Hillary Should Get Out Now

"Withdrawing would be stupid if Hillary had a reasonable chance to win the nomination, but she doesn't"

Neither does he!

If its all so based on the numbers as you said on MSNBC... you seem to give short shrift to this one important fact.. neither seems likely to reach the holy 2025! Its not who comes the closest is it?.!

Commanding lead in delegates?... 160 is commanding?

McCain 1,289 to Huckabee's 267 now that's commanding! So why should Hillary bow out when its still so close? Let them battle it out in a brokered convention, so many voters havent expressed their preference yet.

"the odds of Hillary's looking bad on March 4 are high"

Oh really.

"If she wants to stay in anyway, one way to go is to play through to June so as to give as many people as possible a chance to express their support. While this would be contrary to the long-stated wish of many Democrats (including the Clintons) to avoid a long, divisive primary season, it's perfectly defensible."

You are right it IS perfectly defensible.

.. and no, I am no Hillary fan, I still want John Edward to swoop down into the brokered convention and save it all! <G>

waterlilys
a disenfranchised Florida voter

Jonathan Alter,

I enjoy your commentary in print and on MSNBC, most of the time, till you took this tack....

"Withdrawing would be stupid if Hillary had a reasonable chance to win the nomination, but she doesn't"

Neither does he!

If its all so based on the numbers as you said on MSNBC... you seem to give short shrift to this one important fact.. neither seems likely to reach the holy 2025! Its not who comes the closest is it?.!

Commanding lead in delegates?... 160 is commanding?

McCain 1,289 to Huckabee's 267 now that's commanding! So why should Hillary bow out when its still so close? Let them battle it out in a brokered convention, so many voters havent expressed their preference yet.

"the odds of Hillary's looking bad on March 4 are high"

Oh really.

"If she wants to stay in anyway, one way to go is to play through to June so as to give as many people as possible a chance to express their support. While this would be contrary to the long-stated wish of many Democrats (including the Clintons) to avoid a long, divisive primary season, it's perfectly defensible."

You are right it IS perfectly defensible.

.. and no, I am no Hillary fan, I still want John Edward to swoop down into the brokered convention and save it all! <G>

Mary , a disenfranchised Florida voter.

Class? Grace? The Clintons? As an article in Newsweek said, these are the folks
who put the press covering Bill in a 'cage' to keep him from spewing at a reporter and
embarassing himself again. Hillary finally, for once in their lives, controlling Bill?
It takes a village, though.
Press: Throw off your chains-and stop covering him! The Clinton media wars
AGAIN??

I wish people would actually take the time to read an article before writing exclamatory remarks about Obamabotting or Clinton Bashing. All Mr. Alter is saying is, statistically speaking, Hillary Clinton has a snowballs chance in hell of winning the primaries. Why?? Because she would need one or both of two things to occur. (1) She would need Obama to trip over his tongue or feet and say or do something something that would remove him from contention as a viable candidate, which is unlikely, or; (2) she would need to win in the rest of the primaries by hefty double digit margins which she did not do in Texas, Ohio, or Vermont, and most certainly will not do in some of the upcoming primaries. As for exiting gracefully, he is simply saying, its easier to run for president in the future, after a graceful exit rather than a hard fought loss to an overly advantaged opponent (you don't see Al Gore in this running and he's golden with an academy award and a Nobel Peace Prize). The object is to not be remembered as the the loser in a prior primary or Presidential bid, and the longer she fights in this unwinable scenario the harder it will be to wash the loss from the the public view in a bid for president in 2013.

Jonathan, I see a tear on your cheek. Are you crying for your boy Barack? Last night, the journalist windbags of CNN ( Blitzer & Cooper), MSNBC (Olbermann, Matthews), NBC (Russert, Williams, Mitchell) all looked a bit deflated -- the disappointment in their faces coming from Hillary Clinton's winning Ohio and Texas was more than obvious. It was GLARING! I can't wait to see your face in today's newcasts! You folks are purported professional journalists who report the news, not make predictions based on your preferences. Too bad, so sad your darling boy Obama didn't quite know what to say when everything, including the kitchen sink, got thrown in his angelic, innocent face. Suddenly, his "genius campaign" couldn't respond. Any more predictions for Clinton's political demise, Jonathan? I didn't think so...

March 5. Dear Jon, Guess the voters in Ohio and Texas did not like your article.

