If you care anything about a preserved Democrat Party, email Hillary, thank her for her contributions to this campaign and ask her to concede to Obama for the good of the party. She can't win the nomination without seriously fracturing the party (perhaps for years to come).

One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9149.html


Contact Hillary here:http://www.senate.gov/~clinton/contact/webform.cfm

Hillary's last pledged super delegate? Jack Murtha on March 4th. Below is a film entitled Where's Pigfoot, a 'documentary' produced by Citizens Against Government Waste. Hillary.... change? For goodness sakes, bring on Obama v McCain!

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I'm going to contact her and ask her to run with John Edwards!

No doubt her hair would benefit.

Why do you think that is good strategy? I think a veep is supposed to bring more voters into the tent...didn't he fail to deliver the Carolinas in 2004?

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That will bring certain failure, SK.

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found this out there. http://queenofspainblog.com/2008/02/...ase-step-down/

Dear Senator Hillary Clinton, Please Step Down

This is a very hard letter for me to write, so please bear with me.

I’d like to ask you, with all due respect and humility, to step down as a Democratic Candidate for President of the United States.

Please understand this is not because I believe you can not or should not lead this nation. Please understand that I find you qualified, capable, and worthy. Please also understand I want nothing more than to see a female as the leader of the free world. I would be pleased and honored if you were that female.

However I am finding, right or wrong, many citizens of this country seem to react to you on an emotional level. Emotional, not practical. They can’t seem to see your record. They can’t seem to see your policy. They just hear or read “Hillary” and venom or praise spews.

I thought that with your candidacy, would come reason. I thought that you would be able to get a fair shake by main stream media, by voters, by sexists, and by soccer moms. I thought over time people would begin to see that you really are an effective politician.

I was wrong.

Tonight, I’m typing as I watch you speak in El Paso, Texas. I’m sad. There really is no other way to put it-I’m sad.

I truly believed you would be the best person for the job, and I had this nagging thought in the back of my mind that is now at the forefront. The thought that drove me on Super Tuesday to Vote for Senator Obama and the thought that is the driving force as I write tonight: Senator Hillary Clinton divides this country.

It’s not fair. It’s not right. And under just about ANY other circumstance I would go to the mat for you. However we are a wounded and deeply divided nation. We are a nation at war. We are a nation at odds with each-other. It’s ugly. I thought you could get people past it. I really did.

When I told myself it was gender that got people going, I refrained from asking and wanting you to step aside. Simply on principle, I wanted to see you run and win because they said it couldn’t be done. Because it was my belief, this was all about being a girl.

It’s not, and I was wrong.

I firmly believe while the gender issue has given you a handicap I hope we all one day overcome, it is NOT the reason people have a gut reaction to you or your campaign or your legacy.

Enter the Senator from Illinois, and what I think could be your true legacy. If you were to step aside now, shockingly early and shockingly un-Hilllary-like, you could galvanize an entire nation behind your party. If you were to throw your weight, and your tremendous political clout behind Senator Obama you could still change the world and make your mark in a way no one would expect and everyone would admire.

I don’t want to see you throw in the towel because the fight is too hard or the mountain too tall. I am asking you to throw it in because history is on the line. It is not the history either of us expected, however it is an equally important, momentous, earthshaking change in this country we sorely need.

Do something no one would ever expect. Do something extraordinary. Do something that changes politics as usual and changes history.

I could have never predicted having to chose between what my husband called “the lesser of two goods, not the lesser of two evils” when it came time to cast my vote.

It was agonizing.

But in the end, with no major policy difference and valid reasons on BOTH sides, I had to go with the candidate who I thought could best bring our nation back together. Who could cross party lines and gender lines and racial lines.

I wanted it to be you, but it’s not. For some reason you still get people very riled up, and not in the good way.

There is no way around it-it sucks. But after 7 years of nothing but fighting and head shaking and feeling like we’re living in two Americas, I can’t do it again. Not even if my team is in office.

I really hate asking you to do this, but I want you to please step down and let this nation heal.

We’ve been too angry for too long and your history and your name brings a suitcase of anger to the White House front door.

