Please rise, raise your right hand or put it on your heart or whatever, and repeat after me:
I do not know what the future will bring.
Otherwise I would have bought lottery tickets.
Otherwise I would have ran out and bought a hybrid before it was cool.
Otherwise I would have asked her out to the semi-formal, knowing full well I would have married her seven years later.
I do not know what the future will bring.
And because I do not know, I am smart enough not to raise expectations to the point where, given the events on the ground, there is a possibility where it won't be met.
And because I am smart enough, I will not declare victory in this primary season until victory is actually achieved.
(do not stop, just keep repeating)
I am a Barack Obama supporter.
And because I am a Barack Obama supporter, I believe in the slow and steady change that will ultimately culminate into a lasting movement of change in Washington that will begin on the Senator's inauguration in January of next year.
And because of that belief, I will fight every moment of every day to ensure that ours is an enduring movement. I will not let up. I will not concede. I will not surrender.
Therefore, in this dedication to the Senator's campaign for change and progress, I will not be so arrogant as to declare dead something which is still living. I will not be so proud of the minor successes we as a movement have achieved that I will foolishly let up on the opponents of change.
Therefore, as a Barack Obama supporter, I will not prematurely declare victory and presume that Hillary Clinton will graciously concede in front of her supporters, until such takes place, on the record and without condition.
I do not know what the future will bring.
I do not know if Hillary Clinton plans to concede the nomination fight to Barack Obama when and after the polls close in Montana and South Dakota, nor do I believe there has been anything in the nature of her campaign to suggest her acknowledgment of reality.
So, while it is certainly possible, I do not know what the future will bring.
THEREFORE, come Tuesday night, Wednesday morning and all the moments thereafter, I, as an intelligent and judicious supporter of Senator Barack Obama, will look back at all the moments where I could have jumped the gun and declared victory one moment too soon. I will remember that I didn't, and I will be happy.
I will be happy, for I will not be disappointed at the ridiculously high expectations I projected onto others to do the right thing, despite the example we try to set for them. Because I do not know what the future will bring, I will not be resentful of the predictions I have made, nor will I be impatient of the actions of others I would have failed to predict.
Between now and when the polls close in Montana and South Dakota, I will repeat these words and, while expecting a great deal in the change we see in ourselves, expect nothing at all from anyone on the other side of this nominating contest.
I will not expect a concession.
I will not expect surrender.
I will not expect a sudden change of course.
Until it happens, I will not expect Hillary Clinton to unconditionally support Barack Obama at any point in the near future.
Rather, I will continue to contribute to the slow and steady movement of change that we, as Barack Obama supporters, began so many months ago, knowing full well that there is much to be done and we, as a movement, would be foolish to rest for even one moment in this campaign.
I do not know what the future will bring. So I will try, as I have always done, to help build it, rather than carelessly predict it.