Those demanding Clinton quit would praise Obama for staying in under similar circumstances

[highplainsdem]

They'd say he was running a great campaign and making more people enthusiastic about politics.

They'd say he wasn't a quitter.

They'd say he was helping the party.

They'd say it was especially important that his history-making campaign not be cut short, if it was at all close, even if the math suggested he couldn't get the nomination any more.

There's a double standard here. As has been pointed out, there haven't been similar demands in the past that male candidates who've gotten nearly as many delegates and nearly as much of the popular vote as the front runner drop out.

This is sexism and Clinton-bashing.

And if the situation were reversed, and you people now shrieking that Hillary should get out heard people saying Obama should get out, you'd call it racism. You'd want him to be able to finish the primary season.

And you'll never convince me that you'd approve of pressure on him to drop out.

[tekisui]

1. You are making a lot of assumptions.

[MichiganVote]

2. yup...that's politics

[enki23]

3. it's common for people to overestimate the number who share their vices

.

[NJmaverick]

4. Absolutely not! I can't say this strong enough

For me it's ALWAYS the good of the party and Country first!

[DJ13]

Im an Obama supporter, and I would have expected him to quit weeks ago

My support for him would have ceased if he couldnt face reality.

We've already had 7 years of a President who cant face reality, why would I support another one?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Uhh, no we wouldn't.

Of course, he wouldn't stay in this long to begin with.

He's got class. Like Edwards, Biden, Kucinich, and so on.

[Levgreee]

6. Wrong

[BlooInBloo]

7. That's just asinine.

[endarkenment]

8. Actually I wouldn't.

My upset over my second choice, Edwards, dropping out lasted about one hour. He did the right thing, there was no point in continuing. Had Obama, my third choice, been handed a fairly stunning string of defeats, essentially eliminating him from serious contention for a pledged delegate victory, I would have been fine with his dropping out, and I would have switched my support to the presumptive nominee.

Clinton cannot win except by creating some massive clusterfuck over rules in Denver. Is that what you are supporting? Why? Why not just support the candidate who won more delegates and more votes?

[Mooney]

9. Nope.

I would think he was a delusional idiot if he stayed in after losing five contests in a row, much less eleven. I would consider him straight-up Mike Huckabee/Ron Paul material.

[stray cat]

10. I think the exact opposite - they would say he was a spoiler

She has credibility for still being competitive because she is a Clinton.

[LisaM]

11. I think you're right.

I try and try to figure out why there is so much demand for her to quit. For one thing, the extended primary season has really ratcheted up the numbers of Democrats who have registered to vote. We saw the fruits of these efforts with the Travis Childers win yesterday.

I believe the NARAL endorsement and the Edwards endorsement (if true) are part of a collaborative effort to force her out. Why else would NARAL endorse against a candidate they've given a 100% scorecard to? Why today, after another Clinton win?

It's clearly concerted (I include the media in this). What are Obama supporters so afraid of? Can't they hang on another three weeks?

It's all the more maddening because Hillary has garnered a lot of support and has gotten millions of votes. Do the people calling for her to leave understand that it's dismissive of her voters, too? I think she understands this, and is staying in partially because of it.

[endarkenment]

19. What are Obama supporters so afraid of?

That is an excellent question. I am so glad you asked. I am afraid of the damage being done to our chances in november. That is what I am afraid of. How often does this excellent question have to be asked and answered before it sinks in that we actually make sense and have a valid concern that transcends 'your guy vs my guy'?

[LisaM]

25. And yet look at all the people registering to vote Democratic

It's important to the chances in November - particularly because the voters won't get any last minute surprises when they go vote for President. This extended primary season WILL help insure there are fewer voting problems in the GE.

I'm glad you answered in a reasoned manner, though I don't particularly AGREE with you! But that's okay.

[EFerrari]

24. It's a vast left wing conspiracy to stop the attacks on the Democratic nominee.

[cali]

12. Had Obama lost 11 contests in a row as Clinton did, he would have

been forced to drop out. It's that simple. She got a pass because of her name.

[wileedog]

13. The media would have Huckabeed him in February after 11 straight losses anyway

But even if they didn't, no way I would be supporting him staying in a pointless and very lost race that only hurts party chances in November.

[Vinca]

14. If Obama had suffered 12 straight losses, he wouldn't have made it this far.

Hillary has because her last name is Clinton.

