Mr. Romano writes about the calls for Hillary to end the campaign:
have to say: I disagree. If Clinton were to follow the peanut gallery’s instructions now, the Democrats would wind up more–not less–divided as a result. The reason? It takes two. With their man at the helm, Obamaniacs are more than ready to “unite” with Clintonistas. But the reverse still isn’t true. As Kenneth P. Vogel wrote yesterday in the Politico, “the legions of Clinton backers still investing their cash, energy and emotion into her faltering bid for the Democratic presidential nomination seem driven not by the reasonable expectation that she can beat Barack Obama, but by the emotional desire to see her through to the end of voting and stick it to those who have already written her off.” Unless Clinton lets the race run its course–i.e., waits until the Florida/Michigan dispute has been resolved (which won’t affect his lead) and the voters of West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana have had their say–many of her supporters will blame the media, the DNC, Obama and anyone else within spitting distance for pushing her out prematurely. And that means they’ll be less inclined to “come together” than they are now–not more.
Damned straight.
It would be bad news for Obama if Clinton suspended her campaign now. Obama is poised to get crushed in West Virginia and Kentucky. It would look terrible for him and for the Democratic party were he to lose to someone who conceded.
I don’t see why it would look that terrible. Especially when WV and KY are among the last that would go for a Democrat in the fall and he will most probably have a victory in OR to counter the two losses. On the other hand, I don’t think it really hurts Obama if she stays in a couple more weeks.
WV is in fact a swing state, we lost Kentucky, but Clinton wins WV in a general election match up while Obama does not. Also to have her concede after kicking his ass looks spiteful and make him look weak.
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p>I would argue that Clinton should stay in until the end-exactly so that her supporters can vote for her and only for that reason. If they feel she is treated right by the DNC and the media and above all the Obama campaign then they will be invested in the process and more likely to come out come November.
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p>That said I do think she should suspend her campaign. She should stop running ads, stop spending money, stop running off her mouth against the nominee. Were she to continue to campaign in states where she has a lot of supporters, campaign on her merits, refrain from attacking Obama or making asinine racial statements, and most importantly viciously attacking McCain then she could do a lot of good for the party.
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p>Having her attack McCain overrides her dumb comment that he’d be more prepared on day one than Obama, and it lets Obama slaughter McCain without getting his hands bloodied. And she has more than proven she can be an incredibly effective attack dog. While I disagree with putting her on the ticket, the one man she needs to convince is the nominee, and if shes nice to him, mean to his opponent, all the while shoring up her own credentials to the remaining electorate, she will make a good case she needs to be on there.