Nancy from Newton, Mass. was hustling to catch up with a parade of hardcore Hillary-ites on Denver’s 16th Street Mall on Monday carrying balloons, wearing Hillary face masks and chanting “18 million.”

I abandoned my Caesar salad and hoofed it after Nancy because I’d been looking for a last gasp Hillary protester. After one day in Denver I’d run into plenty of Hillary admirers but they were former believers who’d gone over the Hill to Obama-land.

And they really wish their resister sisters would too. ASAP.

That same day I talked to delegate Rachel Binah from Mendocino about the hold-outs and she said it is now up to Hillary to convince them they have to join the Obama-Biden bandwagon.

“She can and she will,” said Binah, sympathetic that “naturally they feel hurt,” first to have their once slam-dunk candidate drop out of the race and then be passed over for VP.

“People understand how they feel. But they must understand that all those things they hold dear are in jeopardy with another Bush-like administration. And it’s not just the issue of choice, but the economy, the environment and what happens to the Supreme Court.”

I think Nancy from Newton and the others are looking for just a couple days more of understanding. And a little more honor and respect for their candidate. The one whose votes represent 18 million new cracks in the glass ceiling. The one who many still insist would be stronger, tougher than Obama. They want to vote for her one more time.

And if they can’t does this mean they’ll vote for the other guy come November, or not vote at all? Nancy said “I don’t think people should interpret it this way,” and then she pointedly added that she’d been a loyal Democrat for 36 years. And I took that to mean she wasn’t going to change in November.

I asked Marie Wilson who directs the non-partisan White House Project, which would like to see a woman in the top office as well as running for a lot more seats at all levels, about this last call for Hillary.

She thinks that the resistance is more general than specific. “It’s as much about history as it is about Hillary,” said Wilson who knows about women frustrated in their attempts to win public office.

“I don’t go any place where I don’t hear from some woman how she was advised to pull out of the race, to not run, to let the man be the candidate, for the sake of the party,” said Wilson, who’s also famous for creating Take Your Daughters (and then Sons) to Work Day.

I want to hope the Hillary women in the street will be satisfied with just a little more limelight for the woman whom they thought would take them all to the top. And then it will be up to their icon to tell the convention and the world and her sisters thank you very much, but she’s not over and they’re not
either.

Besides, most of us think Hillary’s got another better-than-VP job awaiting in Obama-land. Like Supreme Court justice. Or Czarina of universal health care. Then imagine how loud our united whoops and hollers.

Listen for Susan’s daily reports from out on the streets at the Denver Democratic Convention during NPR coverage at 5:30pm and 6:30pm on KRCB-FM, 91.1 FM

Dear John:

I know the media has been chewing on you for a week now. You’ve become so easy a target – low hanging fruit, as they say. So, I’ll spare you the rant about cheating, lying hypocrites and simply say that when Bill Clinton strayed I wanted to smash a grapefruit in his face and when you did I felt sick to my stomach.

I do have some comments and questions, however.

What if you had gotten the votes and were now the presumed nominee and we were sitting as we are, less than two weeks before the convention, and your secret just popped out? The Democratic Party might have panicked, canceled Denver and handed over the whole thing to John McCain. Or maybe worse, the dirt digging would have become so desperate by both sides that the public would end up with two candidates going at it Sleazo-a-Sleazo with no time to return to the critical issues of the war, the economy and health care.

People are mad and not just because you hurt the woman you professed to love and worship but you put your party at risk. And if you really believe that having a Democratic president is essential for the health and security of the country, you put your whole country at risk, too. For what?

You’ve gotten points from some quarters for the narcissism confession. It’s refreshing, I admit, to hear a high powered person say he believed his own wonderful-ness. But what I don’t get is how the “I’m so awesome” attitude naturally leads a person to slip into the wrong sheets. You suddenly have this free pass to everything, and you think, “I’m going to sneak off with the camera woman”?

