New Clinton Team Motivation: Stick It To Naysayers

There's a motivational shift afoot in Hillary nation.

The legions of Hillary Rodham Clinton backers still investing their cash, energy and emotion into her faltering bid for the Democratic presidential nomination seem driven not by the reasonable expectation that she can beat Barack Obama, but by the emotional desire to see her through to the end of voting and stick it to those who have already written her off.

Clinton's campaign is fanning the flames of that backlash -- against the media, against superdelegates who recently backed Obama and against Obama himself. Aides hope to convert the sentiments into protest votes that could deliver landslide victories in West Virginia and Kentucky, Clinton strongholds that are among the next three states to cast ballots.

No matter how big Clinton wins in West Virginia, which votes Tuesday, or Kentucky, which heads to the polls May 20 along with Oregon -- a likely Obama win -- she won't significantly cut into Obama's lead in pledged delegates or popular votes.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[LeeinJax]

Luuuv Hillary's new WV accent...it is really "sumppen"

Clearly she is convinced her contingent there are not smart enough to see she is playing them. I guess we'll see...

[XME]

I think she should just make it official and start a cult...she and all her "only Hillary" nuts-o supporters can go somewhere far, far away and they can worship her as THEIR leader.

[david87501]

"New Clinton Team Motivation: Stick It To Naysayers" is actually the Joe Lieberman strategy. Losing the primary is only a minor obstacle. Lieberman lost his Senate primary, but ran in the main event as the Lieberman for Connecticut party candidate. Guess Hillary will run as the "Clintons Forever" party candidate in the fall? And so what if she wins by a landslide in West Virginia and Kentucky--like those states are going to go for the Democrats in the general election??

[hbw3]

Senator Clinton's voter demographic - lemmings?

Please make her stop... This campaign went from noble to angry to nasty to surreal.

Her advisors seem to just be around to collect another pay check she can't pay, and to add a couple more chapters to their book deals. This is now beyond sad.

[olivia]

Igoring Clinton is what we should be doing at this point. Why is it so hard?

I think it has something to do with that quality in all of us that makes us want to watch A Streetcar Named Desire all the way to the end.

[Kalima]

This defies logic. Have you ever been to a live comedy show and the opening act is
so bad, that people start to throw things, this it. Anyone have a spare kitchen sink?

[Kalima]

Sorry, I meant to say....this is it.

[poco767]

"We may not win, but they will rue the day they crossed Hillary Rodham Clinton, MWAHAHHAHAHA."
(then upon wrapping herself in her cloak she promptly dissapears in a plume of purple smoke)

[Independent voter]

Does anybody remember the last time that the clintons had something positive to say?

[Independent voter]

The politics of hatred and division has climaxed with the clintons.

I will be so glad when these wretched people are gone so that we can start moving forward towards a greater America.

[ATLiberal]

We have to look at this election in the broader context of what is happening in our country. The pendulum has begun swinging in earnest in the direction of progressive politics. Elections across the country are evidence of that. Dennis Hastert's seat won by a Dem, for example.

All the new voters are overwhelmingly progressive as shown in poll after poll and this has been going on for the last 5-6 yrs. Is it enough to elect Barack Obama?? I am not a fortune teller, so I don't know. But that doesn't matter. Trying to rope together enough of a coalition of older voters, less educated blue collar white people and telling the true progressives, this is the best you are going to get, so you have to vote for us, is not the way to go. It is not just the White House in 2008 that we need. We need a generation of Americans, one that is forming RIGHT NOW, before our very eyes to carry forth the progressive banner and shape our politics for decades.

Now is not the time to go weak in the knees and choose someone because we are afraid the *gasp* black man can't win. Now is the time to continue the hard work of forging this progressive movement by sending forth Barack Obama and standing for something other than triangulating, poll-testing, DLC Republican lite. Make the right choice for the future of our party, Barack Obama.

[ATLiberal]

One more thought to add to this: Does anyone recall what happened when we had the DLC policies in the White House in the '90s?? Yes, we kept the White House and lost the Congress for 12 yrs. And we set ourselves up for GW Bush. That is not the way to go.

[BLinCincinnati]

Not only lost congress, but lost a congress that had been held by democrats for something like 70 years.

[VOTER]

HIllary, who?

[NotWaldo]

Hillary Swank.

[NotWaldo]

Clinton 08 : Just waiting for divine intervention !

[Softnsweet]

NotWaldo, Sorry divine intervention already stepped in and thank you lord!!

[whizkid]

"Caucus" states are a joke.
Yet they are the only basis for Obama's "lead."
Jesus God.

[Softnsweet]

whizkid, Yea you would think that a person with 30 years experience as she says, and a 2 term husband as a president would know about caucuses. In addition, Wisconsin, Virgina, North Carolina, Oregon, Maryland and I can keep going are not caucus states.

Go back to Clinton and get more bad info!

[Independent voter]

Add Missouri to that list

[debwarot]

Just why are the states holding a caucus a joke? Because Clinton has only won one caucus state (Nevada)? Or because the Clinton talking points claim they shouldn't count? Or because the Clinton campaign strategy didn't have the foresight to plan for caucuses?

A caucus is nothing more than a grassroots political meeting in which the candidates are discussed before a vote is taken. Caucuses have been compared to town hall meetings - a pretty basic and pure form of democracy in action.

I do believe, whizkid, that the joke (if there is one) may be on you.

[undecidee]

Actually since this is a delegate race, she lost Nevada too. She won the popular vote but lost in number of delegates. Obama won by 1 delegate. ;-)

[AliHajiSheik]

Can someone remimd me which stage of grief this is?
Dunzo.

[marc1antony]

you have to excuse whizdip, fell on his head as a baby and never recovered.

[Jazzbeau]

Denial would be my guess.

[Helzapoppin]

Ah. . . . spite. . . what a noble pursuit.

[DennyCrane]

To stick it the naysayers. She's sounding more and more like Bush everyday.