That's the provocative thesis of this article by Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen in The Politico. And at Slate, Christopher Beam gives a similar answer: "Today's the New York Times A1 piece on Hillary Clinton, 'Clinton Facing Narrower Path to Nomination,' is an exercise in understatement. It nudges the candidate ever closer to the cliff but, maybe because of politeness, or business savvy, or maybe even a perceived need for objectivity, refrains from pushing her over." See also Josh Marshall.
Now, with news of Clinton's campaign debt and an admission by her staffer that she has no more than a 10% chance of securing the nomination, expect these stories to proliferate.
Could it be that the media has kept the story alive? I think that's an overstatement. Of course Clinton can't catch Obama, but it is also true that Obama cannot formally clinch without the superdelegates. So long as Clinton has the hope of an Obama implosion or major gaffe, she has a reason to remain in the race. So don't blame the media; blame the DNC's system for leaving this in the hands of superdelegates---something the DNC surely must reconsider for 2012 and beyond.
However, I have reflected on the following and I ask everyone else to bear it it mind. First, if Hillary does become the candidate, I will be forced to vote for her. Why???
Because of the SUPREME COURT. Judges will be stepping down in retirement and new judges have to be appointed. If more judges like Scalia, Alito, Roberts, and Thomas are appointed and approved by the Senate, you can kiss the last vestiges of any checks and balances system GOOD BYE. You can kiss the United States of America as a great nation GOOD BYE.
Ask youselves the following: what kind of supreme court judges would Hillary select? Were it not for the Supreme Court factor, I would not vote in November if the nomination is stolen from Obama and the American people..... the average every day run-of-the-mill citizen who are the essence of the country.
PLEASE BE ULTRA MINDFUL OF THE SUPREME COURT APPOINTEE FACTOR IN THESE COMING YEARS.
YES.
Just check the 1996 bill submitted to congress by Hillary Clinton and look who saved all America's butts, which includes all our children. Please begin your learning experience here:
Congressional records of Hillary bill
http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/1998/dec98/psrdec98.html
He DOES NOT HAVE THE DELEGATES NEEDED TO WIN, SO IT COMES DOWN TO POPULAR VOTE WINNER.
There are ONLY 750,000 VOTES SEPARATING THEM. She will cut that IN HALF after PA.
Also, IN KY WV NC all show here LEADING in polls. Yes even in NC. If she wins ALL those is she still just "desparate" or is this the candidate MOST PEOPLE WANT.
And yeah, the voters in MI and FL SHOULD BE CONSIDERED.
I pray Floridian and Michigan voter will NOT Tolerate their votes not being counted!! They have every right to demand it! What has happened to the American spirit to fight for their rights?
Who is Howard Dean... or that Republican Florida governor ... to imagine.. they have the power to deny American citizens their votes? Is this America or... is it a couple of men... ruling the country - and rights don't exist anymore? Why are they not fired or asked to step down immediately? Is the public afraid of them? If they are... that's a very very scary thing.
If Senator Clinton was so concerned about the disenfranchisement of voters in Michigan and Florida, why didn't she say anything before those races?
Also, please note that just because you put something in uppercase letters DOESN'T MAKE IT TRUE.
By her campaign's own standards -- MUST win both OH & TX -- she lost. The small gains she ultimately made that day were overrun by Obama's victories in MS and WY and the ongoing conversion of superdelegates.
Hillary's simply being intellectually dishonest, and selfish. She has destroyed her case for being a progressive leader on every level of her campaign, including the endgame.
Had Americans been made aware of Obama's relationship with Rezko and Wright beforehand... he would never have received the votes he did.. not to mention the media publicity machine that promoted him (and still is) for the last 4 months.
As for your accusing Hillary of being intellectually dishonest and selfish? Where exactly is she being that.... and while we're at it.... Obama's racist - anti White mentor.. and his 20 years of being taught by this bigot.. and hiding THAT TRUTH from the public.... is not only intellectually dishonest... it's heartbreakingly morally dishonest.
Typical White
I watched Morning Joe for a while this morning; had to bail out. Been there, ad nauseam, for two weeks. Nothing has changed. It's all Rev. Wright all the time this morning on Morning Joe.
