SD Hillary endorsement: My letter to Ciro Rodriguez' fundraising director

Dear Mr. Hicks:

I was with great distress yesterday that I read of Congressman Rodriguez' decision to endorse Hillary Clinton for President in the presidential primary. I want to be perfectly clear here: under normal circumstances, Hillary Clinton would be a viable candidate who could win the election and even be a fine president. I fully support the ability of superdelegates to get behind the candidate of their choice under our Democratic primary system. However, it is now painfully clear that Hillary Clinton cannot mathematically win this race. Barack Obama has an insurmountable lead in delegates, the agreed upon metric to win this contest. He is far ahead in the popular vote, her campaign is deeply in debt. Beyond that, she has used destrutive and non-productive racist rhetoric, not unlike that directed toward Mexican Americans by the Republicans in the previous election cycle.

Thus, any efforts to endorse Hillary Clinton NOW merely encourage her to continue in a fight that cannot be won, increasing the damages and differences to our party and wasting valuable time and resources which could go to the fight again John McCain. Any superdelegate who now endorses Hillary Clinton is putting cronyism ahead of the party. And Congressman Rodriguez' decision is particularly distressing because of the perception that Barack Obama is not well liked among Hispanics. Instead of helping to break down this stereotype and helping Texas voters to be more accepting of Senator Obama, Congressman Rodriguez helped to reinforce the stereotype. Let us also dispel the validity of the claim, "I voted as my district did" - First, if that was the case, an endorsement following the Texas primary would have made more sense because then it was more of a mathematical possibility Hillary Clinton could win. I should also remind you that Barack Obama also ultimately went on to win Texas at the caucus. Second, endorsing a candidate NOW who cannot possibly win is extremely destructive as it means that it will be necessary to tell voters in just a few weeks, "No, we were wrong, go with Obama!"

I am not a constituent, I live in Connecticut, but I have generously contributed to Congressman Rodriguez' campaign in the difficult battle against Henry Bonilla. As a member of the Daily Kos community, we fought very hard to help Congressman Rodriguez. Given this destructive decision by Congressman Rodriguez and his failure to help the Democratic party when it needed him most, I must sadly say I will never support Congresman Rodriguez ever again. I will be posting a version of this letter on the Daily Kos website and encouraging others to consider their support for Congressman Rodriguez as well. Being partners in building the Democratic party means working together all the time, not just when a candidate needs special help at election time. I have greatly misjudged Congressman Rodriguez.

Sincerely,
[Gladkov]