One of the most difficult things in life is to know when to bow out gracefully. In campaigns, like life, victory is sweet and defeat is disappointing. The sports analogy is quite accurate, it is the glory of victory and the agony of defeat that is felt when a campaign is over. Ideally we want to be magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat. For the Bernie Sanders campaign it is time to recognize that the ultimate goal of his campaign is no longer achievable. He can not win the nomination for the Democratic Party.

Traditionally, when victory is no longer within reach it is time to be gracious and to unite behind the nominee and this case the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton was gracious in defeat 8 years ago, and brought unity to the party by joining hands with her opponent at the end of her campaign. She and Barack Obama had a heated campaign. Hillary Clinton got a few more votes but she did not win the most delegates and that is what counts when it all said and done and that is who wins the most delegates. Instead of whining about how unfair things were she did the right thing and joined with Barack Obama to make sure that their party won in November.

For the Bernie Sanders campaign to go on, their goal should be to help insure that their issues are heard and will continue to resonate during the general election. There is nothing wrong in fighting to have this done and to have a say in what will be the party platform. But if their campaign insist on continuing to damage the Clinton campaign by being derogatory in their criticism of their opponent than they must desist from further campaigning.

There is much to be appreciated by what the Sanders campaign has accomplished. They have brought to the forefront the very important issues of the day. His campaign has added a great deal to the political discourse. Income inequality and climate change are indeed the critical issues of our time.

These two candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have much more in common than what they disagree on. In may ways they only differ on how to resolve the problems.

What needs to happen now is for the tone of the campaign to change. They need to concentrate on the issues and leave any personal differences behind them and stop with the negative campaigning.

It is time to be magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat. The time will come when the two candidates will need to unite for the good of the country.