Is Clinton Looking For An "I Told You So" Moment?

Mother Jones:

Why is Hillary Clinton still in the race?

Ever since she failed to cream Barack Obama in Indiana, pundits and analysts have been chewing this over--and now that the West Virginia primary is done, even though she won by a massive two-to-one margin, the question still hovers. After all, Obama has racked up an insurmountable lead in pledged delegates and has pulled ahead in the superdelegate count, meaning the race is essentially complete. Clinton and her campaign advisers have argued that she can still win the nomination if she does well in the last few primaries and then persuades superdelegates she is the better candidate to do battle with John McCain. But the superdelegates don't seem receptive to her case. And the fact that she has throttled back on the anti-Obama rhetoric in recent days--she barely she criticized her in her not-so-jubilant West Virginia victory speech--is a signal that she may not believe her own spin and is merely halfheartedly trudging toward the last primaries (Montana and South Dakota) on June 3.

Yet there she is--an active and hard-working candidate. And the commentators have come up with several obvious explanations:

* She wants to remain in the hunt just in case something happens. (A video appears of Wright calling for armed revolution? Fox News produces Obama's Secret Muslim Membership card?)

* She is staying in for one last round of fundraising. (Her campaign is $20 million in debt and owes her $11 million.)

* She wants to end her historic campaign with a string of victories: West Virginia, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico. (Puerto Rico? She is a senator from New York.)

* And the most obvious of them all: she's not yet ready to face the music.

Read the whole story: Mother Jones

Comments

[SaddieMcCall]

I cannot believe that she has succumbed to taking money from a little boy selling his bike and video games to support her campaign. I don't even believe this is legal, but she spoke of it in her victory speech as if she was encouraging all children to follow that example.

[08timefortruth]

When you are reduced to panhandling you take any change you can get.......If I were her I would be ashamed that I took the kids money but she's desperate so anything goes.

[Veman]

I KNOW RIGHT?!!!! I thought that was soooooo sad!!! I mean can you imagine?! She should have told the crowd she met with him to return his contribution to him or lied about doing so - at the very least. The anecdote just didnt have the intended effect. and I'm glad I wasnt the only one who caught that.

[08timefortruth]

She can't give hm back his money, she needs the money. She should of just lied, she does that well.

[AMJordan]

The real question, (posted by someone else) is: How can she accept a contribution from someone under the age of 16?

[SaddieMcCall]

Congress tried to outlaw political contributions from those under age 18 as part of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002, but the Supreme Court struck down that provision as an infringement on the constitutional rights of minors. With that ruling in mind, the Federal Election Commission wrote new regulations two years ago that tried to balance what it considered a legitimate desire among some children to make political contributions against the possibility that parents would seek to pad their donations by funneling money through children.

The regulations established a three-step test to determine whether a contribution is acceptable: It must be made with the child's money, the parent cannot reimburse the child for making the donation and the contribution has to be knowing and voluntary.

That last part of the test is the one that would seem to rule out a 2-year-old, said Michael E. Toner, a former FEC chairman who helped draft the rules. "If they are 16 or 17, they're clearly old enough to know what they're doing, as compared to someone who is, say, 10 years old. . . . I don't know any 2-year-old who is capable of making that kind of decision."

[presto]

For God's sake. That's ridiculous.

[Aleka4]

No it isn't - its true. She took money from a little kid who sold his bike and allhis vid games, to support a losing cause. And she was low enough to TAKE that money - for her ego and vanity and losing cause.

I am not sure if that is lower than pandering to racists or not - they are both pretty fu*king low.

[DemocraticRN]

How is that any different than Obama taking lunch money and trust fund allowance money from his juvenile supporters. That kid believes in her, you believe in Obama.
Your support of Obama is like little old ladies sending their social security checks to T.V. evangelists because they will pray for them.

[Gma11]

I'm just not that interested in Hillary any more.

Movin' on . . .

[doonie]

Well said...Oregon, Montana and on to South Dakota.
Obama 08 and 12

[Ericjack]

Is it me?? Her speech only inspires her supporters. Unlike last week where Obama's victory speech in NC was inspirational to the American populace!

[GravitonX]

Yes, Hillary is looking to sabotage Obama by stoking racism then saying "I told you so." It's so obvious that even the foreign presses are now picking up on it.