[anigbrowl]

37. I think he wouldn't have tried. He is much more of a team player.

Correspondingly, I think Edwards has a much better chance of seeing real action (and getting authority) for his poverty agenda. I don't see him as VP but I imagine he'll hold a very senior cabinet position.

[onenote]

15. and those defending HRC staying in would be screaming for him to drop out

All you've proven is that the partisans on both sides wouldn't want their candidate to drop out. What you haven't proven is that in either scenario you've posed, insisting on a candidate who had no realistic chance of getting the nomination drop out and let the party begin to unify would be the wrong thing to do.

[babylonsister]

16. Baloney. If the roles were reversed, Obama would have been EXPECTED

to bow out months ago. The Clinton name has gotten her this far. I hope that ends now.

[mmonk]

17. No I wouldn't.

Not with the tactics of trying to change rules, overrule pledged delegates and such. The acrimony caused by it would disturb me concerning the fall just as it does now. My ultimate goal is defeating the republicans.

[newmajority]

18. Obama would have never had a prayer of staying in under those circumstances

The DLC would have insisted that the whore media take him down, like they did to Howard Dean in Iowa.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Math made it impossible to overcome

I'd be saying the same

And I fear giving the speech I gave many of you to them.

Don't assume... but not all of us are married to A candidate

[EFerrari]

21. Nope. Obama hasn't run his campaign from the sewer.

Had Clinton done the same, her staying in would be okay with me.

And second, if Hillary weren't married to Bill Clinton, she'd be gone by now -- as would Obama were the situation reversed.

Calling "sexism" on no grounds whatsoever diminishes the real discrimination that women suffer every day.

[zulchzulu]

22. Would Obama be criticized for being impossibly behind and $20 million in debt?

Surely you jest.

If Obama had lost to Hillary 11 states in a row after Super Tuesday, do you think the Clinton campaign would have said... "Atta, boy, Barack! You just keep trying, lil' buddy!"

Not a fucking chance.

[sniffa]

23. Did Michal Regunberg join DU?

:shrug:

[SoonerPride]

26. No way. If you can't win and you're $30 million debt. Time to fold up the tent.

Get out while the gettings good

[union_maid]

27. I don't think so

In all honesty, I don't think that I'd be agitating for a candidate to stay in once winning was very unlikely. I've rooted for losing candidates more times than I can count and even when disappointed, I've always been willing to accept when our party's nominee was inevitable. I thought Wes Clark was a great choice in '04. I thought Kerry was a great guy but that he'd put people to sleep on the campaign trail. Clark was out of it by the time I voted and I showed up to vote for Kerry even though there was no meaningful opposition left.

In '92 Clinton was most definitely not my first choice. He reminded me of a televangelist. He seemed more like a Republican than a Democrat to me. I got over it long before the convention. I just figured, OK, he's the guy. I don't see why the party seems to think they need a new kind of Democrat when we've got Tom Harkin, but all right. This might be the first time I'm in synch with the majority of the party - but the party always comes first, because they can't do a thing if they're not elected.

[mmonk]

28. Like they said last night on MSNBC,

if it were reversed, they wouldn't even be there (because Obama probably would have conceded by now), that they'd probably being showing cartoons or something.

[Window]

29. No double standard, Hillary's negative campaign against a fellow Democrat

is the main reason people wanted her to drop out. I've seen it posted here repeatedly that, if she wanted to stay in, fine, but let go of the kitchen sink strategy. That's probably why so many SDs are endorsing Sen. Obama.

Also, the party is anxious to settle on a nominee in order to concentrate on McWar.

[mudesi]

30. Unlike Clinton supporters, the rest of us care about the Democratic party

You are as wrong as wrong can be.

[ima_sinnic]

31. wrong!! I'd be embarrassed for him, and consider him crazier than a s**house rat

--in addition, he would be being totally marginalized by the media. We wouldn't even hear about him. We wouldn't even know he was running.

And we wouldn't even know what's her name was running if she didn't have the name Clinton. She really has nothing else going for her. She is now the looney-tunes Katherine Harris of the Democratic Party, the guest who overstays her welcome, dancing around with a lampshade on her head after everybody else has left. And after the crap she has thrown out for the repukes to use against Obama, and the way she has made sure the party would split over her arrogant, pompous, entitled ass, she can go to hell. I can't wait until she is just a sorry footnote in a history book.