With the full weight of the Clinton name, behind the scenes, your true legacy could be written. With the full weight of the Clinton know-how you could help orchestrate the next chapter in American history where an African-American leads our nation.

It is this time in history your nation needs you.

As nation’s go, ours has never been one to do things the way we predict. Who could have seen when we finally get our first, legitimate, female front runner we’d see our first, legitimate front runner of color?

Our nation and it’s people need you to do what is best for this country. We need you to be true to what you say on the stump and bring us back together.

If you firmly believe that there is still time for you to change the hearts and minds of those rude and stubborn Americans who are voting with their gut when they see “Hillary” on the ballot-then please, prove me wrong. I’ll be at the Democratic National Convention come August and I’ll hold up my Hillary sign loud and proud and fall in line.

But I think you’ve tried. You tried with everything you had to overcome that Clinton-emotional reaction. Here we are, moving into Texas and Ohio and Pennsylvania-and it’s not you winning over hearts and minds, it’s the Senator from Illinois.

Let’s end the division in this country now. Right now. Let’s start with the Democratic Party early and provide a united front against the GOP months ahead of schedule.

Let’s take back this country for the people, with you playing a much different role than you envisioned.

Make history. Make us one. Step down now.

Sincerely,

Erin Kotecki Vest

voter, mother, woman, feminist, writer, dreamer, and Hillary fan

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Oh my, , from the very same blogger. It doesn't look like it would be hard for her to create at all. http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheQueenAndHerRoyalFamily

are you referencing a specific post of hers?

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Great find. I know how she (the writer) feels, think there are a lot of us out here...

Does anyone else think she might be staying in this specifically to make sure Obama doesn't win the Presidency, even though she realizes he'll get the nomination? Is she just making sure she has a clear path in 2012?

Or is this an attmept to cause a superdelegate revolt against Howard Dean and regain control of the Democratic Party? Is she pushing this to the point that the nominee is significantly weakened to make Dean's 50 state strategy look flawed? What might she believe is more important than getting a democrat in the White House? Why would the DLC regaining control of the party be so important to her?

Rapunzel,

She stuck tight with Bill after the monica debacle. She likely did this with the encouragement of much of the democratic hierarchy. Some of them likely feel they "owe" her some for this. < (not known by me to be factual butttt). If this is the case she could be considered loyal enough to not try to bring the party down in this election year.

She is extremely competitive - I would say "to a fault" - her desire for the Presidency may be so strong that she will do anything needed to try to get it. When the pundits talk about a "scorched earth" campaign, I think they're right. That is how I see the Clinton's continuing. They think of it as being "fighters" but does it matter to them if the party goes down along with them?? I don't know... ... God I hope she proves me wrong!

.

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"Peace .... starts with the person who attempts to diffuse the tension and backs away from the inflammatory rhetoric."

I don't understand what this means? If he gets the democratic nomination, odds are very good that most democrats, even the (former) hillary supporters, will vote for him in the election, yes? Why does her staying in the nomination race at this point make a difference in his chances of winning the actual election?

At first...leading up to Texas and Ohio....I had just about convinced myself that she was "taking one for the team"....that she was throwing out the obvious and pathetic attacks now so that McCain couldn't use them in the fall...or if he did, it would be transparent to almost everyone.

I wish, for their legacy, that I had been right. But now that McCain is leading them both in the polls for the first time...I can't believe it's anything other than what it is...

So, is she

• delusional and thinks she can still capture the nomination via superdelegates if she destroys Obama and then win in November with 0 African-American support?
• trying to lay the groundwork to run in 2012 with no Democratic incumbent?
• trying to bring down Howard Dean and at least preserve Clinton control of the Party?

Maybe. Maybe not. http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics....20080321a.html

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The vast majority of Americans unfortunately have very short memories. Given how rapidly things change in the political arena these days, I think it's premature to predict in favor of either side in November.

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If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.-Rachel Carson

I agree with this thread. I found my new candidate, and it is a women who I could feel good about voting for at this present time. That is right, her name.... Cynthia McKinney.

