Hillary Clinton is a great American and one of the foremost politicians or our time. When this Democratic primary started, over a year ago, she was the prohibitive front runner for the presidential nomination.
She has fought hard, she has fought well. Mistakes have been made on both sides: gaffes, misstatements, skeletons revealed. Still, it looks like this primary will likely wrap up sometime within the next month, and possibly as early as the Montana primary next Tuesday.
Unless there is some massively transformational event in the next few days, Barack Obama will be the nominee. As a Democratic activist I know what it is like to have your candidate fall to another. Howard Dean was my man back in 2004, and I even got on the bandwagon for Bill Bradley against Gore and was a huge fan of Gary Hart before all that Monkey Business brought him down.
Still, in each of those cases, when the time came to get onboard and fight for our nominee, there was never a doubt. I knocked doors and made calls for Gore and Kerry. I talked to everyone I knew about Mondale and even rallied in school for Dukakis.
When this battle for the nomination ends, this party will need to come together. Virginia has the most sophisticated political blogsphere in the country. Hillary's supporters, notably Vivian, Mimi, and Ben, among others, must come onboard. The right is already setting the lies against Obama. Because they have nothing to run on, they are going to try to portray Obama as un-American.
Meanwhile, Democrats will have no negative campaign against McCain, except the truth: he's running for Bush's 3rd term. Obama has threatened all outside groups that if they go negative against McCain that those groups will have no voice inside the Obama administration.
Obama's going to play hard, but he's also going to play fair. This is going to be a tought tightrope for us to walk. We need to walk it together. We'll literally be fighting the forces of fear with one hand tied behind our back.
Mimi, this doesn't happen without you. We can't win without you. We need you. We need your voice. We need your influence in your community. We need you to protect women's rights, the Constitution, and America's reputation in the world. We need you to fight for universal healthcare, a strong economy, and education. We need you to fight for civil rights and an opportunity for Democrats to once again, as we always seem to do, fix the gargantuan disasters created by Republican hegemony.
Mimi, please... It's been a good fight, it's been a great and historic primary, but when this thing is settled, we need you and all Hillary supporters to help deliver the White House for the Democratic nominee. For the good of the country, we all have to pull together. We can't do it without you.
but thanks for your obnoxious question.
They are long overdue on a graceful exit ... with each day another opportunity for some miss statement (cascading out of their collective mouths almost daily) and phony fodder for the Repub attack machine.
Should Hillary get the nomination via massive Super-Delegate lobotomies ... I'll head to Canada for health care. Thanks for the pull together sentiment but this year is not like the others ... not even close.
Hillary has come to represent what I dislike most about politics .... and it's tragic since it didn't have to be that way.
Please tell me Dr. Dean that this will be over by June 15th? ... or better still ... reclaim some dignity Hillary and exit with a little class left intact.
Calls for her exit only put supporters in a defensive crouch. It's self defeating. We need to make sure the party comes together. Virginia is 100% in play this year. Hillary's supporters can make the difference and we can't let them commit suicide by supporting a deranged psychopath like McCain.