Sen. Hillary Clinton has every right to continue fighting for the Democratic nomination, says former Sen. Bob Graham, but it is time to put down her guns and begin the process of reconciliation with Barack Obama,
"It is not a matter of whether she continues the campaign it is how she continues the campaign," said the former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman. "Unless something unexpected happens and at this point it has to be something very adverse to Obama he will be the nominee."
Graham, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2004, said he fully expected Obama to emerge as the Democratic candidate. And while he didn't endorse the Illinois Democrat he did compliment him on showing personal and political strength throughout the primary and pursuing a "post-partisan" agenda. The former two-term Florida senator and governor even, reluctantly, played political diagnostician, offering analysis of where he thought the Clinton campaign went wrong.
"I think that [Clinton's vote to authorize the Iraq War] was one of the biggest anchors that she had to drag around," he said. "The war was becoming increasingly unpopular, and I think Sen. Obama was able to take that vote and put it into the larger context and say it was a test of judgment and that she failed that test.
"It is probably a little early to do the autopsy," Graham continued, "But while I don't think it was true of Sen. Clinton herself, some of the people around her had a little hubris. There was this idea that she was the anointed candidate and that it was almost just a matter of allowing the Democrats to move the anointment to confirmation and she would be the candidate. And that may have cost them, particularly in a place like Iowa, to not be as aggressive."
While Graham said Clinton's decision to remain in the contest was ultimately hers to make, he took exception to the New York Democrat's argument that she, not Obama, is the only candidate who could secure the white working class vote and succeed in the key swing states.
"In the Democratic primary the voters have basically had two choices since February," he said. "And so that 55-year-old white male who is a construction worker has two choices. And there are a lot of very appealing things about Hillary Clinton. She is an extremely able person. She is a proven person. People could project with a high degree of accuracy how she would serve as president. So she is a very formidable candidate and a lot of people were drawn to those qualities. But they are choosing between two people: Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama. When it is November there won't be that alternative. There will be the Democratic nominee versus John McCain and that is an entirely different picture for that 55-year-old construction worker... The choices are different and the things that will govern the decision are different. I think it is correct -- and I like John McCain -- but I basically I think he is running to be the third term of George Bush."
Graham, who left the Senate in 2004 following his failed presidential bid, famously opposed the Iraq War after saying that the intelligence presented by the Bush administration had not made the case. He remains a beloved political figure in the Sunshine State and a respected voice within Democratic circles. He did not offer or have solutions about what to do with Florida's primary vote - which was not officially recognized by the Democratic Party but which the Clinton campaign has stressed should be counted. But he urged for an equitable and quick solution to the issue.
"I am not going to stand on the balcony and sing 'Don't Cry For Me La Florida,'" he jokingly declared, channeling his inner Evita Peron. "I think Florida will be seated. It is important that it be seated in a way that will mitigate the bad feeling that exists -- which is not overwhelming but enough to have an effect -- towards the Democratic Party... This needs to be resolved in a way that will try to heal that wound. Because I think Florida is a very winnable state in November. It will be close, it is not going to be 2000, but it will be much closer than in 2004. And we can't afford to irritate even a fraction of one percent."