Obama Is Right: Words Matter When You Want Your Opponent to Leave the Race

AOL News reports this:

Despite calls for his rival to drop out of their tight race for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama said Saturday, "My attitude is that Senator Clinton can run as long as she wants."

Note the tepid and dismissive "Senator Clinton can run as long as she wants." In one carefully chosen short phrase, Barack Obama uses a verb form that bestows his permission, as if she needs it, while at the same time subtly belittling her because she is staying in the race. Both of these rhetorical techniques aim to diminish one's opponent while seeming to be gallant and awarding oneself the cloak of the putative front runner who can afford to be generous.

But is he the front runner?

Within the same AOL news article is a straw poll asking who readers would vote for. Click on the map and you see that Clinton wins over Obama 52%-48%. To be sure it is an unreliable self-selected poll. Possibly Hillary's numbers are inflated by other people like me who never before voted in those straw polls but who are so insulted by the Obama-supporting pundits and politicians incessantly hammering their "she should quit" nail that we have taken to clicking for Clinton every chance we get. Even the Wall Street Journal has acknowledged the blatant sexism and rampant bias.

On the other hand, the facts are that national polls show the two candidates still volleying back and forth. It made sense for the other candidates to end their campaigns -- Dodd and Biden at low double digits in the polls, and even John Edwards whose contributions were drying up after too many third-place showings in the early primaries and caucuses. But remind me again, why is it that Clinton should quit but Obama should stay in the race when their delegate count is separated by just 133 and Clinton keeps winning the big states the Democrats must have in November to capture the White House?

Perhaps Obama should live up to his gallantry, throw down his cloak Sir Walter Raleigh-esque so the lady can walk over the latest mud slung against her, and into the nomination gracefully. After all, she is the elder, she is the senior of the two senators, she was in this race first, and she has an enormous constituency. In all other aspects of life, the etiquette would be to let her go first.

Or perhaps Obama's statement was merely words after all.

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Comments

[Dodito]

I am Dutch, so not involved in the election but following it closely and I have lived in San Francisco for 6 years now.

Hillary is a great candidate. But that's not the point. The point is that she cannot really win. The point is she's going all the way to the convention AND push the Michagan and Florida votes. Where is HILLARY"S GALLANTRY when it comes to that ? Saying you're not campaigning and still do it, then complain they're not counted and push for them. What absolutely rotten trick is that ?

Hillary did not win Texas. So much for the "she wins all big states" story.

[NoGoodNamesLeft]

would you like to provide some sort of proof that Hillary campaigned in either FL or MI prior to the primaries there? That was the agreement you know. Candidates agreed to not campaign PRIOR to the primaries in either FL or MI. But, both candidates could (and did) hold private fund raisers in either state. That was within the rules.

Texas is a weird state and Hillary certainly has every right to claim that she won that state by virtue of the Popular vote there. And, at this point, it weas so long ago that it doesn't really matter anyway.

[TheWesternBreed]

Why didn't Hillary honorably take her name off the ballot in Michigan, as Obama did? I assume that she had the same opportunity.

[alindra]

And why exactly a straw poll should matter, or even a general poll at this point? Isn't the nomination decided by the delegates? Why staunch Clinton supporters choose to deny the existing rules and create new ones? Why Clinton supporters and the Clintons themselves prefer to avoid facts and reality? Why do Clintons disregard obvious numbers? And this is a person who is supposed to submit a budget?

[Marrob]

You're right about the delegates and Obama can't win it either. One of them MOST get the Superdelegates to side with them. So run Hillary run!!!!

[Charmed]

People don't like hillary because of how she is. It has absolutely nothing to do with being a female......

[kettletop]

Try reading the latest Gallup poll instead.
AOL? Only my grandmother uses AOL.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/105841/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Now-52-Clintons-42.aspx
She could have made a viable candidate before she disgusted the rest of the party by stumping for McCain while trying to sabotage Obama.
Sorry.
Had her chance.
Muffed it.

[nazgul]

What this post ignores is the fact that the nomination is based on DELEGATES. HRC cannot win the most delegates. Play around with Slate.com's delegate counter if you aren't convinced. The superdelegates have never and will not overturn the results of the primaries.

The rest is...unconstructive emotion.

[KSH]

If Obama we in the same place at Clinton - he would have been asked t leave the race after losing 11 contest in a row. The sexism is a cowardly way to get women to run the the polls. No one is that stupid. When this race begin - before any ballots were cast - Obama was seen as an annoying little fly on the wall that would in NO REAL WAY challenge the Clinton machine - now that she is behind in delegates, behind in popular vote, behind in cash on hand - you want us to use a straw poll to decide who should be the nominee. This type of shit is borderline schizo!!!

[Darkbane]

Seriously maam, no disrespect but thats just ridiculously silly.......Why should the frontrunner step aside. Would Hillary? Unlikely.

People like you are seriously the problem with this current election. Rationality and Logic has LEFT the building. If the situation was reversed I would be doing a great many thing but asking Obama to step down and let Hillary take the nomination is just silly. She has to win in SOME category first......delegates, popular vote, national gallup polls.......something.

Not unusual though considering Hillary already kindly offered him the vice presidency lol.

