Sunday, March 9, 2008

Why Clinton Should Get Out of the Race, and Get Out NOW

On the days leading up to the March 4th primaries of Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont, it was made known that, regarding the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama desired to make knockout blows.

Clinton needed a K.O. just to catch up to Obama’s delegate numbers, and Obama wanted a K.O to convince Clinton to bow out of the race gracefully.

Neither candidate got what they hoped for. Clinton won Ohio and Rhode Island. Obama won Texas and Vermont.

(A quick tangent: To those who hadn’t heard, after all the results were tallied in Texas, Obama ultimately won more delegates than Clinton. The fact that this has not been widely publicized proves that the “The Press Loves Obama” myth is indeed a myth. If the Press truly loves Obama more than Clinton, they would have reveled in Clinton’s decisive losses in all the primaries after Super Tuesday. But as decisive as Obama’s wins were, the Press downplayed Clinton’s losses. An Obama-loving press would’ve focused more on how badly Clinton lost in those primaries.)

So now back to my original argument: Since neither candidate got their K.O., we are left with the “facts on the ground.” And those facts are: Obama has more delegates that Clinton. More importantly, Clinton genuinely has no hope of getting close to Obama's delegate numbers in the upcoming primaries. This is why we’ve heard so much from the Clinton camp about refocusing on states of Florida and Michigan.

Before the primary season began, Michigan and Florida wanted to change the dates of their primaries, the Democratic National Convention refused to allow this. So it was agreed by the Democratic candidates, including Obama and Clinton, that delegates in Michigan and Florida would not be counted.

But now the Clinton camp wants those delegates to count, and the Obama camp rightly points out that this is tantamount to changing the rules of the game in the middle of the game.

In my opinion, Clinton should get out of the race, and get out of the race NOW. Because while Clinton tries to drag the Democrat race into “overtime,” McCain, who clinched the Republican nomination on March 4th, is fine-tuning his strategy, gathering steam and momentum, and gathering money for his presidential run

And so while Obama and Clinton are exhausting each other, and draining campaign money on each other, McCain is getting a huge head start on tooling up and tricking out his Republican machine.

No matter how weak you think McCain is now, or how strong you think Clinton or Obama will be, don’t forget that the powerful Republican machine was able to hand George W. Bush a decisive win in 2004.

So all the Clinton camp is doing is weakening the eventual Democrat candidate, while the Republican candidate gains strength.

3 comments:

A Recovering Republican said...

I agree with you that Clinton should get out of the race ASAP. Having Obama at the top of the ticket would increase the Democratic majorities in the house and senate. Looking at it from a practical perspective, 43% of all voters in the United States have an unfavorable view of Hillary Clinton. There's no way that Hillary Clinton, starting with such high negatives, would help Democratic candidates. With her incredibly high negatives, Hillary is destined to lose the National race. She knows that. That's why she is desparately pleading for Democrats to send Obama to the back of the bus (even though he'll have the most pledged delegates) as Vice-President--that's the only way she could win. But there's no logical reason to do that. Many "Recovering Republicans" like me, and independents, intend to vote for Obama in the General Election, but would NOT vote for a CLINTON/OBAMA ticket. The best hope that the Democratic Party has to win the Presidency in 2008 is NOT to send Obama to the back of the bus; it's to throw Clinton under the bus!

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more -- it's all about her ego now. There's really no way she'll come near Obama's delegates now. So she's putting her ego above the will of the voters. Talk about tarnishing the Clinton legacy.

She's lost her chance to bow out gracefully, now she has to persist with her "I'm a fierce fighter" face, until her humiliating defeat.

Anonymous said...

This really makes me mad. Because of Hillary's hubris, we're going to have swing voters watching an exhausted Obama debate an invigorated McCain, and decide that only senior citizen McCain has the vigor to be President.

Way to go Hillary.