(Danville, California)
What a wonderful campaign trip to North Carolina! But I am glad to be back in California a few days, before heading to West Virginia. What a race!
I have advocated a number of times in my blog that Hillary Clinton should not quit, and the Democratic Party should not pressure her to quit. This campaign has a process that ends in four weeks. What's the rush? Why not let it play out? Hillary Clinton is favored to win the following primaries: West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico. Barack Obama is favored in Oregon, South Dakota and Montana. It's all over June 3, except for the choices of the "Super Delegates."So what's the rush? I have said here before that being a "quitter" is not a quality we want from any serious presidential candidate from either party. John McCain didn't quit in the "Hanoi Hilton"; Barack Obama didn't quit when his dad left or his mother died; and certainly Hillary Clinton didn't quit in the lowest moments of her husband's impeachment.
We want a fighter! We liked Harry Truman for fighting back; we liked Ronald Reagan for taking a bullet, then making jokes in the operating room! We like tough; we like resilient!
So let the primaries play out. Let Hillary cross the finish line, even if it is in second place. Howard Dean ought to just stay out of it. His track record of what happens when he touches something is not very good, from his Iowa scream to the debacle this year in Florida and Michigan. If anyone ever needed the nudge to quit.....oh never mind!
Anyway, I met three-quarters of a very nice family in Kernersville on Sunday night. Felicia Fitts was there with her 18-year-old daughter Paris and her 15-year-old son Daniel. As she described it, they were "two voters, with one in training!" They went to see Bill Clinton at the local high school because they support Hillary Clinton. This was a great civics lesson for the kids, and they were thrilled. "That's Bill Clinton in our neighborhood!" Felicia said. But her husband, who was away on business, supports Barack Obama, having switched from Clinton. I asked whether that was causing any trouble at home."I am standing firm," she said with a laugh, "but if Barack Obama wins, I'll support him."
I suspect that is a conversation happening at many Democratic dinner tables, and talk of not supporting "the other side" is just that, talk!
Democratic party leaders would be wise to listen to people like Felicia Fitts and to quit acting as if June 3 is doomsday, instead of just the end of one political process.
I will be in Charleston, West Virginia, Monday through Wednesday, for the West Virginia primary!
Check back often at www.MarkCurtisMedia.blogspot.com
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