Hillary Clinton, listening to you debate Barack Obama, I get the feeling that you think the things you say are so obvious that they need no explanation.  I think you overestimate us.  You can't rely on us to make the connections for ourselves.  You're going to have to spell some things out.

You have 10 days and one debate on February 26 left to tell us exactly what you meant when you warned us about false hopes.  You've paid a high price for the upcoming debate on MSN.  To keep it on the schedule, you had to back off from your demands that NBC examine and correct the practices of their commentators.  I was disappointed in you.  But this is your debate.  You paid for it, so use it.  Don't back off from Barack Obama again.

How can hope be false?  Don't flinch.

You have to lay out some of the ways our hopes have been dashed in the past.  To do that, you are going to have to risk telling the truth about some of the sacred cows of the Democratic Party.  Some of us don't really remember the history of the Kennedys.  We don't remember that Jack Kennedy barely eked out a victory over Richard Nixon, that, instead of bringing a deeply divided country together, he stumbled into the Bay of Pigs, followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Diem assassination, a deepening involvement in Vietnam, and a three-year delay in proposing the civil rights legislation he campaigned on.  It was Jack Kennedy who gave us Robert McNamara and the statistics of attrition as well as Camelot and the Space Program, and Jack Kennedy who gave us the Special Forces to combat insurgencies throughout the world as well as the Peace Corps.  It was Jack Kennedy who failed to confront racism in the South for almost three years after he took office.

You are going to have to talk about how Lyndon Johnson, after a landslide victory over another Senator from Arizona, sacrificed his Great Society on the altar of a lost war, because his Secretary of Defense and his generals on the ground persuaded him that the war could be won while he cowered at the thought of becoming the first American President to lose a war.

You are going to have to talk about how Jimmy  Carter was undone by the Iranian revolution, a failed rescue mission, and Reagan's October surprise.  America's response to Carter's straight talk about sacrificing to meet the challenges of the energy crisis?  Ronald Reagan and twelve straight years of Republican rule that included Iran-Contra, an escalating cold war, and a vicious attack on the poor.

And, finally, you are going to have to talk about the false hopes of your husband's administration.  You are going to have to talk about the mistakes you made.  You are going to have to share your own disillusionment.  You are going to have to explain to us how you, who started out young and full of hope, ended up an accomplished compromiser who is one of the top recipients of drug company campaign contributions.  If there is something to learn from that about false hopes, you are going to have to spell it out for us.

Why can the President of the United States not meet with a man like Ahmadejinad without pre-conditions?  What kind of pre-conditions?  Don't step back.

You have to tell us that Ahmadejinad has opponents in Iran who will be undercut by a prestigious summit with the U.S.  You have to remind us that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is furnishing weapons and training that is killing American soldiers and Marines, that Iran supports Hezbollah and is furnishing weapons and training that is killing Israelis.  You have to explain your vote to condemn the Revolutionary Guard -- a vote Mr. Obama missed -- even at the risk that it would strengthen the hand of those neo-cons promoting a war with Iran.

Why did you vote for the Authorization To Use Military Force against Iraq?  Don't clinch.  Don't cover up.

You have to tell us what your mindset was when you cast that vote.  Were you thinking of Kososvo?  Were you thinking of the way a limited bombing campaign had forced Hussein to let the weapons inspectors back in once before?  How did you miss the signals that others saw that Mr. Bush intended to use the authorization to invade Iraq, not just to bomb it?

Why can't we talk about Ronald Reagan, even in generalities, without, in the same breath, condemning his policies?  Step up to this one.

You have to tell us that Ronald Reagan consciously tried to destroy minorities and the poor by making the Congress choose between funding massive armaments for the Cold War or social programs at home.  You have to say that black people bore the brunt of that attack, that Jesse Jackson denounced Reagan and ran against his policies while Michael Dukakis did not, and that, finally, it was your husband, Bill Clinton, who embraced the Jackson critique of Reagan-Bush and took back the White House for the Democratic Party.  You have to acknowledge our debt to Jesse Jackson.

Why do we have to leave Iraq right now?  Stand up to the body blows about authorizing the war and tell us the truth.

Tell us that we can't let events on the ground dictate when we withdraw as Senator Obama has conceded he will do.  Tell us that events on the ground are not under our control.  They are controlled by Iran, the Shia militias, the Sunni insurgents, and, as they were during the Johnson administration, by our generals.  To say that we might stay if sectarian violence increases as Senator Obama has said, puts our timetable for getting out of Iraq in the hands of everybody but the Commander In Chief.

Why do we have to fight for mandatory health insurance?  Stand up.  This is your round.

You have to tell us that universal health insurance is the next great battle in the fight to extend the benefits of a Great Society to all Americans.  You have to remind us that voluntary participation in social programs like Social Security is a Republican tactic, designed to undo the work the Democratic Party has been up to since the 1930s.   Opponents of society will always propose lofty alternatives like so-called "right to work" laws, private savings accounts, or voluntary participation, and they will always tar Progressive programs as coercive and raise the specter of the government garnishing wages and forcing "folks" to contribute to the greater good. 

It's time to come off the ropes, Hillary Clinton.  A man in the wrong can't stand up to a woman in the right, if the woman in the right just keeps coming.