I Beg of You, Hillary Clinton: It's Quitting Time

In this country, quitting is looked down upon. Those who quit are often deemed as losers, or as too scared to go on. Sometimes, though, quitting can be incredibly brave and hard to do. That is the case for Hillary Clinton. In her heart, she has to know that she is in the middle of a race that she cannot win. Yet, no matter what the polls tell her, Hillary Clinton is refusing to bow out of the race with dignity. She is going to fight for as long as she possibly can, and tear apart the Democratic Party in the process.

There was a time when Hillary Clinton showed integrity while running for Presidential nomination. Before the primary season officially began, Clinton refused to badmouth her Democratic competitors. She let it be known that she was running against the Republicans, not her fellow Democrats. She informed the American public that the purpose was to have a Democrat win the office. She stated that the Democrats were going to band together to tear down the Republican domination of the White House. Certainly, she would like to be the Democrat sitting in the Oval Office, but she would not fight against her fellow Democrats.

At that time, of course, Hillary Clinton was the front runner.

Nothing is a sure thing in politics. Barack Obama's grassroots campaign led to him winning over voters state to state. Hillary Clinton would begin leading in a state, but then Obama would overtake the state at the last moment. Clinton's façade began to fade, and her teeth came out.

Suddenly, it was not Democrats versus Republicans. Hillary Clinton decided it should be Democrats against Democrats.

Initially, she had been running against worthy opponents. All of the sudden, the rest of the candidates were not good enough to get the nomination. There was only one true candidate, and that was Hillary Clinton. That is, keep in mind, according to Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton has alienated fellow Democrats. Bill Richardson was referred to as a Judas type figure for backing Obama instead of her. While those words did not come out of Clinton's mouth, they came from her campaign, which means that she must reap the negativity that they caused. She has called Barack Obama out on a wide variety of things, some of which do not even have anything to do with the presidency.

Worst of all, she has made a mockery of her candidacy.

Hillary Clinton is running a campaign on experience. Her experience consists of some years on the Senate and two terms as First Lady. She has chosen to exaggerate this experience to work in her favor, while claiming that Obama is too new to the political game to make a true difference. In order to show her experience, Clinton has lied about sniper fire attacks and made the claim that she is the only one who is truly capable of responding to a crisis. She did not have security clearance while First Lady and has no real experience with handling a crisis, or sniper fire, for that matter.

The damage that she has done to herself is not enough for Hillary Clinton, though. She also could not stop with the damage she has done to Barack Obama in a contest she cannot win. Somehow, Hillary Clinton has managed to justify damaging both the Democratic Party and democracy as a whole by continuing to campaign and not admitting defeat.

Hillary Clinton is doing the dirty work of Republicans for them. John McCain has it easy. He just has to sit back and watch as the pieces fall into place for him. He does not have to dig up dirt on Obama, his sure competitor in the race. Obama's fellow Democrat, Hillary Clinton, is doing it for him.

Hillary Clinton has made her followers have such a poor view of Obama that many have said they would not vote for him if he won the nomination. By feeding into the hatred of her followers, Clinton is not gaining more support for herself. She already has those votes. Instead, she is making it nearly impossible for Obama to manage to win them over after he gets the nomination.

Clinton is also affecting the very nature of democracy by arguing over vote counts. She has claimed, on several occasions, that both Florida and Michigan should be counted. It is not ethically responsible to count those votes as they are. If Florida and Michigan were to be allowed to have their delegates seated at the convention, both states would need to cast their votes for a second time. The candidates would have to be allowed to campaign in those states before votes were cast, and Obama's name would have to be on the ballot for both states in order for the vote to be considered legitimate. It is ridiculous to even entertain the idea of counting those votes as they are.

Clinton's poor judgment in the face of democracy reaches past Florida and Michigan. She has also publicly stated that Super Delegates should vote for the candidate they believe can win the election, even if that candidate is not the one their state voted for. Clinton is urging the Democratic Party to disregard the votes of the masses and instead, vote for her. That is fundamentally wrong. One cannot have a democratic nation only when it serves them. If Clinton were leading in the race, the idea of delegates and Super Delegates going against voters' wishes would be deemed as ethically wrong by the Clinton campaign. However, now that she is desperate, it is an idea she is entertaining.

One argument that Hillary Clinton has used in order to pull delegates from Barack Obama is her track record with the bigger states. She has even claimed that since Indiana is a border state of Illinois, it is essential that Obama win, since Illinois is his home state. Clinton has lost some New York border states, but she has ignored that issue. If Obama does, in fact, lose Indiana, Clinton's campaign will go after him full force. The loss will add to her "big state" argument and fuel the new "border state" argument. Both arguments will be used to attempt to sway delegates.

If Hillary Clinton wishes to have a future career in politics, she needs to step down from the race. It is time to concede graciously, congratulate Barack Obama on a job well done, and retain some dignity. Winning is not an option. A career in politics still is, as long as she does not have any more sniper fire recollections or damage the Democratic Party any further.

Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton appears destined to fight to the end. She will stay in the race, regardless of primary results, as long as she wins Indiana. If she wins Indiana, she will claim that she has the big state advantage and do her best to sway delegates. That will lead to Hillary Clinton's political demise.