Just looking at all the messages pop up on my phone about Prince's untimely demise, and only one thought is dominant in my mind -- Bernie Sanders needs to quit the Democratic presidential process right now.....I don't know why, but maybe the morbidity of the Prince story is making me a little nervous. I want a Democrat to be elected to the White House this year so that sanity prevails, and I think Hillary is the most qualified to be that candidate.
Let us honestly look and compare the credentials of Hillary against Bernie - influential First Lady, Senator from New York, Secretary of State, the list goes on and on. Bernie, on the other hand, has been the mayor of Burlington, VT, and a Senator from that state. Point to note here - Vermont is the second least populous state in the United States and Burlington is the least populous "city." C'mon now, we are comparing chalk to cheese here.
As Senator, Hillary served on several influential committees, including the Budget Committee, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, as well as the Committee on Armed Services. As Secretary of State, her accomplishments were so notable as to make Henry Kissinger, a Republican no less, call her one of the most influential Secretaries of State that we have ever had. We killed Osama Bin Laden under her deft leadership, and she negotiated peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian people with diplomatic aplomb. I think she has a calm, focused, resolute mind that will bode her well in the White House.
Bernie talks a good game, and believe me, I am filled with wide-eyed idealism when I hear him speak. However, his ideas are yet to find a room in the land of practicality. And incremental progress seems alien to his rhetoric of breaking big banks and free college tuition for all. When you ask him how he is going to pay for it all, his answers do not evoke much confidence among Nobel prize-winning economists such as Paul Krugman, et. al.
Hillary, on the other hand, has practical ideas. She believes in the same democratic ideals as her opponent does, but she knows and realizes that change does not happen in a day, and one must struggle against various layers of oppositional forces and opprobrium before one can achieve true progress. She is the only clear-headed candidate in the race to become the world's most powerful person (read "woman"). That is why I think she not only needs to win this November, but has to.
So my advice to the Bernie Sanders campaign is this -- You fought a good fight. You came close in a few contests and won a few more. But the delegate math is clearly against you at this stage, especially after the huge losses last night in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Quit the fight while there is still time, resolve your differences and let a united Democratic party go to the polls on November 8 to enthusiastically elect the first female president of these United States. I hope it rains purple for Hillary on that day!!!