Today’s News regarding the extremely painful process known as selecting the Democratic nominee shows one thing clearly: We have no idea what is going on. While some News outlets say that Clinton is ready to concede the race if and when Obama reaches the number of delegates required to win the nomination, others News sources of course say the opposite. And now the Clinton campaign is directly refuting the stories saying that she will concede. As to what is truly happening, I doubt anyone actually knows, but they do like to pretend that they know. After reading conflicting stories like these, I am sure that I have no clear idea of what Hillary Clinton will do, and simply picking a side and hoping that side wins reflects less upon our deductive reasoning skills, and seems to have a lot more to do with wanting whatever side we pick to be right. Sort of like a horse race, where we do a minimal amount of research into the horses running the race, yet we can say with some confidence that we know our horse will win. And then of course most of us lose, and those that do win that wager congratulate ourselves as if we were a gambling version of Sherlock Holmes, rather than admitting we simply were lucky that day, and indeed have been wrong in the past, times too numerous to mention.
Do I have any clear idea what either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama are thinking? I suppose I like to think that I do, and I may try to estimate what sort of person a candidate really is, but in truth only the candidate knows who they are. And even then, they may not know themselves as well as even they might think, but that is true for everyone, not just politicians.
But the question of whether Clinton should concede is a difficult one, as the delegates shuffle about like so many wayward geese. And superdelgates, which I never in my life remember hearing about before, are another unknown piece of the puzzle. I keep awaiting the News that the superdelgates have ceded from the union, to form their own country, and someday possibly elect a leader of this new country. But who am I kidding, the superdelgates would never get around to actually ceding from the union, because they would have to vote to do that.
And News stories still circulate about how Clinton would do better against McCain, and while this may be true in the respect that Clinton would be at least a known quantity to Democrats in the battles that are surely to come against McCain, it seems to overlook something. While Democrats may know who Hillary Clinton is, and feel at least some degree of comfort with her, the Republicans know who Hillary Clinton is as well, and are probably still salivating at the prospect of running against her. For those of you that do not remember the 1990’s, the Clintons were a much favored target of the right wing, and the prospect of having such a target again in their sights is an appealing thought, especially to those in charge of writing the stinging speeches that we all think come from the minds of the candidates themselves.
So what should Hillary Clinton do? The same thing all Americans should do, whatever they feel is right. You know, you don’t succeed every time you attempt something, but that should not mean that you don’t give it your best shot.
