After North Carolina and Indiana: It's All Over But The Shouting
Senator Barack Obama scored a lop-sided victory in North Carolina, by over 200,000 votes, and Indiana? Well, as I write this, Senator Hillary Clinton leads by about 22,000 votes out of 1.1 million cast, with a big chunk of Lake County (northwest Indiana) -- some 60,000 votes and about 25,000 absentee votes -- left to count. She'll likely get the win, but it's far from the decisive win that she needed. And in delegates, Obama nets 15 more.
It's done.
The conventional wisdom was that two wins by Obama, or even one big win in North Carolina and a close contest in Indiana would be the end of the Clinton ascendancy, and would signal the end of the campaign for the nomination.
And let's be honest, it should signal the end.
I say that not gloatingly, but realistically. It's not about her being a woman; its not about her not being a good person. It's not about her intelligence; it's not even about her being qualified. It's not about not wanting to see the process played out to the end. It's simply about winning in November and what that takes.
And let's also be honest: She ran a lousy campaign; virtually everything that could have gone wrong did for her, from gaffes, to lies, to poor planning, and even poorer execution.
The math is indisputable and well, it's time to let it go.
The thought is that perhaps Senator Clinton will be an excellent vice presidential running mate. Question is, will she take the position if she's offered.
Listen, it's time to unify the party and go after John McCain. He's made enough faux pas recently, and he's ripe for the crushing. But the only way to beat him with vigor is to get all Dems focused on him, not the savaging of the presumptive nominee.
In the most magnanimous way, Obama should give in to some of her demands (like picking one of her supporters as vice president if she doesn't want the job), pay off her campaign debt (over $5 million at this point), thank her and vet her into the group of 'elder statespeople' of the party. But it's a wrap.
It was a good fight, hard-fought, but truthfully, the fight is over. Only thing is, one boxer and their corner hasn't realized it and refuses to throw in the towel. That's usually when the tragedies occur -- in this case the tragedy would be overwhelming damage to the Clinton legacy.
Let's avoid that possibility.
End it now. It's over.
It's done.
The conventional wisdom was that two wins by Obama, or even one big win in North Carolina and a close contest in Indiana would be the end of the Clinton ascendancy, and would signal the end of the campaign for the nomination.
And let's be honest, it should signal the end.
I say that not gloatingly, but realistically. It's not about her being a woman; its not about her not being a good person. It's not about her intelligence; it's not even about her being qualified. It's not about not wanting to see the process played out to the end. It's simply about winning in November and what that takes.
And let's also be honest: She ran a lousy campaign; virtually everything that could have gone wrong did for her, from gaffes, to lies, to poor planning, and even poorer execution.
The math is indisputable and well, it's time to let it go.
The thought is that perhaps Senator Clinton will be an excellent vice presidential running mate. Question is, will she take the position if she's offered.
Listen, it's time to unify the party and go after John McCain. He's made enough faux pas recently, and he's ripe for the crushing. But the only way to beat him with vigor is to get all Dems focused on him, not the savaging of the presumptive nominee.
In the most magnanimous way, Obama should give in to some of her demands (like picking one of her supporters as vice president if she doesn't want the job), pay off her campaign debt (over $5 million at this point), thank her and vet her into the group of 'elder statespeople' of the party. But it's a wrap.
It was a good fight, hard-fought, but truthfully, the fight is over. Only thing is, one boxer and their corner hasn't realized it and refuses to throw in the towel. That's usually when the tragedies occur -- in this case the tragedy would be overwhelming damage to the Clinton legacy.
Let's avoid that possibility.
End it now. It's over.
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Pay off her campaign debt? Her and her husband netted over 100 mil last year. She can suck that loss up just fine.
Still, this one is over. She can't recover. The worst scandal she could generate made little difference in the final numbers. I agree, it is time to energize the dems with a new goal- Beat McCain.
She will ease out of this election process. She will still win a couple of more states, but she isn't going to gain any more ground on the delegate count. The superdelegates will begin to come out in larger numbers to eventually cross the necessary delegate threshold (and to be seen as picking a "winner").
Hopefully Hillary will discover a quality that will suit her well in the coming months. Humility.
Nah, see it's not about whether Hill and Bill can afford the hit, it's about paying homage, and extending the olive branch.
See my latest post about the new, upcoming scandals. I am trying not to think or believe that the Clinton machine is behind any of this, but in this political climate, I'm wary.
Sadly, once a person has a lofty goal, and failure hasn't been an option throughout their life, success at any cost is the only option. Hillary is one of these people.