The problem with Hillary staying in

[BL611]

I think many people are missing the main point of why there is such pressure mounting for Hillary to drop out. It is not that a candidate staying in the race past the point of having a reasonable chance of winning is in itself bad or destructive to the Democratic Party. Obviously many are concerned with the increasingly negative tone the campaign is taking, as well lost opportunity to start firing at McCain, however this is the effect, but not what is at the root of the problem.

The real problem is that while Hillary at this point is a long shot candidate, and has every right to stay in the race as a long shot candidate, SHE IS NOT BEING TREATED BY THE MEDIA AS LONG SHOT CANDIDATE, BUT AS A LEGITIMATE CONTENDER. Take for example the media's treatment of Mike Huckabee in the period between super Tuesday and his dropping out at the end of February. This to a large degree is a fairly similar position to that of Hillary's now, I would grant that Hillary probably has a slightly better shot at the nomination than Huckabee did at that point, but not by much, as she has no real path to the nomination other than a complete and sudden revolt by the party.

Hillary however because she is a Clinton does not get the Huckabee long shot treatment as an afterthought; in it to clean up if disaster should somehow fall on the presumptive nominee. Her campaign is given credence way beyond that of the common long shot in her position. Imagine what would happen if in the Middle of February Huckabee started going mercilessly negative on McCain, it would be covered as a sidebar while the media's focus would continue to be on McCain as he builds his general election narrative. However Hillary's attacks in the context of media coverage that portrays the race as more competitive than it is, keeps Obama from being able to focus on McCain and the GE.

The bottom line is, if it was anybody but Hillary (or another premier name like Gore) nobody would really care if they stayed in, even if they were running an excessively negative campaign, because it would be looked at as an afterthought at best. However it is the CREDENCE THAT HILLARY'S ATTACKS GET FROM THE MEDIA that makes them so destructive. Nobody can force Hillary out of the race, its her prerogative to stay in as long as she likes, however she is in folly if she does not understand the unique consequences of her staying in the race and running a negative campaign, or does understand and just does not care...