Maybe it's time to call her bluff.
by
zebra
05/21/2008, 1:15 AM #
Hillary Clinton can complain about how everyone is treating her, but look at the evidence: The entire Democratic party, including its presumptive presidential nominee, are working overtime to make her feel good. Meanwhile, she is exploiting their attempts to allow her to "exit with dignity" as fuel for her ongoing (never-ending) campaign.
Today, with her sexism charges against pretty much everybody, she has introduced yet another polarizing element into the contest: another wedge, which Obama and the party now have to deal with.
At some point, the rest of the democratic establishment needs to run a cost/benefit analysis and decide whether allowing her to exit "on her own terms" is really worth the cost of all the damage she's doing to their party's nominee in along the way.
In my view, she's being given way too much leverage. Yes, she is a formidable politician. But she's also supposed to be a member of a party and she's supposed to care about the fortunes of her party.
If "making her case" means telling anyone who will listen that she's the only one who can win the presidency, then she's doing damage to the party's nominee, periiod. I just don't think that should be tolerated at this late stage of the game. I want to believe she will ultimately put her party ahead of herself, but the fact is she really hasn't done that much at any time during this contest. Enough is enough. We democrats need to start focusing on the bigger fish we have to fry.