VIEWPOINT
Hillary Clinton......Obama’s Greatest Asset
By Aroun Rashid Deen arounrash@hotmail.com
May 16, 2008, 12:41

Hillary Clinton’s trouncing of Barack Obama in West Virginia this past Tuesday reinforces something important that the Democratic Party should embrace if it is to carry the day in November. Focusing on Obama’s lead in delegates and majority votes, many, even before West Virginians went to the poll, have said that whatever victory she registered there would be useless.

 True Some Democratic Party heavyweights have even gone as far as berating her for staying in the race. But winning the presidential race in November is not just about holding the lead in superdelegates and vote counts in the primaries. Clinton’s victory last night is a telling of what many American voters, particularly registered Democrats, think of Barack Obama’s chances in November.

Mrs. Clinton is aware that she is likely not going to get the party nomination. She has even echoed many times that she would work with the party nominee, meaning, Obama. But by staying in the race the former first lady has demonstrated her political ingenuity that many in the party echelon might lack.

Just when her opponent is poised to be the nominee to face Republican John McCain, Mrs. Clinton secured 42, 51 and 67 percents of the votes in North Carolina, Indiana and West Virginia; results that reveal Obama’s vulnerability (even within the Democratic party) that he might otherwise not have known had Clinton gave in to calls for an end to her campaign.

The outcome of many of the recent primaries show that while the Obama wave of “change” flies high, some voters in his party think otherwise about him. Mrs. Clinton has done more good than harm staying in the race. She has given Obama the opportunity to know where he actually stands among Democrats as he prepares for November. Registered voters in both Florida and Michigan feel disenfranchised for not getting the opportunity to express themselves in the primaries, and this has become a burden on Obama. The momentum that greeted the last three primaries speaks differently from the usual tunes of party leaders. Voters do not share the view that the primaries should end before their scheduled time. Hillary Clinton is Barack Obama’s greatest asset in winning the presidential election in November.