Astonishing. There IS NO OTHER NEWS. McCain's appalling ignorance on display in Iraq? Hillary's fibs about her record as First Lady? Didn't happen.
Apparently the corporate media has no plans to deviate from the relentless effort to make this a contest about nothing but race with the endless beating to death of three clips from thirty years of Rev. Wright's sermons.
Hillary Clinton was caught last week in a series of lies. Outright, campaign-ending lies. Lies that are contradicted not only by her schedule but by video.
Possibly the most shocking, aside from her assertions that she opposed NAFTA and negotiated the peace in Ireland and Kosovo (without a national security clearance), may be the seriously unnerving claim, repeated as recently as last week, that she landed in Kosovo under gunfire. This is untrue, but it remains one of the dramatic highlights of her stock campaign speech. She still says it happened. It didn't. There's video.
A presidential candidate is caught on tape in a ridiculous and embarrassing and easily refutable lie. There is VIDEO: both of her thrilling version of running for cover ducking whizzing bullets upon landing in Tuzla; and video and news coverage of the actual landing and the welcoming ceremony Hillary claims was cancelled because of the whizzing bullets, where she is greeted, accompanied by Chelsea - and Sinbad - by a small girl presenting flowers.
Accompanied by Chelsea? She took Chelsea along, on a trip she claims was "too dangerous" for the president? Does anyone believe that?
This is some scary stuff. It qualifies, in my mind, as news.
Seems to me we should consider the possibility that Hillary may have gone around the bend. No? Then how about a cursory examination of alternate possibilities?
Does Hillary really believe she landed in Tuzla under fire and negotiated the peace in Kosovo when she and Chelsea were met by a little girl with flowers and they left within 24 hours?
Does she think we are all stupid out here?
Or does she know that the MSM, apparently including Huffpo, won't report it?
You are obviously much too young to know what was going on in Bosnia at that time. Hillary handing out flowers to that little girl, was in itself an act of courage at that time. So go do some homework and go do some growing up and then come back to thank Bill Clinton - for being the only one to have the courage to end that war... and then come back and thank Hillary... for being the only first lady to ever go into a war zone.. Go find out what Bosnia was... and then wash your mouth out with soap.
No thanks, been there, done that . Don't want to go back no matter how much they stamp their foot, pitch a fit and wreak the party because they can't sit at the head table.
Do Hillary and her supporters LEGITIMATELY care about this country or only about Hillary. If she wants to prove it, she'd better do it soon.
And you believe that 3,000,000 Americans votes not be counted is democracy? I doubt you'd be crowing that nonsense... if they were Obama's votes, you hypocrite.
"They KNEW those elections wouldn't count."???
The Clintons are responsible for this too? And poor 'ol Obama was just a lowly United States Senator. Give me a break. Shorter Opus:
"We want to bypass the voters of Michigan and Florida and blame the fallout on the Clintons". Nice try but it's not going to work. People are not a stupid as you imagine.
It's obvious to anyone outside of Keith Oberman and Chris Matthews which candidate is trying to bypass the voters of Michigan and Florida.
It's true. The horse race is a media fabrication. The race was pretty much over after Super Tuesday. She had to blow him out. She didn't; in fact, she actually lost. Had he gone on to lose as many in a row as he won, he'd have been forced out of the race; no question.
The time for this infighting is over. We need to get behind a nominee or we risk losing in November. Most of the Super Delegates know this. More and more pressure will be brought to bear on Senator Clinton to gracefully withdraw, preferably before PA. Will she listen? The evidence is not good that she will, which is just evidence that she cares little for her party and its chances in November.
Utter Chaos and Clinton won't have a party to back her because it will no longer exist. Regardless of how you feel about either candidate you must realize that overturning the vote would be the nail in the coffin for the Democrats.
Did you know that millions of people from those states, who had no opportunity to set the date of the polls, went to vote in good conscience but will not have their votes counted because of Howard Dean and the DNC?
Did you know that the legislatures picked the date for the primaries and in Florida, the legislature doesn't care what the DNC thinks because it's controlled by Republicans?
Did you know that Obama could have had his name on the ballot in Michigan, but he chose to listen to the party not the people?
Give the people a voice - seat the delegates in FL and MI.