I was going to write about what a horrible speech John McCain gave tonight. About how he has no chance of winning (barring a world changing event) and this is as good as it gets for him. I was going to explain how awkward and painful a speech that was, especially compared to the dynamic and energetic Clinton and Obama speeches.
This was what was going through my mind as I was waiting for Hillary to get to the point in her speech where she makes the turn and says, "It's been a great race, I love you all for supporting me through these trying times, but now we have to unite behind the Democratic candidate for president, Barack Obama!"
Except that moment never came. I couldn't believe it. She didn't concede. Is she mental? Her chances of winning aren't theoretically low now, they're nonexistent. The race is over. She lost. What is there not to concede? What kind of maniacal move is this?
Yes, I love hard-hitting, driven competitors that never say die. But there are bounds of reason. One of them is that we fight within the confines of the contest. You have to stop hitting your opponent after the match is over. This isn't even hitting after the end of a round. The other boxer has won and gone home, and you're trying to follow him there while still swinging at his head. That's not tenacious, that's mental.
I'm picturing Hillary shooting baskets after everyone in the stadium has gone home and keeping score with herself and then jumping up and down in the dark saying she had finally won. No, you see, you have to score those baskets while the game is still being played.
I understand that she wants to negotiate with Obama, presumably for a VP spot. But what was stopping her from doing that earlier? This handwriting has been on the wall for quite some time now. For her to drag this out so she can negotiate a better ransom now does tremendous damage to her credibility. Who believed her tonight when she said she was still staying in the race because of her voters and not for herself? Please!
But the problem is a lot of Hillary's supporters are apparently as deranged as she is. The reality is that there is a sliding scale of voters in any camp. Some of her voters who are on one end of the scale will happily go over to Obama starting tonight. Some on the other end of the scale will never vote for Obama no matter what. The problem is that every day that Clinton drags this out, we lose more people on that sliding scale.
You lose the ability to convince people further down the scale that she was not robbed, that Obama is fine and that they should be excited enough to turn out to vote for him in November.
In essence, Hillary is holding her voters hostage in an effort to negotiate better terms with Obama. And she's losing the Democratic Party more voters every day she does so.
She had an opportunity to speak to a lot of her supporters on Tuesday night and bring them into the Obama camp. Instead, she had that steely look of deranged determination and plowed on. She said next to nothing about unity, other than one throw away line that seemed completely disingenuous. She continued to attack Obama when her followers were looking for clues as to whether they should support him or not.
Now, she wants to be his VP? I wouldn't trust her under any circumstances. People keep saying that if he picked her, he'd have to watch his back. I assume they are mostly kidding when they say this (I've said it in jest myself). But there is a real component to this. I wouldn't trust her to make decisions that were best for the team, or the campaign, or the administration if they won. Hillary Clinton has shown, once again tonight, without a shadow of a doubt that the one thing she cares about most is -- Hillary Clinton.
That's not someone you want on your team.
I think she has about three days to correct course. Otherwise, everyone is going to realize that still staying in the race after it's over is a real weird and classless thing to do. Not only will she do damage to Obama's campaign, but she will start to do very serious damage to her own reputation and career. And that's the last thing she wants.
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Cenk nails it as always.
no she is not - were voting for John McCain.
If there are any hardline Hillary supporters out there truly considering staying home or voting for McCain , please THINK what you are doing. First, If you are staying home, you are effectively voting for Mcain. Nothing wrong with a protest vote, just not this election, not now. McCain could actually be worse than Bush, hard to imagine I know. Consider these little tidbits: He openly jokes about bombing Iran. He admits he has no clue on the economy, his "concience" would not let him vote for the Bush tax cuts, but then he did anyway, once called his wife the "c" word in public, almost gets ito fistfights on the sentae floor....The list goes on.and on and on. The children deserve better, our soldiers deserve better than a protest vote.
McCain was my Senator. Learn more about him before you try your scare tactics. He is a politician like most others including Obama.
Right on lostonbridge. Yes, please just stop and think. A Hillary supporter voting for McCain makes absolutely no sense. Please just think.
Cenk... blah blah this is exactly why I stopped downloading the young turks to my ipod. Your man crush on obama got to be more than I could handle. It's always more of the same with you.
She is so angry he won .
Now she is saying I won more votes in any primary than anyone else, she inserted primary in that claim.
What really gets my back up with this person, that happens to be a woman, is that to the end she stills shades the truth.
She will energize the GOP voters if she is on the ticket because you love or hate her & all GOP voters I have no doubt cant stand the sight of Hillary.
