Should She Stay or Should She Go?

Tuesday night, Obama won a large (relatively) victory in North Carolina, and made Indiana too close to call for much of the night. All this after the worst couple of weeks for Obama: bitter-gate, Wright's attack from the news-dead, and the Pennsylvania loss. Mathematically, Hillary is out of the running. Even if you toss in Florida and Michigan (and in the way she wants them), she cannot overtake him in popular votes or pledged delegates.

So what should she do? For herself AND the party?

If she wants a future (and to have one, she'll have to be remembered as a valiant fighter, not a sore loser or spoiler more interested in the destruction of Obama than what's best for the country), she has to...

wait for it...


wait for it...



She must stay in the race until June.

Huh?

Why?

Here's why: In the next three weeks are the final primaries, with a few that she should (and probably will) win... win but not at margins enough to get her mathematically close. If she pulls out now, she comes off as a hypocrite to her critics and a martyr to her supporters. If, and this is a HUGE if, she stays in the race and begins to take the high road (as she did for the most part in Tuesday's victory (in Indy)/concession (for NC)/practically valedictory speech... and all day yesterday), praising Obama as a legitimate candidate and probable great president, she will go a long way in cooling down her most vocal adherents--who have threatened to vote for McCain or sit out the November election entirely if Hill isn't the candidate.

[At this point, I would normally make some veiled parody of Obama's SF speech, discussing the aged, middle-class, white, and female contingency who in their frustration over their candidate's ultimately failed campaign have becoming "bitter" and are "clinging to" the hope of bringing down the man who brought down their candidate's campaign.]

As long as she stays in the race and stays on the high road, party officials should shut the hell up. Let HER mend the party (especially since it was her vociferous attacks in March and April that did the most to split the February unity of the party). And as a bone to her and her followers, Obama should throw them Florida and Michigan as a display of magnanimity (which will also help the healing process). Then after the last of the primaries on June 3, she graciously bows out (possibly on the same stage).

[by the way: if Limbaugh's "project chaos" worked and Hillary won Indiana (by less than two percent) because of it, then Rush ol' boy may have inadvertently made Obama STRONGER... if Obama had won Indiana, Hillary would probably have dropped out of the race yesterday, leaving her followers pissed off, bitter, and unwilling to vote for Obama in November.]