Bill Clinton didn't clinch the Democratic party's nomination until June 2 in the '92 race. Hillary Clinton still has a chance to win the nomination and it's only the beginning of May. Two pioneering leaders in preparing women to run for office this week wrote of their thoughts on Hillary Clinton and what she has achieved for women, and what it means that she has continued to forge on. The overwhelming message: don't push out the first viable woman presidential candidate when she has come so far.
Ellen Malcolm founded EMILY's List to help raise money for and train Democratic women candidates. Her piece in today's Washington Post, "Quitters Never Win", emphasizes how far we have come over Malcolm's life because of women like Hillary Clinton (and I might add because of people like Malcolm). "Over and over again the media and her opponents have claimed that she is defeated -- it's over, she can't win, she's a loser. And over and over again... female voters poured out of their homes to cast their ballots for her."
Marie Wilson, founder of The White House Project, emphasizes on their blog, "Change Everything," that "An Army of Women" is a "deeply rooted cultural fear", and that this fear is driving the media to push toward Clinton stepping aside.
In my post at MOMocrats yesterday, I wrote of The White House Project's mission and their accomplishments in training and encouraging women to "Vote, Run, Lead." I also noted that if it's true that Hillary Clinton still has a 4% chance of winning the nomination, that's a better chance than she had of getting admitted to Yale, but she was. For women to have come so far, can't we just let her say a little longer? Every day is another big step for the progress of women in our democracy.
Malcolm writes: "The first woman ever to win a presidential primary is supposed to stop competing, to curtsy and exit stage right... Why on earth should one candidate quit before the contest is finished?" "I believe Hillary also has a responsibility to play the game to its conclusion."
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Sarah Granger graduated from the Emerge California political leadership training program, along with the EMILY's List Political Opportunity Program for Democratic women, and she is a strong advocate for The White House Project.