Hillary is a genuine American citizen who wants to devote her life in public service to the American people. Think of it this way: if you found a company 200 yrs ago and now have to pass the rein to someone else, would you give it to a 46 yr-old who only served 3 yrs in Senate or to Hillary who has been in public service some 30 yrs todate. Nothing compensate for experience gained in the "trenches" - esp. in politics - to go from eloquent words during a campaign to taking realistic, workable solution for the problems that U.S. now faces on the global stage will require our next President to be: Resilient, Experienced, Politically Savvy, and the Genuine Care that only a Mother has for her country (child).

Here we go again - another unfair biased media stink suggesting that Hillary should exit "gracefully" - lets put her presidential candidacy in clear perspective: how many well educated, experienced and savvy politician would give up their comfortable life and run in this campaign. So when Hillary choose to pursue this course in fulfilling her ultimate goal to serve the people of this country, she should not just do and then exit "gracefully" - where is that spirit of determination and going to the ends. Its like a mother telling her high school senior not to apply to attend Harvard, because its too competitive, even though the son/daughter has the gumsion and confidence that the effort is worth trying. On this point, Obama speaks eloquentyly as how the Harvard lawyers are trained, but he does not have the resilience and in the "trenches" experience that is needed for the next leader of this country to spar with the "lawless" gang in Middle East countries who could maneuver him in exchange for more oil!

This is the 21st century, when everyday many common American citizens start a new business, a new job, invent new stuff, if they fail, life still goes on. So why should an exit be "graceful" and "unhumiliating" as the author suggested. Hillary should continue to forge ahead until all the voters have cast their votes for a
genuine American woman citizen who wants to give her life to service for the public good.

The new proclamation of "play fair and play nice" in America's political campaign is refreshing. If Obama or any other candidate can reform the mean-spiritedness in America's public discourse I think that candidate deserves to be president.

NO-Bama has the two more nails into his political coffin: Rezko , fundraiser issue and Canadian issue !!

Absolutely, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton should remain in this race. According to Senator Barack Hussein Obama he is well qualified to run for president of the United States after one productive year in the Illinois State Senate, after the Democrats swept the state, and not much else. In other words if the Democratic presidential nominee was chosen in the same mannner as the process of finding the best candidate for the job, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton would have the job hands down.

Hillary should stay in as long as she wishes. Now that the pro-Obama media has finally focused in on his positions, maybe there will be a buyer remorse moment. This is about America getting the right canddidate... a fighter and leader; not an orator. Don't roll over Hillary. And women..don't let our girl down.The pro-Obamamites would love that! Let him earn it. It's now going to be easy going against the Republican machine, Mr. Obama.

Well, Jonathan, the media hasn't helped in the least. It's been so transparently and egregiously biased towards Obama that media experts are now releasing articles on the unfair and sexist treatment of Hillary. You are all soooo eager to bury her alive. And in general, reporting has been shallow and lacking in substance.

Why don't you put your penmanship to better use and have the courage to be one of the few who will step up and challenge Obama on his back flipping, equivocation, broken promises and glaring lack of leadership quality as evinced in this campaign process? This isn't a sporting event. Game isn't what we need. This isn't a fashion show. Looking good isn't going to help America now.

If you need a good starting point to stimulate your mind out of this shallow bubble it seems to be floating in, here's an eye-opening article by the historian Jeremy Cameron Young: http://hnn.us/articles/45064.html

Here's an excerpt:

"Like the ???Historians for Obama,??? I initially had high hopes that Senator Obama would be such a transformative leader. After hearing his electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, I was prepared to enthusiastically support his candidacy.

But Senator Obama has not campaigned in the bold, pathbreaking manner in which he delivered that speech. On the contrary, the entire record of his campaign is one of equivocation and half-measures. To name just a few examples, Obama has sought to undo decades of successful government secularization by advocating for more overt expressions of faith in the halls of politics. Despite his initial opposition to the war, he has refused to pledge an end to American military involvement in Iraq or to take the lead in Congress on ending the war. He has campaigned with a homophobic minister, Rev. Donnie McClurkin, and refused to disavow McClurkin even when the man???s views were pointed out to him. He has ceded leadership to other candidates on issues such as poverty, gay rights, and the President???s illegal warrantless wiretapping of American citizens. These are not the actions of a strong leader, but of a man afraid to stand up for his beliefs."

You embarass yourself Jonathan.

An woman experienced enough to smile on her long defeat as if she is the winner, who have different faces, lots of dresses,connections,high level hypocrisy and pretences, - we can call her an aristocrat in politics, in other word political mediocre.
Compared to her Obama is poor. When a poor man can do a lot, so far, we must try to find his power. He has something rare for which we always need to wait for generations.