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May 07, 2008
Stay in, Hillary
Posted by: Chris
UPDATE: Marc Ambinder offers seven reasons for Clinton to stay in the race. No. 2 and No. 7 are similar to the points I make here; No. 3 and No. 5 make good additional arguments; No. 1 and No. 4 made me vomit a bit inside my mouth.
Also, Ben Smith reports that Clinton stayed positive in her West Virginia appearance today. Know hope?
After Barack Obama's impressive victory margin last night in North Carolina and a near-win in Indiana, it seems almost everyone not residing in Hillaryland has concluded the Democratic presidential race is over. I will even admit mild surprise (shame on me) when I read the Clinton campaign claimed today there had been "no discussions" about her dropping out, despite the prohibitive delegate math.
Late last night I actually thought Hillary might drop out, especially when Tim Russert (who flatly declared the race done in his view) reported that she had canceled morning talk show appearances so she could huddle with advisers. I was surprised by my reaction to that possibility, which was much more relief than glee. My reservoir of goodwill for the Clintons was sapped weeks ago by their duplicitous, scorched-earth campaign to build her up by tearing him down -- especially given her odds of success were already so long.
But I also know her candidacy has been as important and inspirational for many of her supporters as Obama's has been to his. Whenever this "long slow bataan march," as Jon Stewart called it, finally comes to an end, one side or the other -- ok, we know which side at this point -- is going to be deeply disappointed. Whatever I think about the Clinton campaign, and it isn't much, I respect the impact a loss is going to have.
The other reaction that surprised me is that, now that the nomination is a lock for Obama, I don't really see the urgency for Clinton to quit the race. Obama will have sown up the pledged delegate majority by May 20, after the Oregon primary, and the superdelegates should follow in short order.
There is a big "if" to that sentiment, however. If Hillary could manage to stay on a largely positive message like the one she delivered last night in Indiana, she could run out the clock with dignity in much the same way that Mike Huckabee did on the GOP side. She would still preserve the possibility of an Obama meltdown, lobby behind the scenes to seat Florida and Michigan, and make all the fear-based, subtly racist, overtly classist arguments she wants in private to the superdelegates.
But she would have to step back from the onslaught of negative advertising and speechifying that paints Obama as an elitist Dukakis clone out of touch with average Joe. Otherwise she's establishing once and for all that she places her own ambition and sense of entitlement outweigh the good of her party or the very common folk she talks so often about wanting to help.
Yeah, I know, there's about as much chance of that happening as Hillary pulling out the nomination.
(Photo of Hillary Clinton giving Indiana victory speech via New York Times)
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Comments
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Libertarians and Greens are looking forward to welcoming the working class people that the elitist Democrats are driving out of the Dem Party along with the Clintons.
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. . . seating Florida and Michigan . . . I hear you about the stuff in your mouth. As a frustrated resident of Florida, I can say I will be extremely disappointed if the delegates are seated. Whether or not I agreed with the DNC's decisions, they were nonetheless clear about the rules and Florida went ahead and went around them. In fact, many of our party "leaders" laughed at the rules, saying that the DNC could/would never refuse to seat the entire state's delegation. We should be furious with those leaders, not the DNC, but as is typical with the blame game these days, the guys with the quickest and longest fingers come out ahead and clean. I can't speak at all for the situation in Michigan, but the fact that the candidate roster was not complete . . . HOW could that end up fairly?
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Hillary needs to stop now. She is doing nothing but trying to hurt Obama. If she somehow gets the nomination over the will of the people I will definitely not vote for her. I think I would make a better president than her so that is who I will vote for.
We definitely need to vote no matter who the nominatee is. We need to make sure that dems are elected down ticket to insure that McCain doesn't have a repuglican Congress to do his bidding as W has.
The comments to this entry are closed.
BB on May 7, 2008 4:06:59 PM:
Could not disagree more. She needs to go. She AND Bill BOTH, need to go. They both have shown themselves to be such DESPICABLE people during this campaign. The lies, the pandering, the attempts to REMIND America to be racist. She has come across as being incredibly schizophrenic, as she tried out different personalities (since she has none of her own) to see which one might work. She has settled for REPUBLICAN Hillary. Gun toting, Bible reading, laughing at the "pansy" jokes, REPUBLICAN. And OH how she and Bill PRAY for a resurgence of racism. Obama seems to keep trying to reach higher, through it all, and she keeps reaching lower. How low WILL she go? To me, she is like a loose canon. She is CRAZED to win. She can not give up having her picture in the History books, as the first woman President. It is ALL about ego for her. The rest of the super delegates must PLEASE see that, and bring this to an end. BUT they need to warn Bill first, for he needs to have an ambulance near by, with men in white coats holding a straight jacket to haul her away in.
Both my roommate and myself have decided we will NOT vote, if she is the nominee, as much as we DREAD McCain winning. BUT we have decided that we must do our part to try to deflate her bigger than the Universe ego.