What Hillary Clinton forgets

When Hillary Clinton touts herself as more "electable" because she's "won the big states", she's not taking into account two things: The first is that some of those big states are not going to go Republican just because she isn't in the race. New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are going to vote Democratic anyway. And the second is that she's conveniently forgetting Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos, and its Republicans crossing over in open primary states to vote for her.

In Indiana, a sizable percentage of her vote was from people who are not about to vote for her in the fall:

Perhaps the most disturbing indicator for Clinton was the fact that 15% of those who voted for her on Tuesday said they would not back her in November (7% of Obama voters said they would not support him in the general election). Some conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh have urged Republicans in the remaining primary states to prolong the process by casting votes for Clinton, who they think would be an easier opponent for John McCain. Numbers like this, whch some pundits claimed meant that Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" helped put Clinton over the top in Indiana, are watched closely by superdelegates and do not ease their concerns about Clinton's electability.

In close states like Indiana and Texas, where Operation Chaos flourished, she can't claim to be more viable a candidate than Obama. She has clearly benefitted from Rush Limbaugh's exhortations to his mindless minions, but that doesn't mean she will continue to benefit in the general election.

Hillary Clinton's supporters will regard posts like this as questioning her "right" to stay in this race. Of course she has a "right" to stay in as long as she wants to, the same way I have a "right" to run on the Silly Party ticket if I so choose. She even has a "right" to continue to do the Republicans' work of attacking Barack Obama if she so chooses. What she doesn't have a right to is this nomination. And she doesn't have a right to be rewarded in other ways for trying to make it more difficult for the now virtually unstoppable Obama to win in November. She has all the rights this process has to offer, but she doesn't have rights without consequences. I think if she were to concede now, a grateful party might even reward her with a nice consolation prize; perhaps the majority leadership post in the Senate. If she insists in carrying her ego-fest through to the convention, she goes from being a fallen hero to being Joe Lieberman. And I'm not sure that's where she wants to be.

Unless she's planning to team up with Holy Joe in an "Independent Democrat" third party campaign in the fall, thereby cementing her place as Republican Lackey for all eternity.