I hesitate to devote a diary to a topic that will no doubt gain me the enmity of both my fellow Obama supporters and Clinton supporters, but in fairness I feel we need to recognize Clinton's right to remain in the contest.
There's no love lost between myself and Hillary Clinton, make no mistake about that. I have gone from having a mildly positive view of her when the campaign started to having a very negative view of her character and executive abilities.
I also strongly disapprove of the way she's run her campaign recently (and in general). Incompetence in framing her message for democratic primary voters is not an excuse to go nuclear on another member of the party during the primary, particularly with respect to the specific tactics that have been used. I think she needs to drop that approach, and drop it now, and run on her own merits. But I defend her right to stay in the race at this point. More on the flip at the risk of being, um, nuanced and hated by friends and opponents alike.
Here's my basic thesis:
(1) It's not irresponsible, per se, for the second-place candidate to stay in a race until the convention, as it keeps a campaign alive as a "Plan B" option in the event the putative nominee is disabled or otherwise unable to campaign. Now, trying to bring about some kind of implosion in the other candidate's camp -- that is awful. But waiting in the wings just in case is not. (And I say this with 100% confidence in Obama and the campaign, but strange things happen.)
(2) Candidates have a right to use the campaign to get their message out. John Edwards had no shot at this thing from the second week of contests, but many of us (I was an Edwards supporter until it became apparent to me he couldn't win it) hung in there a while longer to assure he had a platform for his message. Again, I take exception to the Clinton campaign's "message", which seems to be largely centered on the candidate herself rather than any cause which she is particularly championing, but I vote at the ballot box and with my checkbook in response to that -- I don't say she doesn't have the right to champion that cause on the bully pulpit.
(3) It is traditionally premature to call for party unity prior to a true party-wide consensus having been built. Insofar as Clinton can't win the nomination without having a very strange and probably machiavellian series of events take place, that is not a consensus, but with the relatively close delegate margin and the number of undecided or undeclared super delegates up in the air, it is also premature to claim that Obama's majority is in turn a broader consensus. I say that with all the confidence in the world Obama can build that consensus, particularly if the rational moderate leadership can persuade the Clinton campaign to stop inventing lines for the RNC. But it is still the case that we are not quite at the tipping point with a factual majority or an effective consensus.
(4) There is some value in engaging the remaining states in the primary process while John McCain sticks his foot in his mouth about Iran helping Al Qaeda and other such drivel. Even if the campaigns are divided, energizing the electorate on one's behalf is a focussing effort we haven't had nationally in decades, if ever. The imperfections of the primary calendar notwithstanding, it's in the interests of a candidate who truly believes in the grassroots to let that grass grow (even if the other candidate does so with, um, fertilizer.) In theory, this is what the primary process is supposed to be about -- engaging our own voters, attracting independents and cross-over Republicans now so they'll stay in our camp for the fall.
I again repeat: I am not at all happy with the conduct of Clinton and her surrogates. I think it speaks poorly to her judgement, her character, her intelligence with respect to what will work best for the party (or even herself) in the fall, and it's a poor choice for her own future role in the party. It is very close to disqualifying conduct in my personal opinion.
But -- this is not by itself a reason for her to drop her candidacy right now. I'd prefer it if she stayed in and fought honorably in the interests of the party by focussing on core issues, not distractions. (If she actually thinks what she's been campaigning on in the last month really are core issues, she's not even qualified to be a Senator, IMHO.) Stay in the race -- drop the demeaning act.
OK, now I'm going to post and wait for the hate mail from both camps 8-).