Is the Media's Pursuit of Horserace Coverage the Reason Sen. Clinton is Still Considered a Viable Contender for the Democratic Presidential Nomination?
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.
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Hillary is still in the race because she has had 12,634,376 million voters vote for her and NEITHER candidate can get to 2024. Obama still may not be electable and the SDs will decide at the end who can beat McCain.
Get over your over-inflated self-important self. You are not in a position to judge her decision to stay in-- the voters and SDs are.
So let me get this straight. Hillary is all for allowing the voters to decide in Mi and Fla, but when it comes to the final decision the Superdelegates know more that the voters ?????? does that make sense to anyone???
Totally agree, I've been trying to point out that hypocrisy also.
Seems that MI and FL should have their votes counted, but the rest of the US should have their votes invalidated by the superdelegates overturning the will of the people.
If the superdelegates overturn the will of the people, then why bother with the charade of primaries to begin with?
Obama is still not 'electable'? Nice talking point. What does that even mean? Please explain it if you have any idea of what you are talking about.
It is up to the candidates to work this out. If i was Hillary i would drop out. I would be angry with the media playing the Democratic party and its electorate for fools. I would be angry with Rush Limbaugh's false democrats from playing the party for fools. It is really up to Hillary to put an end to this.
But this requires DECENCY. And this is something very scarce among the Clinton-campaigners.
ciee:
Why on earth should HIllary step down? What.... so Obama can lose to McCain?
Obama crushes McCain and you know it Didi.
NO, she should step down because she has no chance of winning the nomination and she is a weaker candidate against McCain.
why shouldn't she stay in? Obama is just one more rev Wright away from killing his own candidacy. i know i don't want to be stuck with ANY candidate yet if there may be more controversy out there. can you imagine if rev Wright had happened in the middle of Oct?
Don't forget Rezko or the Chicago black militancy that have encouraged Obama. The Republicans are salivating at the chance. Actually Clinton gives Obama a chance to show his worth and what he is actually made of between now and the end of the primaries. The election is over 8 months away! The impatience of the Obamaddicts and their pundit queen-bees is to try to convince Hillary supporters there is no hope -- Tell that to Washington in the winter of 1776!
Let me guess - you gave the same advice to Huckabee, right?
If you're afraid of controversy, you may want to hold on to your hat with the tax returns, donors to the Presidential Library and the upcoming Peter Paul trial.
Speaking of Peter Paul trial, THAT is what will happen in the middle of October. Can you imagine the media circus with the Democratic nominee in the middle of a lawsuit, constantly on the stand a month before the general? The Repub won't need 527s, all they'll need to do is have people watch the news.
JavaCityGirl: Here's proof of another Obama spin and outright lie - about HIllary's tax returns and his!
On a week when 11,000 pages of Hillary's White House schedule were made available to the public, the Obama campaign is continuing to attack Hillary's transparency. At the same time, the Obama campaign has not released a single page of his state senate schedule or records.
There are 20 years of Hillary's tax returns in the public record and she will release all of her post-White House returns next month. Sen. Obama has released one year of his tax returns to the public and refuses to release any other years.
why should she stay in? Hillary is one more foreign policy lie away from killing her own candidacy. i know i don't want to be stuck with ANY candidate yet if there may be more controversy out there like the membership to THE FAMILY. can you imagine if Hillary continued lying about her foreign policy experience in the middle of Oct?
really? you think?
I've cut my viewership to one show a day, and i hope they realise summer's coming and we'll be outside instead of watching stupid spin.
Yes.
Brilliant postulation on the part of Mr. Hasen....one I did not think of.
But mitigating factor ,even if this is true, which I now think it is....we need to end up with a choice not fodder for such as the "hanging chad" mess......so that no blind, undiscerning loyalists can run "but, but, but, no fair, if, if, if..."
We must avoid fodder for sour grapes anything down the road... while also not feeding the insatiable ratings monster with impunity.
In answer to your title: YES! And, that's been obvious for weeks now.
The MSM becomes more and more irrelevant almost by the week.
You'd think they'd try to compete with the internet bloggers by actually reporting news, not trying to make news through perception.
Could it possibly, possibly be that Barack Obama has not sealed the deal? The news media has a love affair going with Barack Obama, but at this point maybe lover's remorse. The halo over St Obama keeps falling the more we find out about what Obama is, not what he says.....
no because if the reverse were true or if it were any other candidate.they would be screaming for him or her to step aside.
All current news is that Hillary is not who she said she is. Catch up and stop with the HRC talking points.
Barack has been vetted by the Clinton team, equal only to the Bush/Rove marriage. He is and will be fine. Hillary is only alive because the media needs a story to fill the six week gap between primaries.
Let me see. The media has kept all negatives full blown and out there when they are Barack's negatives. When Hillary has lied about the Bosnia trip where she took her daughter 16 yrs old along with Sinbad and Sheryl Crow and then when they stood for some time for a little girl to give Hillary a bunch of flowers it isn't at all like her story where she had to duck and run across the tarmac. Where is that story? How about the trip to Africa with Wilson she didn't take? How many times were there tea and cokkies and not one thing said about the state of the world much less any military crap? The news groups have her schedule kind of figured out now but all of the lies are just passed over like nothing said. Bill now claims Hillary and McCain are true patriots. Why they hell are the MSM letting him spout such crap? He was touting hIllary and Barack ticket as long as she was on top one week then she said Barack couldn't even pass te theshold test, whatever the hell that is the next. The media has such a load of incredible sewage to choose from while Hillary and Barack are running againest each other but they would also have a bunch more sewage if it was Barack againest Mac! It is obvious Mac cannot tell the different sects in Iraq/the middle east from each other. Mac has held on to his tax returns tighter than Hillary has but the MSM treats him like they already got his returns. Mac isn't too quick on the response and when he responds unless Lieberman nudges him and tells himwaht to say he screws it all up. Kind of like bush was with his handlers but Mac's been in Congress for a long time and the degree of stupid will be at issue. The superdelegates are keeping away from Hillary for what ever the reason it does make me think the clintons have way too much control or influence to be able to make people dod their bidding so long after he's been out and doing the illegal crap with Burkle and all of the HSU stuff right along with Rezko in the picture with them too.
