by With 94% of the vote counted in Pennsylvania, Claudia’s prediction of 55% to 45% is tracking dead-on. This gives the former First Lady a definitive win in another big state and begs the question: Should Mrs. Clinton drop out of the race for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination? Of course not.
To many on the left, Hillary’s fight to gain the nomination smacks of heresy. How dare she compete with the far left’s Anointed One, Mr. Barack Obama? For these people the purpose of the election is far more to defeat the Republicans than it is about the few unique ideas that Obama has brought to the table.
In some respects it’s difficult to blame them. The politics and policies of George W. Bush do, in many respects, deserve repudiation. Yet the far left’s inability to bring the administration to heel in any significant way now seems to have manifested itself as abject terror at the thought of a contested nomination process.
Uber-liberals – ne progressives – seem to fear competition in politics, just as they fear competition in the market place, and in the arena of ideas. Only controlled arguments, contests, and outcomes seem to suit them. Opposition must be be stifled, whether from conservatives or from within their own ranks. This behavior indicates a lack of confidence in their ideology’s ability to win out of its own merits.
Hillary Clinton is a deeply-flawed candidate who quite literally is despised by a significant minority of Americans. Yet the hard-nosed competition that she’s putting Barack Obama through is exactly what the Democratic party needs. Competition streamlines ideas and toughens people, two things that the Democrats must have happen in order to focus their attention where it belongs – on mainstream America and not on the fringe agenda-drivers that dominate the progressive, activist wing of the party.
For that reason alone, here’s hoping that Hillary Clinton keeps her word and stays in the race until the last delegate is counted at the convention.
