I was listening to the Brian Lehrer Show this morning, a local call-in show on WNYC, the public-radio station in New York.  The topic was Hillary Clinton's speech last night at the convention.  At one point, Lehrer solicited calls from people who were unmoved by Clinton's call for Democrats to unite behind Obama.  He had this exchange with Reba In Manhattan, whom Lehrer described as a "die-hard Hillary supporter for many years":

Brian Lehrer: So she didn't get you last night?

Reba In Manhattan: No, there was nothing she could have said or done that would convince me to vote for Obama.  I was willing to vote for the ticket if he had selected Hillary as the vice president.

BL: Are you going to vote for McCain?

RIM: Yes, I am.  That's the way I can punish the Democratic Party the most for what they did to Hillary.  On the other hand, my vote really doesn't count, because if Obama can't carry the state of New York, he's not going to win the presidency anyway.

BL: So if you were living in Pennsylvania, you might act differently.

RIM: No, I wouldn't.  I'm very angry.  This was Hillary's time.  She's sixty years old.  It's unlikely she's going to have another time to run.  This was her time.

I hope... I hope a few things.  I hope that there aren't too many Rebas, in Manhattan or elsewhere.

I hope, too, that Reba is embarrassed by her words.  "Punish the Democratic Party?"  Who is "the Democratic Party" in this context, and why would a Democrat want to "punish" them?  And what did they "do to Hillary" exactly?  Why, exactly, was this "her time"?  Who said?  Maybe it's Obama's time; maybe it's McCain's time.  Those are the choices now.  Hillary's time, though?  Why?  Voters -- not "the Democratic Party," but people who voted in the primaries -- said that it wasn't "her time."  And guess what: yes, eighteen million voters (or so...) said that it was "her time," but that was during the primaries.  The primaries are over now.  They were over in early June.  It's late August now.  Reba.  Late August. 

And Obama (not "the Democratic Party") decided that it wasn't "her time" to be his running mate either.  Obama wants to get elected, and he feels (right or wrong; I tend to think he's right) that someone else will do a better job of helping him to accomplish that than Hillary would, perhaps given the large number of Americans who simply can't stand her and can't stand her husband.

But go ahead and cut your nose off to spite your face, Reba.  I hope you understand that when you complain about not being able to smell anything anymore, though, sooner or later someone will say to you what everyone else has refrained from saying: "Jesus, what'd you expect?  You cut your own nose off."