Aren’t their other ways to demonstrate your entitlement? If you’re that untouchable and deserving, why not rob a bank? Or have someone buy you a third world country?

To all candidates: Do you consider sexual carte blance a perk of office?

Every time some big name public figure gets caught being unfaithful, we have the debate over whether a politician’s marriage is public property. It’s always after the fact that this comes up, and so maybe we should get all you wanna-be leaders on the record from the start.

Make it one of the debate questions on television. Have Brian Williams ask all the candidates: Who here considers sexual carte blanche a perk of office?”

I have a question for you about the adultery code. You made a point of saying that you were unfaithful at a time Elizabeth was in remission, before she was found to have inoperable cancer. Is that the rule? You can be unfaithful to a sick person as long as you don’t think they’re going to die?

John, you’ve given us so much to talk about. I’ve had disagreements with friends over whether Bill Clinton’s multiple escapades were worse than your supposed single act, seeing as he was a known bad boy and you had that nice guy number going.

We’ve wondered why Hillary Clinton was chastised for being weak and not leaving her philandering husband but Elizabeth is applauded for standing by her man.

And, what about Rielle Hunter? If she was such a believer why did she put your candidacy in jeopardy? Also, didn’t she learn in high school that everybody hates the girl who goes off with someone else’s guy?

You can see, John, that there’s much to discuss. And it has nothing to do with your reverence for working people and how you might have put decency back into government. Maybe the last word on you is what a friend said the other day when I brought up your name.

“John Edwards? What a dope.”

Listen to Dear John, You Dope on KRCB’s Another Voice.

It’s time for us to get it together, and I don’t mean the push to get Hillary Clinton supporters to back Barack Obama. I’m talking about standing with Michelle Obama. And against those members of the media who degrade the national discussion with their grade school taunting.

The ones who get nervous around powerful women, like that silly Tucker Carlson who giggled that Hillary Clinton made him want to cross his legs. Grow up, boy.

I find Michelle Obama brilliant and passionate and think she’d be exciting to have in the White House. All the reasons that some will want to attack her. Assertive, brainy, poised women scare some people, make them hostile.

I don’t think that sexist members of the media defeated Hillary. She made her own blunders. But the braying and the cackling that came from the press was a real pile-on, including some women pundits who were just as smarmy as the men.

But now Clinton has gone away, at least for the time being, and the media dog pack is hunting for someone else. The Republicans are also ready to pounce.

Assertive, brainy, poised women scare some people…

Newsweek columnist Raina Kelley, an African American woman, wrote that Michelle Obama fits the public ideas of a black woman – “unafraid, confident and blunt.” Three qualities that make a Tucker pucker.

At least some defend Michelle’s patriotism, even the usually silent Laura Bush, who said she doesn’t believe Michelle Obama was being un-American when she made that statement about being proud of her country for the first time in her life. The jackals went wild with that. But they ignored the rest of the quote.

She was talking about hope making a comeback. She said, “I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I’ve seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it’s made me proud.”

Then there was the bumped fist she gave her husband the night he secured the nomination. Made some people crazy. What’s the big deal? We see that everyday at the ballpark. All it says is good going, baby.

Some people simply want strong, capable women to disappear. When Hillary Clinton conceded more than a few pundits declared that feminists had lost. A newspaper headline said “Feminist Dream Fades Today,” ignoring the fact that many feminists voted for Barack Obama and their dream was quite intact.

Also ignored is that every time some talking head smeared Hillary Clinton because she wore pantsuits or sounded shrill or looked tired it made a lot of us think more of her and less of the media.

I really don’t know any woman who would vote for John McCain to spite Obama. That’s just plain stupid. But I do know women who supported Clinton just to spite the media.

Back to Michelle Obama. I don’t think she’ll be silenced. She’s said to have an edgy sense of humor so maybe she’ll be able to laugh off the jeers from the playground. And for the rest of us – we can just turn those silly people off our TV.

Listen to the audio version of “Hands Off Michelle!” on the podcast page under Another Voice.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images