Posted on Sun, May. 11, 2008

Sanders: Turn out the lights, Hillary

Sen. Hillary Clinton is a smart, strong, tenacious woman.

Those qualities are ones that many of us have admired in her for years. They also are traits that cause a lot of other people -- including many women -- to despise her.

Some folk just can't stand a forceful female, an intelligent woman who is willing to stand her ground with any man and one who has the audacity to believe that she can be president of the United States.

Despite my longtime admiration for her, I must admit that in recent months I've lost some of the respect for a woman I robustly defended when she and her husband were being attacked by the "vast right-wing conspiracy."

Admittedly, more than a year ago I proclaimed my allegiance to Barack Obama by suggesting that he should be the next president. I also said at the time that should Clinton win the Democratic nomination, she could not win without Obama on the ticket.

It's clear now that she will not be the nominee, and it's even more apparent to me that she should not be.

In her desperation, she has revealed a side that perhaps was always there but became more evident as it became obvious that she would do almost anything to get votes in the hard-fought primaries and caucuses.

Having once been "ordained" the nominee, Clinton found it difficult to deal with the Obama surprise of having out-smarted her campaign in organization, mobilization of supporters and fundraising.

Her enthusiasm turned to bitterness that revealed itself in pettiness, negativity and pandering. (Note her call for a three-month suspension of the federal gasoline tax in the run-up to last week's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.)

Also consider her overt and covert appeals to "blue-collar workers" -- a euphemism for "whites."

When it became clear that she had no realistic way to catch Obama (much less surpass him) in pledged delegates or the popular vote, she began to change her mind about the Democratic rules disqualifying delegates from Michigan and Florida -- delegates she had agreed should not count because their states had moved up their primary dates despite party regulations.

Clinton and all Democrats made a pledge not to campaign in those states, and Obama even had his name removed from the Michigan ballot.

Clinton's name remained on both, and she won the popular vote in both, although 40 percent of voters in Michigan remained uncommitted. (Obama's supporters had encouraged voters to mark "uncommitted" on their ballots.)

Although neither candidate went to those states to campaign or ran advertising in either, it is disingenuous for Clinton to say she didn't work for votes in Florida. Before that state's primary, she was talking about making sure that Floridians were not "disenfranchised" and saying that their delegates ought to be seated at the national convention.

That in itself was a campaign, and she knew her statements would be carried by the media there. She also made fundraising appearances in Florida.

And now, after she lost big in North Carolina and narrowly won in Indiana last week, everybody but Clinton knows that her campaign for the nomination is over.

She says she's determined to go on, and that is her prerogative. Perhaps she is looking for more bargaining power in getting on the ticket as Obama's vice presidential nominee or to negotiate for his campaign to pay off some of her mounting debt. (She has loaned her campaign more than $11 million.)

But maybe she honestly doesn't know how to quit, because she's never really had to do that.

There is much public talk (and, I'm sure, conversation behind the scenes) of a so-called dream ticket of Obama-Clinton. Although she couldn't win as the nominee without him, I'm still not sure that he could win with her.

Sure, the party will have to unite in order to beat John McCain in November, but will the Democrats' two candidates have to marry, even if it has to be a shotgun wedding? I don't think so.

For all intents and purposes, the nomination process should be over by the end of this month. Nominee Obama should go forward with his campaign this summer against his Republican opponent and take his time in choosing a running mate.

If Hillary Clinton is true to her word, she and her husband will be out on the campaign trail, fighting for Obama and their party.

If she spends too much time pouting and dreaming of what might have been, it will serve only to remind people of why they don't like her.