Okay, so now the battle lines are drawn.
If I were a Clinton supporter, I'd be angry.
In contest after contest where she has lost, she has concocted reasons for why it's to be expected: she's the underdog there; a state with a large population of X race voters will only vote for a candidate also of X race; that state is a "Republican" state, and won't go to a Democrat anyway; or simply, that race "doesn't matter".
That would make me angry. If I supported her, and she lost in my state, I'd be afraid of what she might say to justify it. Did my vote not matter?
Whether it's because she feels the need to justify her losses to her supporters (only the ones who helped her win entire states, anyway), or because she actually believes it as well, I wouldn't be able to stand behind a candidate who is so ready to box herself in with unconvincing statistics and dangerously false notions about the electorate.
Plenty of "Republican" states have gone to Democratic candidates -- just look at the Electoral College map for the 1992 or 1996 elections compared to 2004, elections won by her husband. Go back farther to 1976, when Jimmy Carter handily carried the South and much of New England (but little else). On the flip side, look at the 1984 election where the only state NOT to go to Reagan was Minnesota. States will go to whichever candidate they wish, but only for one who has the temerity to think they can win.
It's good that she's fired the two top people in her campaign who have told her "you're not going to win here, so don't even try", but by now I think it's likely too late.
~Sean
(Oh yes, and happy Valentine's Day!)
In contest after contest where she has lost, she has concocted reasons for why it's to be expected: she's the underdog there; a state with a large population of X race voters will only vote for a candidate also of X race; that state is a "Republican" state, and won't go to a Democrat anyway; or simply, that race "doesn't matter".
That would make me angry. If I supported her, and she lost in my state, I'd be afraid of what she might say to justify it. Did my vote not matter?
Whether it's because she feels the need to justify her losses to her supporters (only the ones who helped her win entire states, anyway), or because she actually believes it as well, I wouldn't be able to stand behind a candidate who is so ready to box herself in with unconvincing statistics and dangerously false notions about the electorate.
Plenty of "Republican" states have gone to Democratic candidates -- just look at the Electoral College map for the 1992 or 1996 elections compared to 2004, elections won by her husband. Go back farther to 1976, when Jimmy Carter handily carried the South and much of New England (but little else). On the flip side, look at the 1984 election where the only state NOT to go to Reagan was Minnesota. States will go to whichever candidate they wish, but only for one who has the temerity to think they can win.
It's good that she's fired the two top people in her campaign who have told her "you're not going to win here, so don't even try", but by now I think it's likely too late.
~Sean
(Oh yes, and happy Valentine's Day!)