Clinton's March Madness: It Is Time To Concede

Like many out there (although perhaps not the political junkies that might frequent this blog and others like it) I've been watching a lot of March Madness® basketball lately, and it occurred to me that the Obama vs. Clinton race is not unlike many a basketball game.

In particular, I'm thinking about those games that have a long drawn out ending, where one team keeps fouling the other with the faint hope that their opponent will miss enough free throws, and they'll hit enough three point shots, to turn things around and win at the buzzer.

However, if you've watched enough basketball, you know that the tactic rarely succeeds, not so much because the opponent hits all their free throws (often they don't), but because the chances of hitting desperation three pointer after desperation three pointer to win is so low. All the bounces have to go your way, and usually they don't.

From a spectator's standpoint, fouling to stop the clock in a lost cause situation is typically received with groans and often with boos. At some point a lead is considered insurmountable by general consensus. Such as down by 12 with 30 seconds to play, for example. That would be enough time to foul three or four times, but when a coach tells his players "No fouls!" he's doing the honorable thing, and accepting the hole they're in is one they dug, and it is time to lose gracefully.

With tonight's four blowout wins, by Memphis, Davidson, Texas and Kansas (the closest result was a 15 point win), I was reminded that there is a time to compete, and a time to accept defeat and bow out gracefully. That's the etiquette of the game.

The same holds true, or at least should, in politics. In this presidential election season, we've already seen it on the Republican side, with former rival Mitt Romney now campaigning for John McCain's election, not to mention with all the other candidates who ended their campaigns when the result was inevitable. By contrast, Hillary Clinton continues to stubbornly refuse to accept the virtual impossibility of her winning the Democratic nomination in any manner that won't cause huge damage to the party's chances of winning support in November.

Clinton and Obama are effectively down to the final minutes of their game, and Obama has a lead that Clinton can only overcome by either an improbably series of three point plays, or huge margin primary wins, and shutout defensive stops. Her best offense has become a series of foul attacks on Obama that are causing party faithful to turn on her, and her poll numbers to drop. She's declared she's going to fight to the end, but the only way she can hope to win would be akin to the referees, or super-delegates, deciding the game in her favor on a controversial set of calls that reverse the result of the game with no time on the clock.

It ain't gonna happen.

It is time for Clinton to concede, and accept the fact that despite gaving it her best shot, in the end it wasn't enough, and by the rules laid down before the contest she lost fair and square. She doesn't have to like it - no competitive person would - but that's just the reality of the situation. She should do it because the alternative path she seems hell bent on leads to no good; and unlike in a simple basketball game, will end up having an effect on a whole nation, not just a coach's, or her, reputation.

Simply put, this race is over and it is time for Hillary Clinton put an end to her March madness.