Clinton supporter Barney Frank says Hillary should drop out by June 3rd if she is trailing

[TeamJordan23]

Tuesday, Apr. 15, 2008
Frank: Trailing Democrat Should Drop Out

(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Barney Frank said the trailing Democratic presidential candidate should drop out of the race by no later than June 3 — the date of the two last Democratic primaries — even if it is the candidate he supports, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Probably sooner," the Massachusetts congressman added in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. He suggested that the trailing candidate should drop out once it became clear that candidate had no remaining practical chance of winning the nomination.

South Dakota and Montana vote on that day. Sen. Barack Obama currently leads Clinton in both pledged delegates and in the popular vote. But neither can mathematically win a majority by that date and the final outcome will depend on superdelegates.

As a member of Congress, Frank is one of the nearly 800 elected officials and party leaders who are superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Obama lately has been battling criticism over his remarks that some voters in small towns in Pennsylvania and in other parts of rural America have grown bitter because of hard economic times and hollow promises by politicians and "cling to guns and religion." Both Clinton and Sen. John McCain, the certain Republican nominee, have painted the Illinois senator as an elitist out of touch with small-town America.

Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he thought that Obama had "a very legitimate point to make," but expressed it poorly.

"Bitter is not a good word to use," Frank said. He said Obama should have stuck with an economic argument rather than talking about guns and religion. Obama should have said "yes, people are angry," and that's why they should oppose trade deals that drive jobs abroad and other economic plans that disadvantage U.S. workers.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1730974,00.html