clinton's, and indeed first refers her in the third paragraph, wherein he goes on to talk about her strength and tenacity in the campaign, and brings them up as strong points for her.  Let me rephrase: he praised her and her campaign before he ever talked about his.  

His supporters are largely on the same page, cheering the mention of her name and, if not cheering, at least not booing Obama's mention of her and Bill as leaders of the Democratic Party.  This is in marked contrast to the "DEN-VER! DEN-VER! DEN-VER!" chant of Hillary's supporters, both at the meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee and at her speech on Tuesday night.  The implication of the chant seemed to be "to hell with party unity - there's still a slim chance we can pull this out!"  

Further contrast can be found in the content of her speech, which reads more of a standard stump speech than anything else - and Hillary has HAD to see the writing on the wall for a while now - either make victories in both South Dakota and Montana or pack it in, as Obama will have the delegates he needs to secure the nomination.  It's a simple decision tree: make a campaign speech or make a concession speech.  

As others have noted, Hillary had a chance to strike a much less discordant tone by graciously conceding the contest, calling for unity, and promising to fight on for one or two issues such as universal health care or dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Instead, she went with what amounted to a large middle  finger to the sections of the party that either support Obama or simply want to see the nomination process resolved quickly and decisively in order to move on to the real struggle.   Obama struck this note with pitch-perfect precision: he acknowledged the contributions of Hillary both in terms of the historical aspect of a woman running for president - quite hard, I may add - and in terms of the goods that she brought to the party as a whole.

This, in contrast to Hillary's speech, seems to be at the heart of the matter: whereas Obama and McCain have both moved on to locking metaphorical horns with each other, with each moving to solidify their hold on their parties and bring former Clinton supporters into their camps, Hillary has yet to reciprocate with Obama, instead making vague hints about sliding into Obama's vice presidential slot.  And pardon the snark, but I thought that one of the privileges of winning your party's nomination is that you get to pick your VP.

In the end the machinations of the primary season will all be for nought, as Hillary will concede or suspend her campaign sometime in the near future, possibly as soon as Friday Saturday.  She and Obama will hug, I'm betting there will be tears and possibly some "DEN-VER!" chants, but nothing too serious.  However, the damage has been done, the tone has been set, and it's going to be some time before the bad blood between the two camps is resolved or faded away.  That discordant tone?  It's the hallmark of people who are not gracious.