[Micah616]

Sorry, but this is desperate and disingenuous. You admit that the AOL straw poll is "unreliable and self-selected." I see that you want to use them as springboards to the anti-Obama rhetoric, but it actually does you and your position a disservice. I can tell you exactly why I'm voting for Obama, and I don't even need to mention Hillary. That's a road all of us, on both sides of the Democratic divide, should be able to do. Instead, you try to play the "young guy is arrogant" card, the "media is in the tank for Obama" card and the "she was there first" card.

I also find it interesting that you choose to use the combined delegate counts as part of your rationale while neglecting to mention the fact that since January, Obama has been picking up SD's at a rough 1.75 to 1 ratio. If that rate continues, he'll pick up roughly 200 of the remaining 330, which would give him the lead in the popular vote, the pledged delegates, and the superdelegates.

The linked national polls also do your argument a disservice. The only poll she leads in is the Fox poll, and the NBC/WSJ poll as them tied. Two of the polls have Obama up by ten, and one has him up by 3. The average for all 5 polls is a 4.2% lead for Obama. That lead has been fairly consistent since Febuary, as the lovely graph shows.

[Plowboy]

Frankly I hope Hillary continues her campaign -- the only way she can: by exposing here true identity. As Schaife and other ultra-right wingers come out openly for her, as Murdock's Fox spins for her, wee can see what has prevented the Democrats from opposing the Bush disasters. Molly Ivins called it over two years ago when she stated her opposition to Hillary, the DLC - then including Joe Lieberman, McCain's now favorite traveling companion and tutor.

Clarity can't hurt. If you liked the Bush-Cheney agenda,, which Schaife and company dictated, you will love Hillary's administration. If not, now that he is supporting her openly, you have a clear choice.

I don't fear Schaife, Murdoch, or the great Rush Limbaugh. Their support of Clinton only helps people to see who they really are, as if their votes didn't tell us already. Molly Ivins called it over two years ago!

http://www.cnn.com/2006//POLITICS/01/20/ivins.hillary/index.html

Let it continue. More light and more clarity can only help the cause of those who stand for truth and justice. Let's celebrate our choices joyfuly.

[lynnn]

Leave Hillary Alone!!!! (Look this post sounds like the intellectual version of Krissy Krocker, what a sad day indeed!).

[PingMama]

Gloria:

You quote an AOL straw poll for your source????

Obama has the clear lead and advantage with everything. This article was a waste of space on HuffPo. Why don't you just come out and say poor Hillary has been picked on because she's a woman, thus should receive the nomination?

[asnevitt]

What a sexist post. For Clinton to win the nomination, some disaster must befall Obama. Or she has to get super-delegates to vote against the will of their voters. Yet, Obama is not the front-runner? He acknowledged her right to stay in recognition of both the rules and the sanctity of her decision. Yet, you try to twist it into some kind of misogynistic statement because he hasn't been "gallant" enough to throw down his coat and let her walk all over him to the nomination? You don't see the hyprocrisy?

Clinton's run has been important for the women's movement. Though she has many flaws - supporting a man who has been abominable to women, helping to destroy those very women, lying about her experience, playing into false insinuations about Obama's religion, selling out blue collar workers with her support for NAFTA, ruining the chances of health care reform..... All these issues that would sink a man claiming to be Democrat, and still, she's given serious consideration. This is good news. A woman with a better character, one who isn't trying to be one of the boys, but truly represents the feminine strengths, will have an awesome chance at becoming President. I thank her for demonstrating this, and now wish she would stop. As she continues her ugly campaign, she diminishes the respect women are gaining. With every claim that it's a gender issue, that respect plummets. Please stop and show that women can be graceful.

[timm0]

So it's devolved to the point where you're citing completely un-scientific polls as proof that she's winning?

Wow, you people are beyond psychotic. One day (I hope) you'll have the clarity of mind/sanity to look back at what you're writing and hang your head, embarrassed by the reality-wrenching nonsense you're hawking.

Or is this just to try to keep the faithful in their pews???

[BethinIllinois]

Obama's word choice was patronizing and condescending. I said to someone at the fitness club this morning (he was on the news at the time), "how nice of him to give her his PERMISSION to stay in the race."

He's an empty suit, long on rhetoric and short on actual ability. And he's smug, to boot.

[lynnn]

I see the accusation of smugness as just another way to say he's "uppity" as an African American Female i have seen and heard this all my life. If you do better than you are suppose to you are "smug" wow we are really learning about our country.

[progresemulo]

HuffPost's Pick

"Note the tepid and dismissive "Senator Clinton can run as long as she wants." In one carefully chosen short phrase, Barack Obama uses a verb form that bestows his permission, as if she needs it, while at the same time subtly belittling her because she is staying in the race. Both of these rhetorical techniques aim to diminish one's opponent while seeming to be gallant and awarding oneself the cloak of the putative front runner who can afford to be generous."

Wow! Now that's some dirty politics! It's almost as though he wants his opponent to leave the race!

[kcjc]

I agree. The fact is Senator Clinton does not need his permission. Only two weeks ago we did not know about this long term relationship with Wright. It made me question his judgement. I am counting on Senator Clinton to be a fighter. Besides, if women voters feel as though she has been forced out, what's the saying? "Hell hath no fury......" Senator Obama will need their votes to beat Senator McCain.