Hillary Clinton is a great woman, but she should step down

Onlooker

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Wed Feb-20-08 02:03 PM
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Hillary Clinton is a great woman, but she should step down

Hillary Clinton will go down in history as one of the most important American woman of this era. More than any other, she embodied the strong woman capable of leading our nation. She has demonstrated incredible personal intelligence, and has fought bravely against sexist attacks from the right, and most recently, sad to say, from many Obama supporters. Hillary Clinton is probably a stronger candidate than Barrack Obama, but she has failed to organize a strong campaign, and our current president is proof that it's not the quality of the candidate that matters, it's the quality of the campaign.

It is obvious that Hillary Clinton can no longer win this race in a way that would be seen as fair. To win, she will need to seat Florida and Michigan and will need a preponderence of Superdelegates. Plus, she will need to reverse the trends that are currently taking place in states like Texas, where more and more voters are leaning towards Obama. Her dreadful campaign is not going to figure out a way to win this late in the game. It also may be that our country is not yet ready for a woman President. Just looking at the many sexist posts of DUers (where Clinton has been called school marm, shrill, cackling, etc.), it's clear that the woman's movement needs to do more before this country will elect a woman.

But, we do have the chance to do something right: Elect a person of color, break open the door that has been closed to everyone but white men for 230 years. It won't be easy to do. Already, it's clear that Obama will have a hard time in Florida, which is often a crucial state. He will need every advantage to win, but he does have a superb campaign organization, a large number of apologists (who as much as I can't stand them, recognize are important to a campaign), and has a message that is innocuous enough to offend no one.

I don't particularly like Obama -- his attitudes towards gays, his embracing of conservative Christians, his outreach to Republicans and Independents -- but I support him because he has run a campaign unlike Gore's, Kerry's, or Hillary Clinton's. We have seen that his campaign knows how to win and knows how to play the game. Like it or not, that's what is needed to get a Democrat elected President. Once he's elected, all the Obama groupies will fade away (hopefully) and those of us who are more committed to liberalism than personality can push the Democratic Congress to push him to pursue liberal objectives.

But, Hillary Clinton should drop out. She does not have a realistic shot of winning in a way that will be acceptable to the many of us who support Obama (or even another candidate). If Clinton somehow managed to win, her win would be extremely controversial, and would hurt the chances for a Democratic victory in November. Her place in the history of American women is secured; if she drops out and works to unify the party, her place in American politics, with the election of a black president, will be secured as well.