If Barack Obama were trailing in popular votes, behind in the delegate count, widely viewed as a divisive public figure and didn't have a mathematical chance of becoming his party's presidential nominee, he'd be pressured out of the race quicker than you can say Monica Lewinsky.
Yet, Hillary Clinton continues to march down a road that leads to nowhere and claim that she is acting in the best interest of democracy. She is acting in the best interest of the Republican Party, but the Clinton arrogance and sense of privilege (yes, Hillary and Bill) won't let them see beyond their own short-sighted obsession.
Not only are the Clintons sore losers, Hillary asks to be treated the same as the "big boys" that have been in the race yet falls back on the gender card whenever the numbers are not falling her way. According to the New York Times, "Mrs. Clinton told aides that she would not be 'bullied out' of the race…She compared the situation to the 'big boys' trying to bully a woman."
And Bill Clinton, who knows a thing or two about girls, weighed in: "Apparently it's OK to say bad things about a girl. It's OK. The only thing that matters is what happens to you. That's all that matters. If a politician doesn't want to get beat up, you shouldn't run for office."
He should be saying that to his wife, not Obama.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Clinton said she stands a better chance of defeating McCain in November, though most polls give the edge to Obama. Waving the gender card, she said, "You cannot as a Democrat win the White House without a very big women's vote. What I believe is that women will turn out for me."
Some critics argue that the issue is larger than that.
Appearing Sunday on "Meet the Press," New York Times columnist David Brooks said, "I think she should slow down the campaign, run what Mike Huckabee ran, a dignified campaign, not attacking her opponents, go through North Carolina and then get out."
Brooks explained, "She really has very little opportunity to win. The Jeremiah Wright thing was big, the big scandal, the biggest thing Barack Obama's faced really in months. It didn't hurt him. We now have the polling results from poll after poll. It's clear that it didn't hurt him. The voters were not shaken off him. Michigan and Florida are not going to revote, the super delegates are never going to overrule the pledged delegates, so her chances are really small."
Her chances of winning are small because voters dislike Hillary Clinton, the person.
Not because she is a "girl," but because she is the weakest of the two remaining Democratic candidates.
Democratic National Committee Howard Dean's proposed solution to this mess is to have super delegates make up their minds by July 1. Why should the party's eventual nominee be forced to slug this out for another three months? If we don't know Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton by now, we won't ever know them. Democrats need to act now.
In even more crushing news for the Clinton camp, weekend caucus voting in Texas gave Obama a clear victory and possibly a win for the entire state. In the second phase of what is called the Texas 2-Step – which is actually a three-step process – representatives of both Obama and Clinton agree that Obama won the balloting on Saturday and Sunday, giving him a overall lead in the state.
Though Clinton won the popular vote on March 4 over Obama with a 65-61 delegate lead, Obama won 38-29 among at-large delegates over the weekend, giving him a 5-point total delegate lead. The third and final step comes June 6 when super delegates vote in Austin.
If Obama escapes with a win in Texas – a state Bill Clinton said Hillary must win in order to continue in the race – no one expects Hillary to suddenly withdraw. Neither she nor Bill has demonstrated that much class.
George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach.
