Why the Democrats Can't Dump Hillary

I keep seeing liberals demanding that the Democratic party elders get rid of Hillary somehow. There are rumors that this was planned until she won the Ohio and Texas primaries. There are several reasons that they cannot (or at least should not) simply dump Hillary.

First and most obvious, there are the Hillary supporters. Some of them believe in her personally. Some are simply for her because she is the serious first woman candidate. These supporters are not fainting at Hillary's rallies but they still believe in her. They will probably turn out for Obama if they feel that he won fair and square but they might well stay home on election day if they think that Hillary was robbed.

This dovetails into Obama's lack of support. It seems like he is sweeping the primaries but, between Hillary's big state wins and proportionate representation, Obama isn't all that far ahead of Hillary. If he was doing as well as the press make it appear then he wouldn't need the superdelegates. After all, McCain has the Republican nomination wrapped up and he started much further back in the pack.

There are other issues. Hillary has pointed out that Obama has trouble winning big states. These are important since these are how Gore and Kerry almost won in the last two elections. The Democratic challenger needs to be strong in these states.

All of this has been pointed out by others. Here are a couple of new points that are my own.

If their positions were reversed, Obama would still be in the race. Prior to Super Tuesday it was widely assumed that Hillary would take the majority of the delegates and that Obama has little hope after that. Even so, he always planned a fifty-state (plus territories) fight. He was already making media buys for the post-Super Tuesday races before Super Tuesday.

Obama's fifty-state strategy is important and seldom remarked on. Hillary didn't have as much money to work with and she ran through it quickly in an effort to knock her rivals out early. She hadn't planned on needing to continue the campaign past Super Tuesday. She actually ran out of money for a while and had to loan her campaign a few million to tide it over.

This has been covered in terms of problems in Hillary's organization but it is seldom mentioned how this affected Obama. He won those 11 states because Hillary didn't have the resources in place to oppose him.

That's why Bill and Hillary drew the line in the sand as Ohio and Texas. These were big enough to matter and far enough away to give Hillary a chance to restart her campaign.

Did you get that? Obama won in 12 states where Hillary wasn't contesting him but he lost the two states where she ran hard. This shows that he is not as popular as portrayed.

There are other places that Obama appears weak. There has been a lot of talk about Hillary going dirty with the 3 am ad. In fact, it was pretty mild compared to what McCain and his supporters will do to Obama. The 3 am ad's message was that you can sleep easy because Hillary is on the job. It didn't even mention Obama.

So, Democrats who have been paying attention will have noticed that Obama's record is spotty in states that the Democrats have to win and where he faced strong competition.

The Democrats may eventually give Obama the nomination but the ones who are paying attention will be asking if he is he strongest possible candidate? If they pull the plug on Hillary they are stuck.