Ellen R. Malcom on Hillary Clinton’s run for the presidency:
This brilliant woman believes that she can compete for the most powerful office in the world. She believes that she can do a better job than any of the men running to lead our country through these challenging times. And millions of Americans, women and men, believe that she is correct.
Yet over and over again the media and her opponents have claimed that she is defeated — it’s over, she can’t win, she’s a loser.
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Once again, the opponents and the media are calling for Hillary to quit. The first woman ever to win a presidential primary is supposed to stop competing, to curtsy and exit stage right.
Why on earth should one candidate quit before the contest is finished? Democrats need not be so fainthearted.
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Hillary Clinton certainly has the right to compete till the end. But I believe Hillary also has a responsibility to play the game to its conclusion. For the women of my generation who learned to find and channel their competitiveness, for the working women who never falter in the face of pressure, for the younger women who still believe women can do anything, Hillary is a champion. She’s shown us over and over that winners never quit and that quitters never win.
That’s right. Frankly, I believe that Democratic big-wigs have a responsibility to the nation to back off of their demands that Clinton resign from the race.
I wouldn’t call Hillary Clinton brilliant, exactly. But she’s a competent, capable candidate who has every right to continue her run for office until she is convinced that victory is impossible. One one of the fundamental principles of this republic is that individuals should control the political process, not power brokers and political machines, Chicago – Barack Obama’s "hometown" – notwithstanding.
Howard Dean, the DNC, and the "super" delegates should sit down, shut up, and let the process come to its end as the originators of this country intended – in the polling places in Everytown, USA.