I’m sure it’s happened elsewhere before this, but my RSS reader has produced two calls for Hillary Clinton to drop out, in the interest of her inability to surpass Obama’s pledged delegate lead, likely inability to pass Obama with super delegates, and a desire to focus on defeating John W. McSame.
Bob Cesca is a big Obama supporter, but he makes passing recognition that Clinton won’t be the nominee.
Jesus’ General is a free agent, having endorsed Dodd during the primary, but since been critical of both candidates. He makes a thoughtful, passionate plea for moving forward on a unified front to defeat McCain. Gen. JC Christian writes:
I think Obama should offer Clinton whatever it takes to accept the vice presidential nomination. If she wants health care, give it to her.
And Clinton needs to to take it and strike her deal soon. Her bargaining power is strong now. She can demand concessions that will give her tremendous advantages in 2016. More importantly, she does not want to become the person whose blind ambition gave the White House to McCain. That’s how she will be perceived if she continues to push the superdelegate strategy.
I think we’re going to see more neutral bloggers write posts like this in coming days and weeks, as it becomes clear that the contest is becoming more of a knife fight than a thoughtful discussion of the future of the country. I also think the idea of a unity ticket will be seen as a bandage to heal the wounds inflicted in this primary. I don’t know whether or not that’s necessary – I don’t see either candidates’ supporters bolting in wide numbers at the end of a prolonged nominating process – but I think the unity ticket will continue to get play.
While I would love to see this primary resolved, I think it’s continuation (for now) is fine if (1) it does not continue to devolve into the nastiness that has defined it the last few weeks and (2) both Clinton and Obama regularly focus their attacks on John McCain. I don’t know how likely these scenarios are and the extend to which they’re not realized, I’ll change my willingness to support a long primary.
Hold Fast 
I really think Clinton has made a reconciliation impossible at this point. She’s made it very clear that she prefers McCain to Obama, she persists in using the lowest tactics and seems to have as fuzzy a concept of “truth” as Bush. I’m sure Obama can do better for a VP. Clinton would make as bad a VP candidate as Lieberman did.
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Given this country’s history of citizen participation, or lack thereof, in our democracy and apathy towards voting I would think all people, especially bloggers and those interested in restoring a balance of power back to the “people” would be truly enthralled with the record number of voters getting involved and coming out to vote in their state’s primary. Added to that, the lack of clear mandate by either candidate and it becomes even more peculiar that there is this rush to disenfranchise the American public. The people in the party “being torn apart” the lifers, the K Street crowd, the media, why would I care what they are thinking, feeling or desiring? You want to talk about people torn apart, shut down the process now and you will create divisiveness, that doesn’t currently exist, among the American people. And you’re worried that Clinton and Obama are getting ugly? Fine with me, I sure would like to see how they handle that now, rather than when one of them is in office. this is where we should learn how they handle pressure and attacks. And speaking of getting a better understanding of who they are and how they will behave based on how they handle the primaries, Obama is revealing something of his “shadow” side which I’d like to learn more about. One has to wonder where the anger and intolerance for allowing the process to continue comes from. His expectation that he should be crowned the winner based on the strength of his promise and in spite of any concerns over his relative obscurity prior to running for office, narrow lead and to many, lightweight record is puzzling.
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Obama has a “lightweight” record? Well I’d really like to know just what Clinton’s record consists of – other then she happened to be married to the President. That’s not a record. Obama “gave a speech”. She did too – at the UN Conference on the Status of Women in Beijing. She brags about it all the time. But why wasn’t CEDAW ratified – and where has she been on the issue of ratification in the decade since her speech?
She says she’s ready to lead on day one? Where has she been for the last seven years? As a former First Lady she enjoyed a “bully pulpit” presence for the media – every word she spoke was recorded by multiple press etc for the entire time she’s been in the Senate. When did she ever stand up to Bush?
She’s calling Obama a “liberal” like that’s a dirty word. I thought that’s what they BOTH were supposed to be. And she thinks John McCain is more qualified than Obama to be POTUS. She shouldn’t have gone there because according to that criteria – McCain is more qualified than SHE is too!
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