May 14, 2008

Time to Call a Spade a Spade

Let's be honest people, unless Hillary rolls out another 40-60 superdelegates in the next week or two, her mathematical chances at taking the nomination are all but over. So what the hell is she still doing giving stump speeches and campaigning around the nation? Why can't she just give it up? Because she is too smart and keen on the political workings to be defused by one defeat. I'm sure she has studied the history books and you don't have to look very far (Reagan '76 and Hart '84) to find examples of those who were strong losers in an election and then became strong front-runners in future races.

She will be one of the strongest losing candidates that our political playing field has seen for a long while. And I fully believe she knows that this race is over, "I will work my heart out for the nominee of the Democratic Party to make sure we have a Democratic president" were the exact words out of her mouth last night after winning in a landslide victory in West Virginia. As a quick aside, the primary in WVa wasn't even a battleground until Hillary declared it so last week and the results of that election were known months in advance, so those results shouldn't scare anyone in the Obama camp.

What Hillary is doing is setting herself up nice for the 2012 or 2016 run to the White House. She is getting experience in organizing a nationwide campaign and setting the seeds in local communities, recruiting volunteers and organizers that will no doubt benefit her next run for the office. These are all lofty and altruistic goals but hopefully the tone of her current campaign will not divide the Democrats and Independents enough to see John McCain into the White House. That could be her biggest mistake in continuing this campaign. If the Democratic voters feel she betrayed the party to further her own goals (by dividing the vote and wasting precious general election campaign time) she may negate her chances for the future.

So while I won't say Hillary should step down, it is time to regear your statements and views towards the other candidate, it is time to uplift and fulfill the Democratic party. Divisiveness should not be tolerated, no matter how valuable the personal goal is, this election is too important for American's around the world to have mudslinging and stereotypes sway the voters minds.

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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clearly.

Based on the language coming out of her campaign (at least before West Virginia), it looks like she is planning an exit strategy... finally. There's not too much to be gained by sticking around, but I guess two possible reasons are to set herself up for a future white house bid (although Democrats haven't had as much success in re-runs as Republicans) or to make herself the inevitable running mate.