Letters to the Editor
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Hillary, look at the time...
Clinton supporters: it's time to ask your candidate to step aside. At this point, she has the merest chance of winning the nomination, and even if, by some miracle, she does, it will come at the cost of exhausting the enthusiasm of ALL DEMOCRATS who desire, above all, to prevent four more years of bull-headed, intransigent and unenlightened national policy.
We simply cannot afford John McCain, whose credentials are apparently strictly his military experience and who acknowledges a limited understanding of economics (and displays less than that). And, in fact, we certainly should question his military/foreign policy acuity. Note Joe Lieberman lurking in the Middle Eastern background.
If each of our Democratic candidates were asked to describe his or her hypothetical victory, it's only Clinton who would have to rely on pledged delegates becoming "unpledged", or on some dubious calculus involving "electoral" votes (which would go to both her and Obama in a general election, anyway), or on some new arrangement to include Florida and Michigan (even though ALL democratic candidates originally agreed to debar votes from those states). Such a victory, relying on a mid-game change of rules, would not only be morally deflating, it would also confirm that change in American politics is not really possible. At least not change for the better.
Furthermore, Ms. Clinton's hope for a nomination now more than ever seems to require slyly diminishing Obama the Man, rather than emphasizing real policy differences. She did so yesterday by implying that Obama's continued association with his reverend makes him less a patriot than she: she shrugged her shoulders and said "Make your own judgement", hoping that seeds of discontent take root. This, in fact, has been her strategy, or that of her cohorts, for quite some time now, beginning in South Carolina, where the race issue was subtly introduced (note, not in a way that anyone could quite put a finger on). It continued when pictures of Obama,wearing a Djelaba, mysteriously appeared on Matt Drudge's website, and Ms. Clinton did not have the good grace, when questioned, to say simply "Of course he's not a Muslim". Her strategy to denigrate Obama was later evinced when Geraldine Ferraro suggested that his success is only the result of his race, and again Clinton showed lack of grace by not simply saying "Senator Obama is a worthy opponent of great achievement, but I think I'm even better". In short, Hillary Clinton's campaign requires more and more unsportsmanlike conduct, and what we really, really need right now, is a good sport! We're a party looking forward to change, and that will be an important contrast with the Republicans in the fall.
Ask Ms. Clinton to leave! If there's truth to the speculation that she's holding out simply to weaken Obama against McCain, hoping to run again in four years, beware of such stupidity. We should not, as a party, have to suffer four more bad years for the sake of Hillary Clinton's vanity.
Mark W