Ease Up

I never thought I'd feel compelled to write this, but here goes. Can we all just ease up a little on the Clintons? Lately, Some callers to my radio program have accused them of everything from ruthlessness to outright murder. And not just of one person, but of hundreds, including former Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. Come on! Yes, Hillary Clinton wants to be president, and wants it so badly she's willing to go further to procure it than most people thought.

And yes, the former president has spent an awful lot of his political capital arguing with everyone from reporters to just plain folks, angering many of his friends in the process. Yet there's something vaguely troubling about all the talk about the urgent need for Hillary to drop out of this race. After all, don't we reward those who see an endeavor through to the very end? Don't we normally lambast quitters as not having sufficient heart?

Sure, it's easy to draw comparisons between politics and sports, but what would we say about a favored long distance runner who dropped out when the race was three quarters done? We'd say he or she should run until the end, even if there was no shot at winning.

So why is Hillary different? Even Barack Obama has said she should quit when she's ready, and not sooner. Yeah, I've heard all the talk about how McCain is getting a free pass while Clinton and Obama beat each other up. Hillary's apparently heard the talk too, and has eased up herself a bit in recent days.

So shouldn't we ease up on her?