skippy the bush kangaroo: willing suspension of disbelief

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

willing suspension of disbelief

senator hillary rodham clinton will endorse senator barack obama on saturday, bringing a close to her campaign for the white house, aides said. her decision came after democrats urged her wednesday to leave the race and allow the party to coalesce around mr. obama. (full article by adam nagourney and jeff zeleny here.)

mrs. clinton’s aides said she would “express her support for senator obama and party unity” at an event in washington, d.c., that day. one adviser said that mrs. clinton would concede defeat, congratulate mr. obama and proclaim him the party’s nominee, while pledging to do what was needed to assure his victory.

we can only hope that, for the sake of the party and the country that this report is true.

cbs tells us that many of sen. clinton's supporters important convinced her to take this step:

on the telephone call with impatient house supporters, clinton was urged to draw a close to the contentious campaign, or at least express support for obama. her decision to acquiesce caught many in the campaign by surprise and left the campaign scrambling to finalize the logistics and specifics behind her campaign departure.

usatoady explains:

while some in the party urged patience in allowing clinton time to accept defeat, others said it was time to move on. top democrats, led by house speaker nancy pelosi, said in a pointed statement that "democrats must now turn our full attention to the general election."

even some clinton supporters made clear that they were hoping for closure. rep. charles rangel, d-n.y., a home-state stalwart for clinton, said it was "confusing" that she hadn't endorsed obama. "there's only one candidate out there," he said on msnbc. "the time has come."

another backer, hilary rosen, said she was disappointed at clinton's lack of "grace." by failing to concede, rosen wrote at the huffington post, "she left her supporters empty, obama's angry, and party leaders trashing her."

Labels: clinton, democrats, hillary, prez campaign