The Nation- Please Exit, With Dignity, June 4

Hillary Cinton- Please Exit, with Dignity, June
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 05/26/2008 @ 10:00pm

The women of The Nation are the first to deplore the sexism in media commentary this primary season, but a "cover up"?

Hillary Clinton started this race last year as the one to beat--she had the money, the machine and the name recognition that assured her of quasi-incumbent status. And, indeed, she ran as a quasi-incumbent, an establishment candidate in a change- year election. Yes, there were the Chris Matthews and the Tucker Carlsons and the Mike Barnicles and the Rush Limbaughs and the women who were working out their Clinton hatred through Hillary's candidacy.

Betsy Reed's superb May 19th cover story, "Race to the Bottom: How Hillary Clinton's Campaign Has Divided the Feminist Movement," documents those sexist remarks--and explains how Clinton's campaign has divided the feminist movement. But Clinton's losses cannot be attributed solely or largely to a sexism that still runs deep in our political culture.

Clinton made the mistake of running a top-down campaign in a rules-changing year, and acceding to a sexism within her campaign that advised her not to apologize for her disastrous vote supporting Bush's war resolution. Yes, she was in charge. She could have rejected the guys' advice. But Clinton appears to have bought into the idea that a Commander-in-Chief has to play by "men's rules"--and be tougher than the toughest. If she'd been smart and right, not strong and wrong, how in her right mind would she not have said, I made a mistake when I accepted the word of a man who, it is now widely accepted (except in FoxLand), lied us into a war that has gravely undermined the US's security? John Edwards managed to issue an apology--and he was dueling with a media that had pegged him as "the Breck Girl." Could it be that macho boys like Mark Penn and Bill Clinton counseled Hillary that if she issued honest regret she wouldn't be macho enough to be treated as a serious Commander-in-Chief?

If Clinton had listened to alternative voices --if there'd be some "woman- commen-sense" over in her campaign--they might have suggested that she reframe what a commander-in-chief for the 21st century means. That what's needed to deal with the challenges of this world is not more militarism amd macho swagger, but a commitment to smart, principled use of non-military tools. After all, how does military might address genocidal conflicts? Or the worst pandemic in world history (AIDS)? Or staggering and destabilizing global ineqality? Or, for that matter, the spread of weapons of mass destruction?

<snip>

And at the end of the day, while Hillary Clinton has the grit, she ain't got the numbers. And the longer her fight drags on--with outlandish attempts to equate the status of the Michigan and Florida delegations with the fraudulent Zimbabwean elections or with the fraudulent Florida recount of 2000--the greater the disservice to the party, the people and the country.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/323677

I just want her to go away.

just as long as it's far far far away!

I never liked Sen. Clinton, but I don't hate her. This primary is over, and she is not going to win. She cannot continue past June 3 and maintain her dignity. It will be less painful for everyone if she faces reality.

so much Monday morning quarterbacking. The all-knowing, all-seeing pundits and media personalities have made monkeys of themselves. I tried to watch Dan Abrams tonight and lasted 5 minutes. Never in my life have I been so disgusted with people who think they are the smartest people in the world. One doesn't have to like Hillary Clinton. They can just say I don't like Hillary Clinton, but no, they have to make up things and take something out of context. I know these people want Obama to be the nominee and I have nothing against that. But to achieve their end by slicing and dicing, blasting, making things up, makes me so ill I can't believe I live in America. There is absolutely no honor among those people.

But I think her larger point is valid. The Clintons had many advantages, they ran an imprudent campaign, and now their time has passed. The only dignified thing for her to do is leave as gracefully as possible after June 3.

Step aside Hillary, time to go on home.

"Change". The Americans wanted change, above all else. If she had only listened to the people when she was out campaigning (15 months ago) she would have gotten the message.

Interestingly, I just noticed the Hillary Clinton web site has changed. Just last week, there is a new slogan. There is a banner at the top and it says,

"EXPERIENCE

AND

CHANGE"

They still don't get it.

I have a hard time buying the claim that he's going to do things differently, and nothing could convince me that it's all a lie faster than taking Hillary as VP after all his criticism of her and her "old politics".

She carries a Taint so foul, it will poison anyone near her with a virulent disease.

take that kind of irrational hate personally. Good luck winning without them.

that her supporters would not vote in November - or worse, vote for McSame - because they're disgruntled, and taking negative comments towards Hillary personally.

Is it all about you, Hillary supporters, or is it about the good of the country? I hope you stop and ask yourselves that before walking into that polling place (or decide to stay home protesting).

Hillary's "Quien es mas macho" shtick repelled me. If she had just said, here's how a smart woman will get us out of Bush's foreign messes, I would have been first to cheer. But she decided to play up to Joe Six-Pack. Big mistake. She never spoke to me or the masses of average women in this country who would loved to have put one of our own in the White House.

THAT is my main sticking point with her. She NEVER admits she made a mistake. Edwards admitted he made a mistake when he voted for the Iraq War resolution. She won't do that. And she STILL voted for Kyl-LIEberman which Bush will use to attack Iran. This is how she lost my support and why I will be glad to send money to a REAL DEMOCRAT to give her the LIEberman treatment in 2012. She must go!

not vote for Obama unless he chooses Hillary as VP. The DUers and the Keith Oberlmanns and the Dan Abrams who have led the bash-Hillary brigade have basically wounded their own candidate. I keep asking y'all to cool it, but you refuse and at your peril...and worse still... at Obama's peril. Even when you have won, you are still out there breathing fire. Many of us are sick of it, whatever our preference. The bashing, for example, of Bill Clinton is over the top insane. Thank God for Bill and Hillary. These two people have cared about America and the children here and throughout the world and the black people. They are truly compassionate Americans and I for one reject your disparagement of them and I ask you to finally "Shut up!" If Obama loses, you Hillary haters, who took up where the Right wing left off, are culpable.