Letters to the Editor
BryanS
Published Letters: 365 Editor's Choice: 1
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Hillary doesn't have the option of dropping out
[Read the article: What should Hillary Clinton do now?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here](Reposted from another comments section, but I think it's still relevant.)
From what's being reported, Hillary is currently in debt to the tune of $25 million, about half of which is from personal loans she and Bill extended to her campaign (much of the other half is owed to super-consultant Penn the Hutt). If she wants to see that money back, she needs to raise it between now and the Democratic convention in August. After the contest is over, she can only repay herself $250,000, according to federal election law.
http://www.slate.com/id/2190880/
So I don't think that this is a matter of Hillary not realizing that it's over. I think it has more to do with the fact that she can't publicly admit that without seriously compromising her already anemic fundraising and flushing millions of her own dollars down the toilet.
That means that the few contributing supporters she has left are not improving her odds of victory one bit. They're sending Mark Penn an eight-figure thank-you note for the "heckuva job" he did in helping to snatch Hillary's defeat from the jaws of victory, and they're subsidizing the unwise investments Hillary made in her own lost cause.
That also means that Hillary is having to force herself to go through the motions of campaigning, even though she must know that she's finished. She can't go negative against Obama without risking massive superdelegate retaliation in the name of party unity (not to mention her family's political legacy), and in the dire state she's in, she's certainly not going to out-hope Obama.
How awful it must be to have to put yourself through the grueling paces of a presidential primary that has already gone on longer than any in history, knowing full well that you have absolutely no chance of victory. If she hadn't spent the last two months running a brutally negative campaign against the most inspiring candidate I've seen in my lifetime, I'd almost have to feel sorry for her.
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@ rphillips111
[Read the article: What does Hillary want?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Marxist Express?"
Really? That's the best you can do?
1956 called. They'd like their opposition research back.
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@ walter_map
[Read the article: What should Hillary Clinton do now?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I voted for Nader in 2000, in California, 15 minutes before the polls closed, once the exit polls were showing that Gore was going to win the state in a walk. I was also 24 years old and spoiled by the fact that the economy had been good for the entirety of my short adult life, and neither me nor my friends had been sent off to fight an unnecessary war based on lies. Eight years later, none of that is true.
So what possible excuse could you have for supporting that wrinkled-suit charlatan today?
Ralph Nader will not only never become president, he'll never even earn enough votes to create a viable third party. The only reason his name appears on any ballots at all is because of free legal help and contributions from right-wing sources who desperately need a spoiler candidate this year. And he will never convince the Democratic party to shift to the left, because in order to satisfy the requirements of the few thousand arrogant, impractical extremists who support him would cost hundreds of thousands of moderate votes.
I can't stand the purer-than-thou attitude of Nader supporters, and I used to be one of them. Rather than accepting the challenge of choosing an imperfect but viable option and taking partial responsibility for their candidate's failings, they opt for the easy way out and cast a meaningless ballot for an unelectable straw man who will never win, and therefore never embarrass them.
I'm willing to let Obama embarrass me a few times over the next eight years, because I know that he's going to make me very proud for having supported him as well. I feel sorry for anyone who will never give themselves the chance to experience that as well.
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@ MaddieP
[Read the article: What should Hillary Clinton do now?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maddie, follow the Slate link in one of my previous comments (a couple of pages back). It contains some interesting info about what can and can't be done about campaign debt.
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@ ShawnWM
[Read the article: What should Hillary Clinton do now?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Shawn, the only thing funnier than reading your hilariously off-base predictions is imagining how many times you had to stop typing in the middle of your rant to ball your widdle fists in rage. You've got to be one of the sorest losers I've ever seen, and considering who you've got for company around here, that's saying something.
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@ HealThisNation
[Read the article: What should Hillary Clinton do now?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Obama can pay her debt under the rules if she drops out before the convention, but there is a cap of $250,000 that can be paid to her by the party to pay down the debt if she goes to the convention? Something like that? If Obama could pay her bills, do you think that would speed this up?
Well, it's a little more complicated than that. I don't think Obama can pay her bills directly, because that would be a campaign contribution far and away above the limits allowed by federal law. But he can stage rallies where he and Hillary both appear, with the money being split 50-50 between them. Or he can send out a direct appeal to his supporters to contribute to Hillary's campaign for the purposes of paying down her debt. But yeah, at a certain point, unless Hillary and Bill literally want to bankrupt themselves and burn bridges with the people they still owe money to, she has to stop running.
I really do think that the money issue is at least half of the reason she's still in this thing. But I also believe that the other half is because, for the sake of posterity, she doesn't want anyone saying she didn't give it everything she had. And I do respect that attitude, but not when it comes at the expense of party unity.
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Sorry, Walter
[Read the article: What should Hillary Clinton do now?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I should have read your original post more clearly and shouldn't have jumped all over you for a position you don't support. Mea culpa.