If you had any sense, you'd be embarrassed for her--but Clinton supporters are not noted for their intelligence.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[endarkenment]

35. Alerted.

[Jamastiene]

33. That is the truth.

"there haven't been similar demands in the past that male candidates who've gotten nearly as many delegates and nearly as much of the popular vote as the front runner drop out."

[anigbrowl]

34. Bope. If he had lost 12 in a row I would have preferred he quit, as he said he would have.

I admired Edwards tremendously for pulling the plug when he did - money and a lack of success at the polls sort of forced him to, but he made it about the good of the party and the two strong front-runners than about himself.

Similarly, if Clinton had been streaking away from Obama and had run a strong clean campaign instead of the uneven one that she has, I'd have preferred Obama to have stepped back and say that he had made his arguments successfully but accepted voters' judgments about experience etc. Actually, this was what I expected to happen when I decided to support him last year: I thought it would be impossible to beat the Clinton 'brand', political network and fundraising ability, and that Obama was headed for the VP spot or Sec of State or AG.

[WA98296]

36. No, would not approve.

[anonymous171]

38. Not if he was running a super negative campaign and driving wedges into the party.

[POAS]

39. You say--------

"And you'll never convince me that you'd approve of pressure on him to drop out."

I wouldn't bother trying, why waste good electrons an someone with an admittedly closed mind!

Buh-Bye!

[rhett o rick]

40. One more divisive post. Please tell us how you know how others would behave?

I am not sure why the admins allow posts that clearly attack either Clinton or Obama. You want to talk about issues, go ahead, you want to attack Obama or Clinton, go to freeperville (hell).

[highplainsdem]

44. I'm not attacking Obama. I'm pointing out his supporters' hypocrisy.

When I posted a topic here about a week ago saying it was important for Democrats to support whoever the nominee was, it was the Obama supporters who did most of the screaming and threatening to sit the election out.

It was an Obama supporter who posted a message about friends who were going to vote for McCain rather than Hillary.

When the possibility of a unity ticket has been mentioned, it's been the Obama supporters who've done the most objecting.

So you won't convince me that they would have felt their candidate should bow out, under the same circumstances Clinton is dealing with now.

I've seen too much Obama mania here, and it's obvious how irrational it is.

Including to black progressives like the editor of Black Agenda Report, who's had a lot to say about it.

There is a double standard. You can try to pretend it doesn't exist if you wish. I know you're not convincing any of the Hillary supporters or the more objective people here. And some of the people posting here to say they'd be more objective have posted some of the nastiest Hillary-bashing messages here.

[Bright Eyes]

41. Nope.

Nice assumptions, though.

[high density]

42. Nope

I'd say he's a loon just like Clinton is. The fact is that the Clinton brand and their money are the only two things keeping Clinton in the race. If this were Barack Obama in this position he would've been cast aside back in February if he hadn't bowed out himself.

[pdxmom]

43. Had the situation been reversed, Clinton, the DLC, the media, and all

of the supporters would have been screaming weeks ago for Obama to get out. Clinton has been getting a gift here, by the drumbeat not really emerging until she went "there" with her "hard-working whites" comment.

[bvar22]

45. Wrong....EPIC Wrong.

The day Obama said that McCain was more qualified to be president than Hillary, I would have become his opposition.

[cynatnite]

46. They also conveniently ignore other candidates...

despite they have zero chance of winning,who won't quit.

Hillary isn't the first and won't be the last candidate to run for office who had next to no chance of getting the nomination. Folks should just let it play out.

[Unbowed]

47. That's nonsense. Obama would probably have been pressured to get out before this.

And HELL no. If Obama were the one acting like a horse's ass and staying in after the math was this damming, I'd drop him like a hot potato. I wouldn't support any Democrat who put their personal ambition before the party. Sexism, no. Clinton bashing, yes. But were the tables turned, it would be Obama-bashing. You reap what you sow.

[TTUBatfan2008]

48. The double standard is in the other direction...

If Obama was in the same position, he would have been laughed out of the race already. The double standard works in favor of the Clintons since they are royalty in the Democratic Party. I personally couldn't care less if she stays in. In fact, I'm perfectly fine with it.

[Orsino]

49. So much hate.

x(