Finally, as an outsider looking in, I have to say that her supporters come across as aggressive.
So much DRAMA, so little SUBSTANCE.
The candidate with 35 years of experience could learn a thing or two about campaigning and class if she were not so bitter and obsessed that may have made the differance!
Cenk, please! How on earth is Sen. Clinton holding her supporters hostage? Seriously, take a deep breath. The race is over, officially, because the last primary has been held. So, there are no more votes for her supporters to cast. Any of the delegates in her column are free to move to the other camp by the rules of the party and there are those that are doing so. Sen. Obama doesn't seem to be deterred in his appointed rounds of campaigning against Sen. McCain because Sen. Clinton didn't say whatever it is that you wish her to say exactly when you wanted her to say it. And, if everyone is in such a huff about making it official that Sen. Obama is the nominee, then why doesn't Gov. Dean do so? If Obama has the delegates needed, Gov. Dean could make such a pronouncement. Why don't you start pounding on him and get off of Sen. Clinton's back?
She is holding out false hope to them. My mother sent her $200 after it was clear the cause was lost to all but Hillary and her loyalists. Mom doesn't have the money, and she bought the "Count the Votes" stratagem, and the "It's sexism" stratagem, so Mom feels cheated, when in fact Hillary did the fancy footwork.
Let me get this straight, your mother's lack of judgement is Hillary's fault? How on earth do you protect that poor woman from all the other unwise financial moves? Have you stopped mail to her house so she won't get involved in the Publisher's Sweepstakes, too?
I've been worried for the last few weeks about the damage Hillary was trying to do to Barack at this stage of the game - and to the Democratic party.
And I was surprised after her speech last night - words like petty, mean-spirited, spiteful, bitter coming to mind.
But when I got up today and began to hear what the sane world is saying, I understood that she's effectly done away with any chance to be President or Vice President.
Going into her speech she probably had a good chance to be VP - coming out ,most people know that opportunity is all but gone.
And with her RFK comment, it's unlikely there would be any groundswell for Clinton if something happened to the Barack campaign or to Barack.
And if it's felt he loses in Nov because of what she's done, there won't be any Barack supporters in her corner next time around.
No, Hillary effectively ended any chance to be President with her serious miscalculation last night.
As has happened with her campaign all along the way, her judgment and decisionmaking hasn't gotten her to where she needs to be.
Yeah, so SHE says. Prove it.
Just sayin'.
It's over people. If you wanna pay off her debt for her, you go right ahead. The campaign is kaput.
Apparently she doesn't want to negotiate. She wants to dictate. That's reason number one why she won't be VP.
Is she mental??
Yes.
Hillary not conceding the nomination is saddening, but more importantly, decidedly unpresidential.
How fitting.
How many more things does HRC have to do before everyone is finally convinced that it's all about HER -- it always has been and it always will be. Her last chance for a graceful exit with at least some small piece of her reputation intact was LAST NIGHT. If Obama loses in November, then the name "Hillary Clinton" is going to evoke the same bitterness and dislike that the name "George Nader" still evokes 8 years after he cost Gore the White House. I hope al lthe Dem leaders start treating her like a leper -- she deserves it. As far as her deserving a place on the ticket, she lost that "right" when she started implying that McCain would make a better president than Obama.
Once again: Nader is a scapegoat.
For Clinton it is all about the giant "I told you so" at the end. Last night the campaign changed. For Obama it changed from the primary to the general election. For Clinton it changed from 2008 to 2012, but that of course requires that Obama lose, doesn't it?
SHE should come clean and run as the Clinton Party delegate as she has been all along.
Not on your team, and by God, not as president or Vice President. I feel sad. If she had bowed out a while ago rather than continue her quixotic running up of popular vote that isn't what the rules say will give her a win, well, many of us would have shouted for her to be VP. But I don't think Hillary understood that someone would give her anything without a fight. That may be her sad mentality...from her upbringing. So instead of accepting a strong chance she'd be his VP, she tried to (knowing as she must have that the numbers just weren't there) bargain her way, leverage her way, fight her way on to the ticket. In doing so, she's made herself the LAST person anyone would want. Poor Hillary. She believes the only husband she deserves is one who humiliates her. And she never knew she'd have been everyone's choice just because she's who she is. No, she had to shoot herself in the foot while aiming at Obama. And because that's the only way she knows how to operate, she'll keep shooting even if mortally wounding this beloved country in her madness. Once a victim, sadly always one. Always the unloved, put down, held down mentality that has captured so many who think the same way.
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects...
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Posted June 4, 2008 | 03:50 AM (EST)