Monday, March 31, 2008

Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

Hillary Clinton has very little chance of winning the Democratic Primary.

She is highly unlikely to take the lead in pledged delegates.
She is highly unlikely to take the lead in the popular vote.
She has only a slim chance to take the momentum back in the last ten contests.
She won't win a floor fight at the convention.
She shouldn't quit.

Why?

I have no allegiance to Hillary Clinton. By and large I and my blog-mates have been pretty rough on the former first lady, and I stand behind every post. I will go so far as to say I do not want her to win the nomination. I even posted an open letter to the Super Delegates, asking them to move away from her.

But I don't want her to quit either. She shouldn't quit because she doesn't want to. She is so close in so many ways and she seems to think there is a way she can win this thing and frankly, if she feels that way, I say let her soldier on.

If there is one thing I am sick and tired of hearing its that the Democratic party can't handle a real fight. What kind of a party can't handle stiff competition? Has the party become so afraid, so uneasy in a real contest that they can't stomach it? Senator Clinton probably can't win, but Obama hasn't won yet either. Would you have told the Giants to give up at the start of the fourth quarter this past Superbowl?

For all the talk about how this fight will fracture the party, all this does is feed the old saw that the Democrats are spineless and refuse to make tough decisions. In truth the delegate count is very, very close as is the popular vote. The Democratic party created super delegates to settle such matters. This constant message calling for Hillary to drop out isn't for the good of the party and its not for good of the nation. It is so super delegates don't have do one of two things: A) Deny Obama the nomination despite his winning more delegates, states and votes or B) Deny Clinton the nomination despite her rock star status in the party and her husband's political clout. In other words, if Hillary would just quit, then they wouldn't have to make the tough call. It's spineless, it's pathetic and it's why the country has a hard time trusting national security to the Democratic party. If you think Hillary ought to quit and you're a super delegate, the answer is very simple, pledge for Obama. If enough of you do that, guess what? She'll simply lose. Stop asking someone to quit because you don't have the guts to fire them.