The longer superdelegates wait, the more long-term damage she does. They should have done it months ago before voters got to validate their delusion of her winning the nomination. the longer she is in the more they'll believe she has or had a chance.

I told you so.

[08timefortruth]

Let's hope Oregon gives her a taste of her own medicine........what I don't get is why does the fact that she wins one "white" state mean so much when he won several "white" states hands down? Just more of her twisting the facts to make her case.

[whizkid]

We were betting money and shots here in Middletown.
Obama/Ayer/Wright's Children will have hissy fits.

[08timefortruth]

Instead of betting why don't you donate to Hillary so she can buy that little boy a new bike?

[condew]

She did her best to destroy Obama, and so a win in the general will be no thanks to Hillary, any possibility of loss is all her fault.

[Aleka4]

Yea no kidding.

No way that "elitist" tag would have even got press - HER people were harrassing the media the minute it hit here, and just was all over it. Sure the GOP would have tried but they wouldn't have been hammering it like she was, and it wouldnt have stuck.

Shes done SO MUCH damage to him, doiung the GOP's work for them.

[trevor01]

It isn't about the nomination anymore but the will of the people. Obama is unacceptable to the majority and can never be elected president. He has a pyrrhic victory at best. Some fine day when the optimistic Obama supporters are beyond middle aged they will remember the good old days when they truly believed they could change the world. If the world is still habitable, that is.

[08timefortruth]

How the heck do you come up with "Obama is unacceptable to the majority and can never be elected president."? Seems to me that the majority of the country has said he IS their choice.

[jah2008]

Trevor means unacceptable to the majority of the West Virginians. 95% of the people who voted today were white. More than 80% who voted today said that the race of the candidate mattered in their vote. I was going to give WV a benefit of the doubt, but after tonight, I think they should secede from the US.

[edelmira]

The reason she is still in ,is that they want Barack to register voters, raise more money, do the hard work, rile up the masses, get people energized (look at the way she talks about "all the new voters registered") and then..after she wins kentuck y and Puerto Rico, THEY WILL FORCE THE SUPERDELEGATES AND THE RULES Committee to vote for HER...because she is more ELECTABLE. This is the finest Arkansas carpertbagger form of political opportunism since she did it to Nita Lowey in NEW YORK, someone who did all the hard work to lay the credentials for a woman senator, so that Hillary could step in! Barack Obama is being lulled into a false sense of security. Even Carville says he'll probably be the nominee! Why oh why does anyone trust the geratest political opportunists of all time!

[WoodyCPM]

Trevoro1, don't quit your day job. Your future as a political analyst is limited.

[Melkor]

Why? They'll get old, cynical, tribal and lose hope in the concept of possibility? It was pure cynical political calculation that caused Clinton and her colleagues to abandon their duty to act as a check to the Executive's power to wage war. That war, more than anything else, has brought the world closer to chaos than any other political decision in recent history. It wasn't foolish youth that lead us to this point, it was bankrupt age.

Nearly all the benefits we enjoy of living in a free society today are a product of men and womens' faith in the possibility of change.

Should Obama lose and corporate candidate after corporate candidate continues America's degrading slide into war and exploitation until the place sinks, naysayers like you might ask yourself - why didn't we have the guts, the energy or the smarts to make a stand.

[kdublya]

Phew, I always knew everything was pointless.

Ma, if anyone calls I'll be in the garage - listening to NIN and spray painting my moon boots black.
Now, where did I put my cape...
What, you ironed it?
There's a crease in my cape!

Ma...

[anney]

David Corn

If Hillary thinks she'll have the right to say "I told you so," Obama would have to lose the election first. That just isn't going to happen. Obama is planning his campaign against McCain carefully, and I have no doubt he will win over many Americans from John McCain because of his positive campaigning just as he has won over many Democrats from Hillary Clinton for the same reason.

If the contest between Obama and Clinton were conducted on the same playing field, I might think you were closer to another reason why Clinton's staying in the race. But they aren't conducting the same kind of campaign at all. Obama's reach for integrity in politics is something almost all Americans are hoping for as well, after GW Bush has damned near destroyed us. I think voters will drop like sprayed flies from John McCain, who just cannot seem to shake Bush off the bottom of his foot, nor does he seem to be trying.

