How Hillary Can Give Her Groove Back

It’s official, folks. Even Maureen Dowd, the greatest, truest love of anything with the last name “Clinton’( even George, of Parliament Funkadelic fame), has mentioned that perhaps it may be time for Sen. Hillary Clinton to graciously back out of the race to be the 2008 Democratic nominee.

Maybe.

Clinton mentioned, in an interview with WMJI Radio, that she will be continuing in her fight for the nomination. With primaries in Idaho, Puerto Rico, New Mexico, Montana South Dakota, and (since they cannot seem to understand the party rules) Florida and Michigan in the coming weeks, Clinton is down in delegates, superdelegates, funds raised, campaign advertising funds spent, and states won. She needs a miracle to win the nomination. So why would any opinion writer think that, against all odds, Hillary Clinton’s continued action in this race is a good thing?

Clinton, at this point in the game, cannot win the nomination by pledged delegates alone. Her chances of winning the majority of superdelegates that she needs are slim. We could speculate a myriad of reasons why Clinton is still in this race, despite the odds, but one singular truth exists: Clinton could actually help Obama by staying in.

Now, listen up all you “Obama-ians”…I agree that Clinton’s continuation in this race could be seen as divisive. Sure, it could split the party in two, and make the Democratic Party look weak at a time when it needs strength. However, consider this: John Kerry won the Democratic nomination early in the race in 2004 (in March), which led to months of open season on Kerry’s ability to lead the country. This year, John McCain effectively won the nomination on Feb. 29. Where are the swift-boat tactics now, yelling in the streets about John McCain being too old, or four more years of Bush-Cheney style government, or anything that has to do with the Maverick?

Clinton can work to resolve the division in the party by mounting a full-scale attack on McCain. Let’s be honest, Clinton fans; we know she is good at political attacks, and its fairly certain that she is not going to win anyway. Unite the party by pointing out weaknesses in the Republican machine! Clinton’s rhetoric has changed in the past weeks, from one of “We’ll keep fighting, and damn the odds,” to “Let’s make this a Democratic year.” Clearly, she sees (or at least her speechwriters see) the end of the line coming.

On the flip side, while her attacks on Obama certainly aren’t helping with voters who take any politician’s statements at face value (a tragedy in this country), she is certainly bringing up issues that Republican strategists have been reviewing for months. She is pointing out weaknesses that Obama will have to work out if he wants to become the next president. Therefore, Hillary attacking Obama (yes, divisive, I know….) actually shows Obama the holes in his arguments, and he can keep filling them with “Hope” and “Change.”

Hillary has already had her time in the White House – even bought the coordinating official White House “I’m with Stupid” T-Shirt set. The best she can do now is help her party pull down a win…right after she recognizes that she will be making a valedictory, not victory, speech.