Hillary’s a Sticker

In this upside-down year when a leading Presidential candidate has been relentlessly hounded to quit (see Lambert’s WWTSBQ Watch) it was refreshing to find this list of reasons why Hillary should stay in the race:

10 reasons why Hillary should stay
by Bob Hepburn

But Hillary vows she won’t quit the race before it’s over. She compares herself to Rocky Balboa, of the famous film about an underdog boxer. “When it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common,” she said recently. “I never quit. I never give up.”

And she shouldn’t.

Indeed, here are 10 reasons why Hillary should stay in the race:

1. She has strong, well-thought-out positions on topics from health care to Iraq and the environment. If anything, she has a wonk-like obsession with policy.

2. She is smart, has outstanding academic credentials, and was her husband Bill Clinton’s most trusted White House adviser.

3. She has a strong personality, enthusiasm, determination. She has never been afraid to fight for what she believes in.

4. She has a strong team of advisers who could form the backbone of a Hillary White House.

5. She is still winning primaries, and has won almost all the big states, including New York and California, that the Democrats must win in November to gain the White House. While Hillary trails slightly in elected delegates, she is virtually tied with Obama in popular votes. Polls show they are in a dead heat in Indiana while Obama leads in North Carolina, two states with primaries next Tuesday.

6. She is the beneficiary of the political damage inflicted upon Obama by the controversial comments by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was Obama’s pastor for 16 years. Obama is outraged by the latest assertion by Wright that criticism of his incendiary sermons is an attack on the black church, but polls show his support slips every time Wright opens his mouth.

7. She fares better in polls against Republican nominee John McCain than does Obama. In a USA Today poll taken April 18 to 20, Clinton led McCain 50-44 per cent while Obama led him by 47-44 per cent.

8. She is ahead of Obama in winning support of “super delegates,” who are party officials and elected politicians. This is important because neither she nor Obama will have the 2,024 pledged delegates needed to win before the convention starts. Eighty per cent of those delegates are awarded through primaries; the other 20 per cent are super delegates, who can vote any way they want at the convention.

9. What is so wrong about a “contested” convention? They are rare in the U.S., the last one being in 1952 when Adlai Stevenson won the Democratic nomination. In Canada, though, we see them every time a party holds a leadership race. Here, emotions run high, bitter words are spoken, but no one argues that every candidate except the front-runner should drop out before the actual balloting begins. There will be lots of time after the convention to heal party rifts and focus on beating McCain on Nov. 4.

10. She is carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of women.

When I was deciding who to support after Edwards dropped out, those first two reasons were what I liked about her. I thought they’d be important assets for a President (and they will.) But I had no idea how important they (and point number 3) would become as the campaign as the campaign went on through the spring.

Watching the debate in Pennsylvania and The O’Reilly show last night, proved the truth of those first three points. She handled the questions in that debate with easem making it seem like each question was exactly the thing she wanted to talk about. Last night, O’Reilly couldn’t shake her. She not only answered his questions fully — she turned them around on him. And she makes it look easy.

While stories are surfacing that Obama is bored with the campaign, Hillary is energized making even the routine into an opportunity to connect with voters.

I totally agree with riverdaughter that we should view them as trends rather than reliable numbers.  We’re starting to see a shift in the trend with Hillary’s Campaign looking very good and she IS connecting with voters.

She’s a sticker and wasn’t ever going to quit.  But, it’s nice to see her commitment and drive start to pay off.  She might never be a “media darling” but the tone of her coverage is starting to shift just a little.  And May is looking like a good month.