August 27, 2008

(AP) Colorado Springs — Millions became dead Americans walking after a nuclear device was detonated today in Denver by Hillary Clinton in the heat of the Democratic National Convention.

There is no word on whether Barack Obama survived the blast that disrupted all communication just after Clinton stepped to the podium at the crowded Pepsi Center to rally her delegates for a floor vote against the all-but-certain Democratic nominee. Rescue workers have been thwarted by the intense radioactive fallout still raining onto the burnt and twisted landscape that was once the nerve center of the Democratic Party and its hope to reverse eight years of Republican rule under George Bush.

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Hospitals and trauma centers in Colorado Springs have been flooded beyond capacity with victims of the enormous burst. Nearly all the victims identified so far are Democrats, mostly white working-class people who saw their dreams vanish in the blink of an eye.

"I wanted universal health care, not universal Armageddon," said one woman, sobbing through her hands as she was rolled into an emergency room.

Televised video of the convention showed an angry Clinton stepping to the podium and beginning her speech just before the network feeds were lost. The prepared text of her speech, distributed to the press earlier in the day by Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson, was a defiant vow to win the nomination.

"I'm Hillary Clinton, and I will be your nominee or no one will," Clinton said. A single frame of video shows a brilliant white burst, then the signal turns to static.

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Clinton earlier this year threatened the so-called "nuclear option" by challenging the party to seat all delegates from Florida and Michigan, despite having agreed to bar those delegates from the convention after state officials moved their primary dates in violation of party rules.

Although the Democrats' Rules Committee agreed in early June to seat the disputed delegates according to Clinton's demands, Obama was seen as having sewn up the nomination when 138 superdelegates endorsed him on a single day, June 4. Still, an angry Clinton vowed to press on.

With the party in shambles, Republican Sen. John McCain is now expected to take the White House easily in November. Even if Obama has survived the catastrophe, the self-destruction of the party in Denver will make it impossible for him to win the presidency.

As a result, the war in Iraq will continue, costing more American lives; millions more will lose their health care as rising costs force more companies to drop insurance plans; and tens of millions will hit rock-bottom as the economy continues to falter.