There's a lot of shots on this blog taken at Hillary because she should have dropped out months ago or should have endorsed Obama Tuesday night. Stop ripping Hillary and be gracious about her unprecedented selfishlessness -- because no one in her position has ever been this much of a team player.
Hillary's signaled her intention to endorse Obama this weekend, and no one remotely close to her position has ever endorsed his opponent this early and with fewer demands.
In the last primary that was a tough fight -- Jesse Jackson v. Dukakis -- Jackson did not back Dukakis until the convention. As the July 19, 1988 edition of the NY Times reported:
The 40th Democratic National Convention opened tonight in a spirit of unity and relief just hours after Michael S. Dukakis and the Rev. Jesse Jackson agreed to cooperate in the general election battle against the Republicans.
In winning that agreement, which led to a side-by-side tableau of unity before television cameras this morning, Mr. Dukakis appeared to have avoided making commitments, either to controversial policies or to appointments in a Democratic administration. But he did promise to give Mr. Jackson a major public role in the fall campaign and to integrate much of the Jackson campaign staff into the Dukakis effort.
7-19-88 NYTimes
You think Hillary is trying to assert her leverage from winning 48% of the delegates -- look what Jesse Jackson did with far less. He tried to veto the VP pick because the nominee (who won handily) didn't consult him on the pick:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson today raised the specter of a fight over the Democratic Vice-Presidential nomination on the convention floor next week and defections from the party in the November election unless Gov. Michael S. Dukakis embraces him and his supporters as central players in the party.
Mr. Jackson said at a news conference here that his supporters were insulted and indignant by the way Mr. Dukakis chose Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as his running mate without consulting or even informing Mr. Jackson.
. . .
On the question of whether he might permit an attempt to wrest the Vice-Presidential nomination from Mr. Bentsen, he said: ''I've not suggested I will compete for a place on the ticket. But the floor is wide open on Thursday night when the recommendation is made.''
July 14 1998 NYTimes
In 1984, Gary Hart also took his fight to the convention, even though he had far fewer delegates than Hillary. In fact, Jesse Jackson kept up his fight to the convention in 84 as well. This NY Times article is behind the pay wall, but you get the gist of the negotiations that were taking place DURING THE CONVENTION from the free lead:
Walter F. Mondale and his two remaining rivals for the Democratic nomination made a last attempt tonight to compromise their differences on the party platform and insure a smooth second day of the national convention Tuesday. Mr. Mondale, Senator Gary Hart and the Rev. Jesse Jackson emerged from an . . .
We all know about Ted Kennedy and 1980.
So Hillary's actions today show her to be an unprecedented team player. Is she using her huge delegate total for leverage? If she isn't, she'd be the first person not to do it, and her predecessors had far fewer delegates.
UPDATE -- In the spirit of "unity" I dropped the last line (see below if you're curious)