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Edited on Mon Feb-25-08 12:54 AM by FlyingSquirrel
It's not because I'm a glassy-eyed cult-of-personality Obamite
It's not because I don't want the rest of the country to get their chance to vote (they can vote anyway)
It's not because I'm "afraid Hillary will take the nom at the convention"
It's not even because I think the continuing battle is "doing the Repugs' dirty work for them".
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Here's the reason.
Edwards dropped out 3.5 weeks ago. Kucinich dropped out 4.5 weeks ago. Richardson dropped out 6.5 weeks ago. Biden and Dodd dropped out 7+ weeks ago.
Now for those of you who may not be paying attention, a lot of the DU'ers who supported those candidates have either stopped posting here altogether, or do so rarely and still haven't changed their avatars or come out in support of the two remaining candidates.
And these were candidates that, in reality, we all knew probably did not have much chance of winning the nomination. We just didn't want to admit it.
So the pain lingers, the so-called grief cycle has yet to be completed for many after (for some) over 7 weeks of disillusionment. How many of those people are likely right now to be saying good things to their friends, neighbors, co-workers, family about either Obama or Clinton? How many of them, if the election were to be held next week, would be excited and energized and ready to get out and vote (and get others out to vote)?
Now just think how much harder it will be for Hillary Clinton's supporters to get over their hard feelings when she actually DID have a VERY good chance of winning (and many still think she does).
Yes, it's probably over; and yes, many of them are cursing me while reading these words and denying the truth to themselves. That's beside the point. If it were the other way around, what I'm saying would still be true - and that is, we Democrats need time to get over the bitterness of having our candidate of choice lose the nomination. We need to heal from the wounds incurred during this battle, because in many cases we've become so wrapped up in our candidate that a barb aimed at them feels like a barb aimed at us. We need time to get used to the idea that there is still a candidate out there who -- while they're not perfect and we've been attacking them mercilessly for months -- whether we like it or not, they are now the Democratic nominee.
Perhaps April 22 (the PA primary) would not be too close to November for this process to take place. Perhaps even June 7 wouldn't be too close. But I'm damn sure August 25-28 is WAY too close. Less than 10 weeks from Nov. 4th. A contested nomination at the Democratic National Convention would be a disaster. The longer this process gets dragged out, the more chance there is of it happening (I just recently heard that Puerto Rico may be awarding all its delegates winner-take-all. If true, or even if not, it's just another glimmer of hope for die-hard Clinton supporters.)
And let's face it, at this point a contested nomination at the Convention is the ONLY scenario in which Hillary Clinton can win, with the battle over FL and MI thrown in there to boot. I'd much rather have the nomination decided so we can include MI and FL and seat their delegates in the interest of party unity without it being a huge controversy.
I'm not calling for Hillary Clinton to drop out.
I'm just saying, I hope the vote goes Obama's way on March 4 and April 22, to the point where everyone can agree that the people have spoken, and where the wounded can begin to heal.
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