Dear Senator Clinton,
I like you. A lot. I admire your efforts for children and in health care, and I think you might well be better than Senator Obama in making day-to-day policy decisions. Honestly, I think you'd make a great president.
But this is not your year. Obama's got you beat on delegates, on states, and on the popular vote. I'm sure that in your own mind you'd make a better president, but at this point, you can't win.
And when I say that, I don't mean the nomination, I mean the presidency. The problem here is not the delegates; it's the perception. To get the nomination, at this point, you'd have to do one of two things: trade favors with superdelegates or litigate your way into getting states like Florida to count.
Either way, the Democratic Party would lose. The people, who collectively have favored Obama, would feel gypped, and nobody would really think that your nomination was legitimate; you'd have the taint that Bush had at the beginning of his presidency. Your integrity would be questioned, and your personal ambition would become even more of a target than it already is. McCain would, in all likelihood, win in a landslide. In the eyes of history, you might look like little more than a spoiler, your many earlier accomplishments forgotten.
Please don't be like Ralph.
Instead, be gracious, and allow the top vote getter to be on top of the bill -- and make your mark as the best damn vice-president this country has ever seen. The sooner you accept the things that you can''t change, the better you will look, and the sooner we can all get to the real business at hand: taking back the White House.
Fondly,
Gary Marcus