Don't say no so quick, I think this women is on to something and I like her message. I just got a look at the McCain girls and I could not take anymore so I am going with my girl Cynthia!

Where's Miss Kitty?

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"Peace .... starts with the person who attempts to diffuse the tension and backs away from the inflammatory rhetoric."

And I gotta say that I am absolutely impressed to find a thread having a reasonable political conversation. Thank you!!! Really!

Insightful articles, lotsa good questions. Thoughful predictions. Any way this next election gets sliced, it is going to be a tough one for whoever gets in. And then, as I have said before, they will more than have their hands full attempting to appeal to all the different needs without turning their backs on someone else's issue. Whoever gets in there will absolutely need all the backing from everyone in this country and lotsa prayer to not get eaten alive by the world they have been handed.

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Anthony

I am right there with ya - I cannot figure it out either....

Brooks takes a stab at answering your question:

The Long Defeat

By


DAVID BROOKS

Published: March 25, 2008
Hillary Clinton may not realize it yet, but she’s just endured one of the worst weeks of her campaign.

David Brooks



First, Barack Obama weathered the Rev. Jeremiah Wright affair without serious damage to his nomination prospects. Obama still holds a tiny lead among Democrats nationally in the Gallup tracking poll, just as he did before this whole affair blew up.
Second, Obama’s lawyers successfully prevented re-votes in Florida and Michigan. That means it would be virtually impossible for Clinton to take a lead in either elected delegates or total primary votes.
Third, as Noam Scheiber of The New Republic has reported, most superdelegates have accepted Nancy Pelosi’s judgment that the winner of the elected delegates should get the nomination. Instead of lining up behind Clinton, they’re drifting away. Her lead among them has shrunk by about 60 in the past month, according to Avi Zenilman of Politico.com.
In short, Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects continue to dim. The door is closing. Night is coming. The end, however, is not near.
Last week, an important Clinton adviser told Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen (also of Politico) that Clinton had no more than a 10 percent chance of getting the nomination. Now, she’s probably down to a 5 percent chance.
Five percent.
Let’s take a look at what she’s going to put her party through for the sake of that 5 percent chance: The Democratic Party is probably going to have to endure another three months of daily sniping. For another three months, we’ll have the Carvilles likening the Obamaites to Judas and former generals accusing Clintonites of McCarthyism. For three months, we’ll have the daily round of résumé padding and sulfurous conference calls. We’ll have campaign aides blurting “blue dress” and only-because-he’s-black references as they let slip their private contempt.
For three more months (maybe more!) the campaign will proceed along in its Verdun-like pattern. There will be a steady rifle fire of character assassination from the underlings, interrupted by the occasional firestorm of artillery when the contest touches upon race, gender or patriotism. The policy debates between the two have been long exhausted, so the only way to get the public really engaged is by poking some raw national wound.
For the sake of that 5 percent, this will be the sourest spring. About a fifth of Clinton and Obama supporters now say they wouldn’t vote for the other candidate in the general election. Meanwhile, on the other side, voters get an unobstructed view of the Republican nominee. John McCain’s approval ratings have soared 11 points. He is now viewed positively by 67 percent of Americans. A month ago, McCain was losing to Obama among independents by double digits in a general election matchup. Now McCain has a lead among this group.
For three more months, Clinton is likely to hurt Obama even more against McCain, without hurting him against herself. And all this is happening so she can preserve that 5 percent chance.
When you step back and think about it, she is amazing. She possesses the audacity of hopelessness.
Why does she go on like this? Does Clinton privately believe that Obama is so incompetent that only she can deliver the policies they both support? Is she simply selfish, and willing to put her party through agony for the sake of her slender chance? Are leading Democrats so narcissistic that they would create bitter stagnation even if they were granted one-party rule?
The better answer is that Clinton’s long rear-guard action is the logical extension of her relentlessly political life.
For nearly 20 years, she has been encased in the apparatus of political celebrity. Look at her schedule as first lady and ever since. Think of the thousands of staged events, the tens of thousands of times she has pretended to be delighted to see someone she doesn’t know, the hundreds of thousands times she has recited empty clichés and exhortatory banalities, the millions of photos she has posed for in which she is supposed to appear empathetic or tough, the billions of politically opportune half-truths that have bounced around her head.
No wonder the Clinton campaign feels impersonal. It’s like a machine for the production of politics. It plows ahead from event to event following its own iron logic. The only question is whether Clinton herself can step outside the apparatus long enough to turn it off and withdraw voluntarily or whether she will force the rest of her party to intervene and jam the gears.
If she does the former, she would surprise everybody with a display of self-sacrifice. Her campaign would cruise along at a lower register until North Carolina, then use that as an occasion to withdraw. If she does not, she would soldier on doggedly, taking down as many allies as necessary.

