Be like Huck, Sen. Clinton: Hang in until the delegate count passes the point of no returns, when the opponent has that crystal majority of pledged delegate votes. Oh, that’s coming up soon, isn’t it.
Republican campaign underdog and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Thursday [May 8, 2008] that Clinton should ignore critics pressuring her to end her presidential run, telling CNN … ‘She entered this thing to play to the finish line. … It’s easy to play horse race with this and say, “Gosh, she ought to drop out.” … She’s playing by the rules that the party set, just as I played by the rules that the Republican Party set. … You know it’s frustrating to those of us who spend all of this time, effort and money — we get our supporters out there, we play by the rules that we’re handed and then somebody says, “It looks like the way this is going to end is different than we want, so why don’t you go ahead and quit?” I got to give Hillary some credit that: Yeah, it doesn’t look like she’s going to get the nomination. But she entered this thing to play to the finish line — and I think that’s what she’s attempting to do.'”
If a politician is going to run for office and by a variety of perspectives (if not all of them) makes it a close race, why not finish? A marathoner gets a cramp or something and still walks the distance, though perhaps stops at the espresso shop for a single and a snack, the farmers market for scallions, but eventually completes the route, does not phone a taxi for where the car is parked. (Brick previously employed a garden metaphor.)
It aggravates the pundits, even the ones who have been supporting Clinton. But their angst is just how they earn a living. If she isn’t one of their subjects for the next broadcast, they always move on. Got to have something to talk about, fill the time.
Clinton can afford to stay in, literally. She’s in debt, having loaned her campaign a huge amount of her own money. She’s written best-selling books; I bet she’s got at least one more in her — about this campaign. Speeches are rock-star-like at her level, too. You and I can’t sink savings like this (proportionately) into a gamble like this, but she can.
The biggest concern seems to have been whether she hurts her party and its likely candidate. The pundits don’t want you to realize that come the traditional beginning of the campaign, Labor Day, or even a few weeks earlier, at the party conventions, the skirmishes of the primaries, the gaffes, the low blows, the irrelevancies and even the small-town promises will be forgotten.
Who will Sen. Obama choose as his running mate? Come’on, the race against the Republican Party won’t be about the veep, and likely not the main national issues, either. If it wants to win, it is preparing Plan X, as always.
John McCain wrapped up the GOP primaries a couple of months ago. What did Mitt Romney stand for, again? Remember which state he is from?
Thought so. (Massachusetts but originally Michigan. Trick.)
