Support for Obama: The Disloyal and the Stupid?

I saw a story picked up by the Associated Press yesterday. It was about a poor woman from Wisconsin, named Debra Bartoshevich, who lost her ticket to Denver. The story struck me as having some significance for my local community (Tazewell County, Va.) and the larger region of Central Appalachia...

The details are simple:

1. Wisconsin has primary.
2. Debra Bartoshevich becomes Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Wisconsin.
3. Hillary drops out of race
4. Bartoshevich gives interview to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and says that will support McCain.
5. Wisconsin Democratic Party's administrative committee strips Bartoshevich of delegate credentials by a vote of 27-0 for violating the rule that says a delegate must support the party's nominee.

Simple...

The primaries are over. I wasn't a huge fan of either Obama of Hillary. I voted for John Edwards. But the primaries are over.

• I want a president who is opposed to tax advantages for the obscenely wealthy and who, instead, wants to rebalance the tax scale to help the middle class a little more. That's Obama, not McCain.
• I want a president who's interested in comprehensive health insurance for all Americans regardless of employment or ability to pay. That's Obama, not McCain.
• I want a president who can get us out of the costly and (in my view) pointless war in Iraq sooner, rather than later. That's Obama, not McCain
• I want a president who might bring sanity back to public education compared to the insane demands of NCLB and its philosophy of "the beatings will continue until morale improves..." That's Obama, not McCain.

I could go on...

I've heard the petty grumbling. Grumblers have rights. Vote for whomever you like. Tell people how you feel and, by all means, put a sign in your yard. But for now, if it's a McCain sign you want to put in your yard, stop coming to Democratic Party meetings. Tell people that you used to be a Democrat.

Political parties are about goals and values. As far as I can see, McCain isn't interested in what Democrats value. Hillary probably won't be the first woman president - not this go 'round, at least. It's time to either get over it and line up, or get out!