The Handwriting on the Wall

A chorus of voices is growing calling for New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to bow out of her race for the Democratic Party nomination for president.

Mathematically, even with the remaining primaries, she will most likely not win enough delegates to supplant the frontrunner, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, and would have to rely on votes from superdelegates to put her over the top, a highly controversial move that would over-ride the will of the people and surely split the party.

This past week, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, a superdelegate himself who has already swung his support behind Obama, publicly called on Clinton to withdraw so that the party can come together before the general election. GOP nominee John McCain is already taking aim at Obama as he builds momentum and raises funds.

The big question is whether Clinton will heed anyone’s advice. Along the campaign trail, both she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, seemed to suggest they’d be in for the duration. A group of Clinton-supporting big donors are even threatening to stop supporting Democrats in Congress because Nancy Pelosi said that the people, not the superdelegates, should decide the Presidential nomination, prompting MoveOn.org to circulate this petition.

Clinton’s all or nothing strategy is raising the ire of ordinary citizens, bloggers and political pundits, some of whom suggested she should have dropped out even before the Texas and Ohio primaries. But for her to get the message she’s going to have to hear from even more people.

Now is the time for all good Democrats to come the aid of their party. Write to Hillary. Tell her that for the good of the party, she needs to concede defeat now, tell her supporters to get behind Obama’s campaign and unite to win the White House in November.

Anything short of that only helps the Republicans, increases the chances for four more years of Bush-like incompetence and mismanagement of the country, and speaking as one of her constituents, decreases her chances of ever getting full support again should she want to run for re-election as the Senator from the State of New York.