No Really, You Should Go-Wretched rationalizations for Hillary Clinton's kamikaze campaign

[babylonsister]

No Really, You Should Go by Jonathan Chait
Wretched rationalizations for Hillary Clinton's kamikaze campaign.
Post Date Wednesday, April 23, 2008



Last week, Senator Pat Leahy suggested that Hillary Clinton ought to quit the presidential race. How insensitive! How boorish! Pundits gasped, Clinton took umbrage, and even Barack Obama was forced to concede that Clinton has the right to run for as long as she desires.

The persistent weakness of American liberalism is its fixation with rights and procedures at any cost to efficiency and common sense. Democrats' reluctance to push Clinton out of the race is the perfect expression of that delicate sensibility.

There is some point at which a candidate's chance of winning becomes so low that her right to continue is outweighed by the party's interest in preparing for the general election. Does Clinton have a chance to become president? Sure. So does Ralph Nader. Clinton's chances are far closer to Nader's than to either Obama's or John McCain's.

Almost nobody contends that Clinton has a chance to overcome Obama's lead in pledged delegates. The spin now is that Obama's delegate lead is "small but almost insurmountable" (USA Today) and that, since neither can clinch the nomination with pledged delegates alone, "the nomination is expected to be in the superdelegates' hands" (Los Angeles Times). These beliefs reflect the mathematical illiteracy that has allowed the press corps to be routinely duped by economic flim-flammery. A lead that's insurmountable is, by definition, not small. The very primary rules that make it impossible for Clinton to catch up--proportionate distribution of delegates that award tiny net sums to the winner--are exactly what made Obama's lead so impressive.

The notion that the superdelegates will decide the race implies that pledged delegates won't matter--like a sports event that goes to overtime. Obviously, though, the pledged-delegate count determines how many superdelegates each candidate needs. Depending on how the remaining primaries go, Clinton will need about two-thirds of the uncommitted ones to break her way. Problem is, over the last month, superdelegates have broken to Obama by 78 percent to 22 percent.

more...

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=6b3d9c26-7c9e-4814-badd-a124edc68718

[NJmaverick]

1. Chait makes some excellent points

He is dead on, with his comments about the weakness of liberalism and that insurmountable is not small. He also brought up the excellent point that Obama's lead is all the more impressive, due to the proportional distribution.

[donco]

2. The post date on that link

was/is (Post Date Wednesday, April 23, 2008), just wondering? Had to look at a calendar, thought maybe I overslept.



:wow:

[OhioChick]

3. Just waking up, 'eh?

:)

[ooglymoogly]

4. Excellent post...The "press corps" is hearing what it wants to hear

even if that is an idiot tapping repetitively on a child's drum in a near sound proof room; Pretending the truth and the full orchestra, playing full throttle in their ear, do not exist...that is the way CORPORATE media works...it is called PROPAGANDA. KR