There's quite a bit of buzz on the news lately with various politicos calling for Hillary Clinton to quit the race for the presidency and allow Barack Obama to win the Democratic nomination. Senators Patrick Leahy (Vermont) and Chris Dodd (Connecticut) have both been quite vocal in this regard.
According to Leahy, Clinton "has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to." Dodd was even more vocal stating, "if a person wants to stay in the race, stay in the race, but if you have enough people rallying behind what appears to be the likely choice, and I believe the choice is Barack Obama, then I think you have to step up to the plate and say, 'Enough is enough!' We want this to be over with."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/politics/03/28/clinton.dropout.calls/index.html
You have to admire politicians for their way of speaking. Leahy never tells Hillary to quit the election, he simply states that she doesn't have a good reason to remain in the running. Dodd starts off by stating that she has the right to stay in the race, but that she's not the "likely choice" in his opinion.
Their careful consideration of the words to use are the main problem with their statements. Clinton's reason for staying in the running is that America has the right to vote. Where I live in California, we have already had our election, but where my mother lives in Pennsylvania they have not. If my mother supports Hillary Clinton (and I believe she does because Mom's a smart cookie) she should have the right to vote for the candidate of HER choice, not Leahy's and not Dodd's.
Our election process is designed so that the candidate is elected by the people. Not the senate. The people. Me. My Mom. People like us who read up on the candidates, formulate our opinions, pick the person we best feel represents our interests and go to the polls and vote. When politicans like Leahy and Dodd, or pundits like Stephanie Miller call on a candidate to step down, they are showing themselves to be unpatriotic and unAmerican. They would deny Americans the right to elect the person they best feel represents their interests. They would deny Americans their freedom.