[Braised Cod]

At 11pm, Obama had 63,525 votes, just 27% of Democrats. In contrast, McCain had 61,271 votes - 76% of Republicans and 2254 less than Obama. Yep, Obama even beat McCain while loosing badly to Clinton. What is she waiting for? James Earl Ray.

[Charmed]

I hope this fact is covered on the news tomorrow.

[NetWeasel]

According to those numbers, 25.5% of primary voters in West Virginia voted in the Republican primary, 74.5% in the Democratic.

However, in 2004, West Virginia voters went 51% R, 48% D.

You think there might have been a little crossover voting there?

[doonie]

Didn't Rush Limbaugh encourage crossover voting and took credit for same following the Indiana primary? And folks admitted to same when exiting the polls. So it's probably safe to say that ploy is still in place for some.

[robXdion]

That's the thing about a bad woman. People keep giving them chances, treating them with kid gloves and they still lash out. The Dem party doesn't want to seem mean, but sometimes you gotta be. This needs to stop. Superdelegates being scared is the SAME reason they voted for the war in the first place. They aren't leaders because they don't LEAD.

[RThM]

Oh she can't pulll out before Puerto Rico. No. No. No. I want to see what the candidate of all those hard-working Americans, WHITE Americans from West Virginia morphs into in Puerto Rico. It will be amusing to watch the transformation, "I was born a poor Latina..."

[FlowerGirl]

Tendre' otra cancion para Puerto Rico.

[ann1]

RThM--(LOL) You win.........best comment of the night!

[NikkiT]

I am disgusted with Huff Po...you are so pro obama. how dare you not put hillary's picture BIG AND BEAUTIFUL WITH THE WORDS SHE TROUNCED THE SO-CALLED NOMINEE!!!

HOW COME YOU ARE SO PARTISIAN?

[condew]

Because we knew going in that she would win, and it DID NOT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE.

Also, PARTISAN would be to praise McCain. Oh wait ...

[frosty6731]

well played

[Mitchell4A]

Terry McAuliffe, Clinton’s campaign director, responded a little while ago to a direct question by Keith Olbermann regarding Hillary’s contradictory statements on Michigan. He declared that it is okay for Hillary to claim votes/delegates from Michigan, in spite of her earlier commitment to discount the election, because the other candidates made a political decision to take their names off of the ballot. (So much for honoring the DNC’s request.) So it seems that her change of heart is their problem, not hers. Wow! (Btw, why did she stay on the ballot for an election that she claimed would not count?)

Her staying in the race may have negative repercussions for feminists, if her supporters do not disown aspects of her strategy.

See, "Hillary is NOW Damaging Feminism" http://msa4.wordpress.com/

[condew]

Yes, in any future run for president, a female candidate will have to show she's a team player, unlike Hillary, that she's not a war monger, unlike Hillary, that she knows and values the truth...

[LeftLeanWing]

This has nothing to do with Hillary being a female candidate; it has to do with her being a Clinton candidate that was prepared for a coronation that not going to happen. As such she lacks that one little quality that we grown to expect and that his humility. She has none.

Why elect a female candidate who only uses her womaness as a lure for other women's votes; yet behaves as a aggressive and masculine as a American Gladiator. Or uses her whiteness as a wedge issue ?

I was looking for Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill ; but instead discovered Bosnianna - goddess of lies, divisiveness and warmongery.

[rzan]

That is so true. I don't know how Gloria Steinem can possibly defend her. Even Hillary's one time close confidante, Jean Houston, has said that Hillary is no longer running as a woman, but has taken on male attributes, which in effect has made her unknowable and untrustworthy to the voting public. I am a feminist who has always backed Obama. Feminists who persist in backing a woman with "testicular fortitude" need to get smart.

[lisakaz2]

If she honestly thinks it's not over, she's in la-la-land. Perhaps it's a combo of trying to get more money and have something to show SDs but in both it'll be too little, too late.

I can't wait for the day she is done. She's been divisive and pandering and I'm sick of pols like this. Any/all of 'em.

[whizkid]

Regardless of my former favorite Keith Olbermann and the uber loser Donna Brazile, it is most definately an "I told you so moment."

[meltingpot101]

Is Olbermann your "former favorite" becouse he swithed his support from Hillary to Obama?? Why did he do that, do you remember??

[LeftLeanWing]

I do recall you stating that Hillary would win big in KuKluxKlanistan.