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Blogfest 2005 - Mar 10, 2008 - Printable Version
- Dear Hillary: When the race is over, it's over....
by Mark Faulk
(Editor's note: This is from my March 7, 2008 feature column for NONzine. Go to www.nonzine.com to see where you can get your free copy in the Oklahoma City Metro area.) A few years ago, I wrote a mostly insignificant little commentary called “Work Hard (And Other Observations of the Obvious)” for The Faulking Truth. It was a compilation of bits and pieces of profound (and some not-so-profound) cosmic wisdom, things that I’ve learned over the years. The useless trivia by which I live my pointless life.
Today, I’m going to share a bit of wisdom from that article with Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former First Lady turned unstoppable and indefatigable candidate for the office of President of the United States of America.
Are you ready Hillary?
Here it is: “When the race is over, it's over. Stop running, even if you didn't win.”
Hillary, we love you girl, we really do. You survived your husband getting blowjobs in the White House, and managed to look downright presidential in the process. You’ve been mercilessly beaten up by the Far Right for years...that is, until they decided that your opponent is an even bigger threat to Democracy (read that: “Neocon Corporate Capitalism”) than you are. You championed women’s rights long before it had once again become The Topic of the Week, and have been a powerful voice for the poor. No matter what the odds are, you never give up.
And that is precisely the problem. You’ve spent the past few weeks proclaiming that if you win Texas and Ohio, you will be back on track to capture the Democratic nomination. You claim to believe that you, like your husband before you, are on your way to becoming the proverbial Comeback Kid.
And then, lo and behold, you did just that. Late Tuesday, you were declared the winner of primaries in Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island, while Barack Obama won handily in Vermont.
At a post-election rally in Columbus, Ohio, you launched your phoenix-like resurrection by saying: “For everyone here in Ohio and across America who’s been counted out and refused to be knocked out, and for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you.” You followed up by proclaiming “We’re going on, we’re going strong, and we’re going all the way.”
Sorry to disappoint you Hillary, but you aren’t going anywhere. The numbers don’t just add up. Mathematically, the Democratic primary election is all but over. If the totals hold up in Tuesday’s four primaries, you’ll win a total of 195 delegates from the March 4th voting to Barack Obama’s 175, a gain of only 20 total delegates. That still leaves Obama with a commanding 158 vote lead in pledged delegates. Even if you win every single remaining state by an almost impossible 60-40 margin…you still lose. There’s always that iffy possibility that you could twist the arms of enough unpledged superdelegates to steal the nomination at the convention, but it would be political suicide for the party’s delegates to side with you when Obama has clearly won the popular vote. Plus, according to Tom Brokaw, Obama’s camp is ready to announce that 50 superdelegates have pledged their support to their candidate. That will wipe out your current 44-vote superdelegate lead in one fail swoop.
You have only two choices here, or at least only two that show any amount of class. Choice number one is to accept reality and bow out of the race gracefully, throw your full support behind Obama, and join together with your fellow Democrats to do the right thing for America: put a Democrat in the White House. Work hand-in-hand with Obama and party leaders to defeat the old-guard politics of yesterday. Campaign as diligently against the nearly hundred year-old Republican who claims that American troops could spend a hundred years in Iraq as you have against your Democratic opponent.
Your second choice isn’t that much different than choice number one in the final analysis, but it still helps the Democrats maintain what appears to be a clear path to the White House. You could save face and maintain that fighter persona that we have all come to respect by remaining in the race through the next wave of primaries, but do it without the constant sniping and bashing that has begun to characterize your campaign over the past few weeks. Every time you unfairly criticize Obama, you make him a little more vulnerable to attacks from the Far Right.
The Republicans are the masters of dirty politics. They believe that the best way to defeat their opponents is to drag them through the mud until they are as covered in political filth as they themselves are, and the corporate-controlled media is happy to assist them in their efforts. They would like nothing more than to have a protracted, fight-to-the-finish battle between the two remaining Democratic candidates. After seven years of corruption and failed Republican politics, the only way that the Democrats can lose this election is to beat themselves.
Hillary, the choice is yours. By taking the high road for the remainder of the primary election, you can elevate the entire Democratic Party to a level that will make it unstoppable come next November. You alone have the power to put the Democrats back in the White House Use it wisely.
And that, dear Hillary, is the Faulking Truth.
(Mark Faulk is the editor of www.faulkingtruth.com and is the author of The Naked Truth: Investing in the Stock Play of a Lifetime, scheduled to be released in late March, 2008. The book is available online at www.toginet.com )
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