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• Wednesday, June 4, 2008 04:17 PM

  @ Scott A Martin

  You wrote:

  "You might want to rethink your historical comparison there. The reason that Lieberman succeeded as an independent was because the Republicans broke in large numbers to support his candidacy over the stuffed-shirt that their own party was running. Any national third-party/independent candidate can ONLY succeed by drawing significant numbers away from both usually-Democratic and usually-Republican voters, AND capturing a large number of independents. There's virtually no way that Clinton could achieve this. No significant number of core Republicans will support her candidacy over McCain's. All she would achieve would be to siphon away Democratic voters who might otherwise be persuaded to vote for Obama, and therefore hand the presidency to McCain on a silver platter. Fortunately, I think Clinton is smart enough to realize this, although I fear that a good number of her supporters might choose to ignore the potential ramifications and call for an independent candidacy anyway."

  I apologize if I left any impression that I believe that Hillary can win the Presidential election if she runs as an Independent. I said she could do it, just as Lieberman did it, but the "comparison" ends there because I do not believe she could win. Just as you say, she would probably take votes away from Obama, which might reduce his chance of winning (although I do not believe that amounts to "handing the Presidency to McCain on a silver platter").

  On the other hand, many of Hillary's supporters say they will vote for McCain instead of Obama or not vote at all if Hillary is not on the ballot, so those votes are lost to Obama, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them changed their minds between now and November, but I am not about to question their sincerity.

  It would be extremely self-centered and narcissistic of me to make the argument that Hillary should not continue running for President because I don't want her to run. It doesn't matter what my reasons might be (she'll split the vote, she'll continue to smear Obama and hurt his chances of winning, I don't think she's the best candidate for President, etc., etc.). I will repeat what I said earlier: if she believes she can win, then she should continue running for President, no matter what I think.

  —Subodim Read Subodim's other letters
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