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Clinton And Mugabe

07 Apr 2008 01:23 pm

By Patrick
Toby Harnden writes

It seems that Hillary Clinton is pondering three options: seeking an amnesty deal and fleeing the country; going for an immediate run-off (on April 1st, she suggesting a bowling match with Barack Obama) or declaring a 90-day state of emergency and taking the whole thing into July. But she’s been ignoring pleas from across the civilised world to call it quits, insisting that the people have a right to vote again and again until they get the right answer.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's beleagured president, finds himself in a similar plight. According to one wag at Free Republic, he’s taking his inspiration from the former First Lady. The ingenious freeper quoted deputy information minister Bright Matonga as saying: “In meetings with Mr. Mugabe, we talked about how much he has in common with Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party nomination process in the United States. Like Hillary, Mr. Mugabe is behind in votes. In drawing a favorable comparison, we admire her fighting spirit, her unwillingness to let go when she's obviously behind and should quit as well as her decision to take this all the way to the Democratic Party convention in Denver.”

I don't think the Clinton and Mugabe parallels are as stark as Harnden makes them out to be; for all her faults, Clinton's actions are in no way equivalent to Mugabe's crimes. That said, when even Robert Mugabe recognizes you're "obviously behind and should quit," maybe it's time to get out of the race.

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