Letters to the Editor
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What's the real motive for staying in now?
I've been trying to figure it out for quite some time. I have a hard time accepting at face value that Hillary thinks she can still win it. I've heard the 2012 theory, of course. I don't really buy it. People prefer a graceful loser, and a lot of people will bitterly remember her campaign for it's Divisiveness, at a time when Unity is needed. I certainly will. I still plan to vote for her if she gets her miracle hail-mary (she won't). But it will be the last time I vote for a DLC candidate that runs a less than ethical campaign against her own alleged party.
Clinton was always near the last of my list going in. She was above Kucinich only because he said war was completely off the table, and he wouldn't kill Osama if given the chance, and called it assassination, and kept at it even when Bill Maher tried to get him to back off of it. This is a dangerous world, and Iraq and Vietnam show that we can fight unjust wars, but it doesn't make every war unjust.
However, I defended her and Bill against all of the crazy rightwingnut attacks early on. I was once a vigorous Bill Clinton defender, and I'm sure I still will defend him about certain things in the future (guess), but he has lost quite a lot of political stock with me, and Hillary has lost nearly all of it, as a direct result of the late stages of this campaign.
I cannot believe that Bill and Hillary, him a Rhodes scholar, her a Wellesley grad, still think they might win the campaign. The curtain came a while back, but up until yesterday, she had a weak argument for continuing her campaign. Yesterday sealed the deal, to borrow a phrase, and they both know it. Superdelegates are not waiting to find some reason to pick Clinton. They are waiting to endorse, mainly for Barack, for as long as she keeps up the charade, to maintain the appearance of fairness. Further, money talks, and Barack's ability to raise a huge amount of funds from a huge amount of people is not going to be ignored by hundreds of politicians. If they are looking for an excuse to vote for anyone, it's him.
So, if I am right, and they know perfectly well that the race is over, what is the reason to continue? I can't plausibly guess. From their actions, the only thing that seems to make sense is that I'm wrong, and they are deluding themselves. I realize they have clout in the party, but that is not going to win the day.
If she continues (I sense there is at least a chance she will drop out, with her media timeout campaign huddle today), I wait to see if she stops with the slime machine, and salvages some grace from this mess. For her sake, and ours, I hope she does.