Bill Richardson's Endorsement and Hillary's Reaction Should Tell You Everything.

Bill Richardson's endorsement of Barack Obama should show you EXACTLY what is wrong with Hillary and her campaign.

First - It's shows you that people who respect and admire the Clintons are also growing tired of the brand of ridiculous kamikaze politics the Clintons are playing with the Democratic party. They are sick of watching them play racist politics and then blame Obama for it. They are sick of the constant stream of lies and attempts at character assassination that Hillary describes as "the fun part". They are sick of the Clintons, as Keith Olbermann pointed out, running as if she were the Republican against the Democrat, Barack Obama. They are sick of the Clintons handing John McCain a free pass in the general election when it comes to his temper and lack of knowledge in foreign policy, in order to tear down someone who isn't them. They are sick of the fear mongering advertising that only drives people away from the ballot box. They are sick of the Clintons "sacrifice the party and the nation so I can win" mentality, and scorched earth policy of Kissinger in Vietnam come to the Democratic Primary. They are sick of a Democratic Huckabee that just doesn't know when to give up (though, unlike Huckabee, isn't working at building up the other candidate). After months of it, they are finally sick of the bullshit. And it's about time.

Second - It's shows how much of a terrible, distorting, and disgusting effect Mark Penn and the tens of millions of dollars Hillary's donors are paying him have on Democracy. Mark Penn, and, by extension, the Clinton campaign as a whole, looks at people and states as numbers and statistics. They break everything down into infinitesimal parts and then give them completely subjective ranks based on how favorable they are to the Clinton campaign. It not only shows in the ludicrous claims he makes about Hillary winning Nevada and Texas, and that every important state, except Illinois, has voted for Hillary (that's 29 insigificant states for Obama) but shows itself in how much respect he has for the longtime Clinton friend, and still serving Governor from New Mexico (from the WSJ):

“The time that he could have been effective has long since passed. I don’t think it is a significant endorsement in this environment.”

Why is it not significant at this time? I'll let Bill Richardson explain why Mark Penn thinks he doesn't matter:

"I resent the fact that the Clinton people are now saying that my endorsement is too late because I only can help with Texans — with Texas and Hispanics, implying that that's my only value," the New Mexico governor told CNN's John King."That's typical of some of his advisers that kind of turned me off."

Basically, Bill Richardson is Latino, so he can only help with Latinos, and there aren't enough of them in PA, NC, or Indiana. Forget his years of service and experience, forget that he was a well respected (though unsuccessful) Presidential nominee, his skin is brown and that's no longer an important demographic.
Let me be the first to say: Fuck You, Mark Penn.

Lastly - it shows that Hillary Clinton feels entitlement because of favors done by her husband. That's why James Carville said the following about Richardson and his endorsement (in the NY Times):

“[It's] An act of betrayal. Mr. Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Mr. Carville said, referring to Holy Week.

A couple of major problems with this:

First - If Bill Richardson is Judas, Hillary Clinton is Jesus in this analogy (or Jesus' wife, possibly?). (update- Matt Yglesias and Andrew Sullivan might have beaten me to it)

Second - Why does Bill Richardson owe Hillary Clinton anything? She didn't appoint him to anything. Essentially, Carville is explicitly making the argument that the Clinton camp has been admonishing, that they feel a sense of entitlement- that Democrats and, most disturbingly superdelegates (especially those who had ties to Bill's Presidency), owe Hillary their vote. Popular Votes be damned, Pledged Delegates be damned, Any state that dares vote for Obama be damned, We All Owe The Clintons. After all, Democrats did lose both houses of Congress and hand the presidency over to a stumbling moron and his greed driven puppeteers for eight years.