Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont has finally said what I imagine many in Washington are saying these days... he believes that Hillary should drop out of the race and throw her support behind Obama for the good of the party.
Leahy and many other Democratic leaders are concerned (and they should be) that the longer this process drags on, the more damage it will do to the party and to the hopes of getting a Democrat back into the White House this November. The continued sniping and bickering is doing nothing but damaging both Hillary and Obama as candidates and it's leaving the door open for John McCain. Not to mention the fact that Team Clinton hasn't done their candidate any favors over these last few weeks.
From Leahy's written statement:
"McCain has been making mistakes but is getting a free ride on those gaffes, because the Democratic candidates have to focus not on him but on each other."
And Senator Leahy is right. Raise your hand if you knew that John McCain is currently breaking Federal law? My best guess is not many people knew that because the media is too busy covering the Hillary/Obama catfight to actually report on the news. Of course, the fact that the media have their lips firmly planted on McCain's ass might also be contributing to that as well.
But it's time to face reality. The odds of Hillary winning the nomination outright are about as likely as Bush winning a spelling bee. She would have to win every remaining primary by at least 40-45 points. And even that might not be enough. She's way behind in the delegate count, she trails in the popular vote, Obama is pulling in all of the superdelegate support not to mention the fact that superdelegates from Hillary's camp are now heading over to Obama's. Her momentum is gone. She can crow about winning Ohio and winning Texas, but she ended up losing the delegate count in Texas and the net delegate gain in Ohio was negligible.
Oh sure, there's still the battle over Michigan and Florida... which to me is absolutely ridiculous and stinks of hypocrisy. First of all, Michigan and Florida were off the table to begin with. These were the punishments handed down by the DNC and these were rules that ALL of the candidates, even Hillary, agreed to. Yet, she went back on her word and refused to take her name off the Michigan ballot. And now her stance is that those delegates should be seated because failure to do so would be disenfranchising millions of voters. And yet, she wants the superdelegates (which is the ONLY way she can win the nomination) to overturn the will of the people, thus disenfranchising even MORE people. And I happen to know that if she were ahead right now, she wouldn't be fighting so hard for the people of Michigan and Florida. This is not about voting rights so much as it's about her pursuit of power at all costs.
Dragging this out until the convention is going to do incredible damage to the party. If this thing drags out to the convention, get yourselves ready to say, "President McCain." The convention isn't until August, so if we don't have a candidate before then, mounting an effective campaign against McCain is going to be incredibly difficult to pull off. Not to mention the free ride on everything he's getting right now, as Senator Leahy rightly mentioned.
It's time for Hillary to do right by the Democratic party and by the country and drop out of the race. This win at all costs mentality, even if that cost is burning down the Democratic party is unconscionable. Too much is at stake to screw the pooch on this one. This country cannot afford a President McCain... this country cannot afford another four years of Bush's policies... which is exactly what we'll get with McCain. Hillary's stubborn refusal to do the right thing is opening the door for McCain and the Republicans to seize power once more.
The tribe has spoken, Hillary. It's time you listened.
