A bit about the NARAL endorsement

NARAL, one of the largest and most influential pro-choice groups in the United States, has endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination for President. Needless to say, this has set off quite a firestorm in certain circles—just scroll down the comments on the NARAL blog post announcing the endorsement to get a sense of some of the reaction: some people appear to feel personally wronged by this endorsement, whining that they’ve been betrayed, vowing they’ll never contribute another dollar to NARAL, and so on and so forth—ad nauseam, actually. At Pandagon, Amanda Marcotte hit the nail on the head: “You’d think they endorsed, oh, McCain or someone anti-choice.”

This level of disappointment is perfectly ridiculous. Both Clinton and Obama are strong on choice, strong on women’s issues, and strong Democrats. Yet the race for the Democratic nomination has gone on way too long and is, thank goodness, almost over. The Democratic Party should start to corral its support and start the battle against McCain. Clinton said today that it would be a “terrible mistake” if voters chose McCain over Obama, a muted recognition of the fact that earlier comments she made implying McCain’s preferability over Obama may not have been in the general interests of the party. And that’s what it’s really about at this point: the interests of a party that should be focussed on beating the other party. The Republican Party has been there for a while already; the Democratic Party is lagging far behind.

The astute reader will note that I have not said Clinton should drop out. On the contrary, there are several compelling reasons for Clinton to stay in the race, at least until the primary elections are over, the most convincing of which is that it would look extremely bad for Clinton to drop out and then win several of the remaining primaries, especially Kentucky, which she has been predicted to win for a long time now. However, the Democrats as a group need to focus on what is going to bring victory to the party in November, and right now that means starting to coalesce behind one presidential candidate. NARAL’s endorsement is right in line with this, as is John Edwards’s recent endorsement of Obama. And if you’re a Clinton supporter who is too affected by the sour grapes of not being in a winning position, let alone not winning NARAL’s endorsement, chill out. It’s not personal.