DebatablePolitics.com

My plan this morning was to post on the delegate situation after last night's victories for Obama. After all, as Chuck todd pointed out, in order for Clinton to catch Obama in elected delegates after last night she needs to win roughly 65% of the remaining delegates. Conversely Obama can actually clear 2025 if he were to pull 65% of the remaining delegates. There are a few other numbers that are interesting, but I will save those for tomorrow.

Watching the coverage last night was heartwarming. Wisconsin voters soundly rejected the string of negative attacks that the Clinton campaign spun out the last 4 days. Good news for the party.

Of course, knowing nothing else, the Clinton campaign came out with quotes and analysis like this, paraphrasing from news coverage.

The thing we learned tonight is that Obama's negatives can only go up. ~anonymous Clinton Campaign source

or

In general, the fact that we narrowed the gap (not losing by 25% as she did in the Potomac primaries) shows that our attacks ads paid some dividends. ~anonymous Clinton Campaign source

I know this is a strange concept to Clintonites, but the Democratic Party does not need you tearing down this man right now. Face it, he ran a better campaign. There must be a certain amount of hubris for the Hillary, we will win it all by February 5th, crowd.

That being said if all you have to offer is a string of scurrulous attacks it is time to step down. Normally, I would not have called for this, but, when your campaign has run out of their own ideas, and need to resort to solely scorched earth politics to win you must realize that it is time to step aside. This is true particularly since this is a primary and their are larger issues at stake in this election.

Besides, the Clinton campaign is in a trap. You can not win by emphasizing your negatives. Running attack ads will back fire on her. The image of the Clintons includes a healthy suspicion that they will always take a win-at-all-costs strategy. History bears this out since their Presidency ushered in the collapse of Democratic party dominance of the legislative branch that lasted nearly 60 years. Attacks will remind voters of this. They will not help her win, all they will do at this point is weaken Obama and anger the party.

The party needs Hillary to maintain her strength and dignity so they can come together win the White House, widen their margins in the House and Senate and promote an agenda the party longs for and the country needs to have enacted.

Hillary, please stand aside.