I Can't Stop, I Won't Stop, I Don't Even Know How to Stop

As I was talking to a close friend and fellow political observer, we came to the subject of what seems to be Barack Obama's unstoppable nature. Hilary Clinton has pulled out all the stops, opting to go for what her campaign is calling the kitchen sink strategy to bring down his juggernaut of a campaign. She started off by saying mailing are being sent out by his campaign about her health care plan and her stances on NAFTA are so terribly false they are strategies out of the Karl Rove play book. This is after the call for the experienced candidate didn't work and the not so subtle race card played by Former President Clinton didn't fair much better. I don't want to leave out the picture of Obama visiting Kenya

The question we began to discuss was why, when the Democrats have such an opportunity to gain control of the executive branch, is Hilary resorting to these tactics? It would seem, as though she is out of the race and she is playing a very divisive political strategy. And it’s a very good question to raise. If Hilary is going to pull it out, one would think negative campaigns are the last road she would want to travel down. John Edwards, who has yet to endorse any candidate since dropping out the race, wouldn't be a fan of this style of Washington-as-usual politics. If he was to endorse anyone before the crucial Texas and Ohio primaries, it will not be the candidate uses a divisive issue such as the fear of Islamo-fascist, to stay in, not even win, the democratic primary. She can win Texas and Ohio and still not clench the democratic ticket. Moreover, the democrats are poised to take control. Why on earth would a democrat try and divide the base and give McCain a shot at winning centrist may fear the threat of Islamic terrorist in their collective backyard? Even if she were to gracefully bow out, she could earn some political capitol in the Democratic Party for her next run.

The answer seems to be a complicated one. The most immediate one is the commitment to her supporters. The Clinton campaign went broke after Super Tuesday; I would guess they assumed a big win would knock out the Obama run. She loaned the campaign 5 million of her own personal wealth to keep it afloat. A number of people are doing jobs they were paid for before Super Tuesday for free. With so much time, money and energy (most of it not being of Clinton, but of donors, volunteers, and campaign staff members), it would be quite a discouraging moment for any future support for hr to bow out now, with the delegate count so close. When donors sit to write checks, they will remember she called it quits when the race was getting hot. The idea will be that she can't win unless it’s a landslide.

The less obvious reason is, to put is simple, "now." This is a strange time in American politics. The George W Bush presidency has been a nightmare for the Republican Party. His administration destroyed the coalition Ronald Regan built. With monstrous oil prices, a mismanaged war and peace keeping effort in Iraq, a failure to catch Osama bin Laden, a pitiful showing of preparedness with regard to the responses to Hurricane Katrina and Rita, a rising defect, and of course the litany of scandals, the Enron scandal, the Plame incident being two of the many examples. The Republican base is in disarray. Right Wing radio figures are against John McCain, who has the substantial lead, and never make note of Huckabee. This Bush administration has put the republican base into a corner. Because of the colossal failures of the Bush presidency, the next president, needs only to clean up some of the messes left behind to be re-elected. If a candidate fixes health care, makes a stand on Iraq, and does something to start to cut down the deficit, they will win four more years. Moreover, the Bush presidency has left the US with a very sour taste for Washington. This is why Obama's campaign's key word is "Change." He doesn't need to go into tremendous detail about this change because the very notion of a new direction from these last 7 years has mass appeal. So much mass appeal in a country where women still make less money than men for the same work and blacks are still stopped for driving a car too nice them to afford in a neighborhood they could never live in, a black man and a woman are the front runners for the most powerful office in the land. This is more than just an election. The winner will make history, and this is why Hilary must throw it all into the contest. Not for some vague notion of women power, because the day she gets elected my mother will still be paid less than her male counterpart and I will still get pulled over if I'm in the wrong town if Obama win. Whoever wins this contest will have an opportunity to write a positive narrative no administration on the left ever experienced. So ClintonTexas and Ohio in the coming March, as should be expected. She and Obama are fighting for history. and, as is custom of dignitaries visiting another country, adorned in traditional Kenyan attire looks enough like Muslim garb to make the point there may be something to all the internet rumors about his possible faith in Islam. will drag it out to the end, which may come in