Senator Clinton,

First, I would like to congratulate you on your victories in Rhode Island, Ohio, and the Texas Primary. It is clear that you want to be President and that you believe you are the best person for the job. Through your years of service in the public and private sectors, you have worked hard toward that goal for a long time, and that is deserving of respect.

Second, I need to issue a disclaimer. I am a proud Obama supporter. I understand that there is little daylight between your actual policy agendas. My support for Obama is based largely on two key elements. First, I like Senator Obama's vision of uniting the country. I embrace his vision of hope. I am not naive. I know that hope is nothing without hard work. I know that there will be serious opposition. But I believe that Senator Obama has the ability to appeal to the angels of our better nature and pull together a coalition that transcends the old labels that characterize our political discourse. Second, I believe that you are a poor strategic choice. You are a candidate that appeals to the party base. You are clearly the candidate that the Republicans want to run against. They have spent the better part of two decades preparing to run against you. They will unleash every absurd accusation of the 90's. They will force you and Senator McCain to refight the Vietnam War...again. And the electorate will tune out. Senator Obama brings possibilities in red states. He can bring all those new voters and add them to organizations that elect Democrats like Kathleen Sibelius in Kansas, or Byron Dorgan in North Dakota, or John Tester in Montana. He will force the Republicans to move resources from the battleground states to core red states. You just don't have a comparable impact.

So this brings us to the primary season. Senator, I would never call you to abandon your campaign on the day after these crucial victories, but I do call on you to think very carefully about what you are doing. For all your success last night, the delegate math remains the same, but the clock has run down substantially. When it comes down to it, it is unlikely that either you or Senator Obama will reach 2025 delegates based only on pledged delegates. The superdelegates will come into play. It is also highly unlikely that you will be able to overtake Senator Obama's lead in pledged delegates. This means that you cannot win the nomination without using superdelegates to overturn the will of Democratic voters all across the country. If all the new voters that Senator Obama has mobilized see their success overturned by a bunch or party insiders, it would be absolutely catastrophic to our efforts in November.

And November is what it's all about. We must defeat Senator McCain and set our nation on a new course. If you take the nomination over the objection of the voters, you severely threaten your ability, our abiltiy as Democrats,to win the election. And Senator, you have worked tirelessly to help people over your years in public life. You love this country. You have stood against the dismantling of the social achievements of your generation. But Senator, if you enable a John McCain victory, if you allow his agenda of war and trickle down economics and religious fundamentalism to continue, you threaten to destroy everything you have worked for over a lifetime.

So Senator, please ask yourself if you can win without either destroying the enthusiasm of Democrats by reserving your "right" to win with superdelegates or without weakening Senator Obama's candidacy through negative campaign tactics. If you cannot, please think very carefully about what your nomination could cost our nation and our world.

Sincerely,

Andrew "Bluedrew" Viertel