Hillary, You Lost. It's Time to Move On!

You lost Hillary. You lost fair and square, unless you listen to Lanny Davis, Terry McAuliffe, Harold Ickes or the minions who have been creatively spinning your campaign. The rest of the leadership of the Democratic Party believes that the primary process all the way through the rules committee meeting Saturday was fair. You lost. It is time to face the music. You are not going to be president. Even if you were able to pull off some type of hijacking of delegates there is still no way you will be elected president this year. You may think that the nomination was stolen from you. You are free to think that. But, it was not and you would be delusional to think so. However, if you do try some ploy to steal it from Obama, who won it fairly, there will be such a backlash against you in the Democratic Party that your political career will be effectively over.

You lost Hillary. It is time to move on. You will, no doubt, find excuses. You will never admit that you got out-campaigned by a smarter Obama campaign. After all, you are a Clinton. The best in the political business. But, you made serious mistakes in your campaign. Here's my list of what went wrong for whatever it is worth.

It started with the inevitability attitude. You began the campaign last year with a strategy that you were someone "owed" the nomination. Admittedly, most Democrats believed that Bill's impeachment was unjust. But, that does not make you the inevitable candidate.

Your campaign did not spend money wisely. Thousands of dollars for do-nuts? Come on! Plus, you relied on big donors whereas Obama built an army of millions of small donors which will serve him well in the fall.

You never took the caucuses seriously while Obama did. You thought that you could cruise to the nomination by Super Tuesday. But, almost in the blink of an eye you went from inevitable candidate to a candidate who's campaign was in trouble. Then, with 11 straight losses after Super Tuesday, it became mathematically impossible for you to win.

You and your husband said a number of reprehensible things. Bill's race baiting (I was shocked that the "first black president" would make such racially charged statements). Your stupid story about the cork-screw landing in Bosnia. Did you actually think we were stupid enough to believe that the military would let the first lady and her entourage land in a hot lz where bullets were whizzing by? Give me a break! Your comments about the assassination of Bobby Kennedy? Shameless. So, you blew it in a variety of ways with verbal gaffes.

Finally, you failed to calculate how much the electorate wants change. The world is different since you and Bill captured our admiration 16 years ago. It is a younger electorate. They want to turn the page. You thought the electorate wanted "experience." (By the way, exactly what credentials do you have anyway? First lady for 8 years? Come on. Being around the president doesn't qualify anyone to be president). But, Obama realized the key word is "change." And so "change" trumped "experience." Your strategy was flawed from the beginning.

Nevertheless, you make excuses. Here's a list of excuses you have given so far.

(1) You accused your rivals of "piling on" because you were the front-runner.

(2) You said last month sexist attacks on you have been "deeply offensive to millions of women."

(3) The media was unfair to you - and too easy on Obama. Just Monday, Bill Clinton denounced an unflattering story on him as part of "the national media's attempt to nail Hillary" and railed, "This has been the most rigged coverage in modern history."

(4) Debate moderators were unfair to you. "Can I just point out that in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time?" you griped in February.

(5) Caucus-state rules were undemocratic and favored Obama's activist supporters.

(6) Obama outspent you.

(7) The Clintons were unfairly accused of playing the race card.

(8) Old pals like Ted Kennedy and Bill Richardson stabbed you in the back by endorsing Obama.

(9) If only Democrats had winner-take-all rules in states like the GOP does, you'd be the nominee.

(10) Last Saturday's party ruling on the Florida-Michigan mess cheated you.

(Taken from: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/06/04/2008-06-04_hillary_clintons_got_no_shortage_of_excu.html)

So, go ahead and continue to make your excuses. But the fact of the matter is, you lost. You lost fair and square. You got beaten by a better candidate (at least in this election). It is time to move on and the unity of the party depends on you and what you do over the next 24-48 hours.