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"Peace .... starts with the person who attempts to diffuse the tension and backs away from the inflammatory rhetoric."

Excellent article by Brooks....wish she would listen!

I figured someone would have come up with this.

http://hillarystanddown.com/

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Problems cannot be solved by the level of awareness that created them.
Albert Einstein
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
Jessamyn West (1902–1984)

From SLATE:


Win-Win-Win-Win

Forlorn over the Democrats’ delegate scrap, Gov.—and therefore superdelegate—Philip Bredesen came up with a modestly novel proposal: After all the voters have fun at their primaries and caucuses, the superdelegates should stage their own fiesta in June—complete with a binding declaration of support for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Morevoer, they should have it in Dallas so that everybody can get there easily and the Dems can continue lavishing attention on a red state that has shown flashes of Democratic enthusiasm this year.
It’s a dynamite idea—one part common sense, one part idealism—and therefore exactly the kind of plan we’ve gotten used to the candidates eschewing this election. Yet, at a press conference yesterday, Hillary Clinton let out an unexpected glimmer of hope:
The governor from Tennessee suggested that there be a convention of superdelegates, and I think that it is an intriguing idea. I have not considered it long enough to have an opinion on it.
If she hasn’t “considered it long enough,” then that means she has considered it a little bit. (Clinton folks tell Ambinder they aren’t seriously considering the plan.) There’s hope yet! And, in the long run, that’s best for everybody. The superdelegate primary presents a rare opportunity for a win-win-win-win scenario for Clinton, Obama, the superdelegates, and the Democrats. Here’s why each party should be jumping at the chance:
Hillary: A June superdelegate primary silences the for a few months. Clinton has repeatedly said she’s staying in until June, anyway, and the specter of a superdelegate primary would give her justification for doing so. Plus, it buys her time in case she loses North Carolina and Indiana.
Obama: If Hillary isn’t going to leave the race until all of the states vote, anyway, then he may as well end it as swiftly and decisively as possible after that. A superdelegate primary would give him that venue, and he’d be favored to win since he would be the champ of pledged delegates and popular vote.
The superdelegates: Uncommitted supers get to defer their decisions for another three months, which prevents them from incurring the Clintons’ wrath if they side with Obama before all the votes are in. Plus, having a primary lends the superdelegate process a bit of integrity and transparency that might otherwise may get lost in translation at the convention.
Democratic Party: The sooner this fiasco ends, the better. Assuming Clinton stays in through June, this plan is much better than dragging the superdelegate-endorsement process through the dog days of summer. It already makes Howard Dean sweaty enough, as is.
Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:45 PM by Chadwick Matlin
Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama
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"Peace .... starts with the person who attempts to diffuse the tension and backs away from the inflammatory rhetoric."

bump. please see 1st post in thread.

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done.

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Conventional wisdom is that her supporters probably will not vote for Obama if Clinton wins or vice versa. She knows she can't win the nomination. She knows that McCain has consistently fared better than Obama in head to head polls. By staying in, she continues to polarize the Democrat party. Obama loses the Presidential election to McCain. There's the open door to run in 2012...

At least that's how it plays out in my twisted little mind!

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Sent the message to Ms. Clinton. Thank you.

(....my prayer is for her to be the VP choice)

Hilary has worked for the past two and a half decades for this election. As much as I dont like her I just dont see her giving up.

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