Ok, so I'm going out on a limb here. I am a Hillary Clinton supporter, but as I've stated in the past, not by much. I support Clinton because I belong to that little-known political party: Realisticrats. Realisticrats never fall in love with a candidate. We fall in love with winning. We start at the end -- the actual election -- and work our backwards from there in choosing the candidate who has the best chance at victory. I don't rally around anyone unless they look, smell and act like a winner. I belong to no "team." A reporter once jabbed basketball legend Michael Jordan about his his ego and style of play with "Hey Michael, there's no "I" in team"... His Airness responded with the brilliant, "that's right, but there is in 'win'." It's all about winning. And while I actually prefer to see Sen. Barack Obama become our 44th president, and think he would be much better for the country at this critical military, economic and social crossroads, I firmly believe Clinton is the more electable candidate against the GOP's presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain and the Ruthless Republican Attack Machine (RRAM).
Obama, in order to achieve the historic presidential greatness that might one day be his destiny, needs to first get past the supreme ugliness that he faces with the RRAM. And I am as confident as a caterpillar at a toe-countin' contest that McCain & Company will eat him alive in the general election. He has unfortunately armed the RRAM with way too much ammunition involving his Rev. Wright, Tony Rezko, William Ayers, flag pin, BitterGate and Michelle's "pride" controversies. Throw in the inescapable fact that he's a 46-year-young black man with a Muslim name, a drug past and just three years experience in the Senate and the picture deeply worsens. Now before I continue, don't shoot the messenger. I personally don't care about any of this nonsense, but you can bet your ass the RRAM is salivating as we speak. If you believe otherwise, you are beyond naive. I've taken a lot of heat over the past several months over this position. But I am not in the politically-correct business. Remember, I'm a Realisticrat. My only goal is to win.
That brings us to Clinton, who is way too untrustworthy, untruthful and disingenuous to way too many people, including this writer. But the simple truth is, people expect such duplicity from politicians, and especially from the Clintons. There's nothing new on the front. With the Clintons, it's the same old same old. The skeletons are already out of the closet, and have been under the RRAM microscope since '92. Unlike with Obama, her news is old news. But more important, Hillary has the Ruthless Clinton Attack Machine (RCAM) behind her, consisting of Howard Wolfson, James Carville and many other battle-tested warriors who know how to fight the RRAM and win. I'll put my money on them any day of the week.
Now again, don't shoot the messenger. I didn't make up the rules of engagement. That landscape was cultivated chiefly by Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove, disciples of 1980s "Happy Hatchet Man" and original "Darth Vader" Lee Atwater, the incendiary Republican operative and brains behind the '88 Willie Horton ad campaign that sank Michael Dukakis' bid for the presidency. Starting in the 80s, and shifting into full gear against Bill Clinton in the 90s and then into massive overdrive against Al Gore and John Kerry in 2000 and 2004 respectively, the RRAM masterfully perfected the art of dirty politics, and that's the playing field Democrats must navigate through now. While it may be possible many years from now to return to the good old "gentlemanly" days of politics that I keep hearing about but have never personally experienced, right now, a Democrat must fight like a Republican if he or she expects to win. Hillary meets that standard. Obama has proven that he does not.
Now onto Pennsylvania, where I believe Clinton must achieve a clear, decisive victory in Tuesday's primary or she should quit the race and let the general contest begin. PA is the big prize. The hugely working-class state is representative of middle-America and the traditional Democratic base. If she can pull off a double-digit win (or something very close), it'll make it very hard to convince me or any sane Dem that the race is over. What she'll have is a string of critical big-Blue state wins (OH, TX, PA), impressive momentum, and a bruised and battered opponent, who as the NY Times columnist David Brooks has said last week, has fallen to Earth. Indeed, a very compelling narrative for her to offer up to superdelegates, who could very well swing to her corner quick as lightning.
Ronald Reagan rode to victory on the wings of one simple question: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago." With a big win in PA, Clinton's question to the Super Ds will surely be, "Are you better off with me or Obama against McCain and the Ruthless Republican Attack Machine." This Realisticrat already knows the answer.
Loading comments… 
The truth is, we're all just guessing and have no idea how things will play out in the future. This, of course, is the best argument for doing what one thinks is right and letting the consequenc
Man, go get some prozac or something. Really, that is a negative way of life. I DO NOT want a president who blatantly lies about Bosnia and admits it, and someone who tries to distort the facts and use the media to manipulate Americans to believe things that aren't true only so that she can gain power. What happened to integrity?
The media treats this race like a sport, a sport with the civility of a dog fight. And it doesn't matter how this distracts us from the mortgage crisis, or dying in corporate wars. Hey, it's just "football"
The greatest Neocon of them all, Bill Kristol, has staunchly defended her, and he also wants to “obliterat
She is no longer a democrat in any real sense. Randy Rhodes and even Chris Mathews believe that she would prefer an Obama defeat in November against McCain. THIS IS SIMPLY INCREDIBLE
Hillary can have her “win”, her racism, her vitriol, and her disregard for descent human conduct. Howard Dean, John Edwards and the rest of the democrats can cheer her on. Nice job!
Why?
Because the Ruthless Republican Attack Machine can be defeated by the Ruthless Clinton Attack Machine.
That is an asinine argument. If I don't press for what I believe to be true, why bother voting? I think the negativity evidences by the Republican
Suppress new voters. Slime them.
Suppress liberal and progress voters. It is a conservati
Suppress freedom. The terrorists use our freedoms against us so we shouldn't have them.
Whatever, Ostray. Wrong party.
Have you ever wondered why her favorable ratings go down when Obama gets attacked? So, while we are getting "real," lets do the math without the majority of African American voters, new and younger voters, and those who don't give a flip about his race---but simply think he is the best candidate. And then lets see how well she does without these folks marching to the polls while she competes with John McCain for the conservati
I agree we need to get real. The reality is that the Democratic Party is going to hell in a hand basket! And if you think we can't win with Obama---do
Nice way to select our leader in a crisis-rif
Now go do a little research, past and present, about your choice and the read your writings again.
The rabies-rid
The sock-down-
And you want us to believe this is the best we can do. This is all we should expect. Surrender yourselves to the Divided and Hopeless States of America.
I do believe your post is the very essence of cynicism.