ljsfolly:
Your precious Obama told another lie about HIS tax returns my dear. Hillary has hidden nothing but Obama continues to hide everything. Here's the facts:
On a week when 11,000 pages of Hillary's White House schedule were made available to the public, the Obama campaign is continuing to attack Hillary's transparency. At the same time, the Obama campaign has not released a single page of his state senate schedule or records.
There are 20 years of Hillary's tax returns in the public record and she will release all of her post-White House returns next month. Sen. Obama has released one year of his tax returns to the public and refuses to release any other years.
As for Rezko... well stop the silliness. First Obama denied any relationship with Rezko, remember? Then he denied the amounts Rezko had donated to his multiple campaigns... and he finally admitted that Rezko was a good friend of his for over 17 years...
Interesting no, and he hasn't even been vetted yet!
What other reason explains the obscene coverage of Rev. Write on ALL THE CABLE shows? In the thousands of hours of coverage devoted to two five-second sound bites, NOT ONE OUTLET HAS PLAYED THE WHOLE SEGMENT, let alone offered anything like a reasonable discussion of his views.
Why? Because there is no other story in the Democratic nomination. Unless Hillary cheats, or SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS, it's over. The only other thing to cover is how Hillary manages that. And that's something so unlovely that no CORPORATE media has the stomach for it.
That story is how Hillary is going to convince super-delegates that the reason they should overturn the popular vote and nominate her in a UN-democratic coop, it because Barack Obama is a black.
"Why? Because there is no other story in the Democratic nomination."
Really? And Hillary's lies about being under sniper fire was what? An amusing anecdote?
My disgust is with those who keep saying that the race is a "virtual tie." It's not.
If no one crosses the finish line- and neither Obama or Clinton have or will - it is a tie, period, end of story. Don't try to change the rules of the game in the middle. The Democratic rules say that if no one wins, the superdelegates have their say, and if no one still passes the finish line, then we go to the convention. All the horse race about who's ahead is meaningless except in the context of passing the finish line. Since neither can, the horse race is stupid.
When one car has lapped the other car multiple times, it's pretty easy to call the race before the last lap.
only a virtual idiot could say the race is a virtual tie.
Count me in....for the "idiot" badge............... the race IS a virtual tie........and it's likely to get even closer.
fortuna:
My disgust is with racists.
This is so ridiculous.The reality-based version would be titled, "Media's Obama love-fest and Hillary hate-fest keep Obama candidacy alive."
explain the media didn't put obama ahead in delegates and votes
Right, and the media love-fest is what made Hillary fritter away millions before Feb 5th, have no plan after Feb 5th and drop from "inevitable" to "there is no way she can catch up". Stop blaming the media for Hillary's inefficient campaign
I couldn't agree more with the author. She should stay in the race - if she wins great - if not she has sharpened the eventual nominee - he will be attacked like never before - he has no idea - GOOD LUCK HILLARY!
meanwhile john mccain gets away with crap because of the distraction caused by a race that had she been in the lead would be over.
Twice in the past 3 weeks I have heard Brian Williams on NBC refer to the presidential race as "wild". Granted, there certainly are some things up in the air, but I really get the feeling that the use of adjectives like "wild" represents a fair amount of wish fulfillment -- NBC Nightly News is less interesting, is it not, Brian, if this race is simply "hotly contested" instead of "wild", eh?
Jim
Hillary has a right to run for president as much a Obama. No one should force her out before her time. The dems have set up a structure (through voting and delegates) to select a nominee. The process is what it is. Obama supporters clamouring for change is not right. Hillary has long been a member of the democratic party. Obama, not as long. But who is best for the party? If Hillary loses the nomination, her folks will stay with the party. Obama's supporters have already said they will not. If I were a party leader, I'd broker the convention so that the person who keeps more people to the party is the nominee. We've seen before when a candidate can't keep his followers in the party. The short-timers leave and the rethuglicans get the white house.
The people running the party don't make me very happy but, I am very happy that you are not one of them!
Umm...your facts are incorrect. It is the Clintonistas who have said they will not vote for Obama, not the other way around.
well good then we should nominate clinton then based on what you just said because all of obama's supporters will vote for her
I'm hearing that if Obama doesn't win , many people won't vote at all. I say if Obama doesn't win the nomination,all of Obama's supporters should IMMEDIATELY switch their party affiliation to INDEPENDENT and then WRITE IN Obama as their choice for President.That way we can stick it to the Dems and at the same time NOT vote for McCain.
Obama's supporters would certainly stay with the party, providing that when the primaries are over, the superdelegates don't flip the nomination to Clinton, who most likely will be behind in pledged delegates, popular votes, and number of states. I'm afraid this would be how it would play out if Clinton gets the nomination. Clinton's argument that somehow if you live in California or New York, your vote counts more than the other states is absurd. I would agree with a previous poster to your comment that I have seen quite a few Hillary supporters in this forum who are threatening to stay home or vote for McCain if Obama gets the nomination. Not sure how representative that is in terms of all Hillary voters, but it is a very fatalistic attitude. I would still vote for Hillary in an instant, in any scenario no matter how she got the nomination, though I favor Obama. All of us need to come to the ultimate realization that it is of utmost importance to put a Dem in the WH.
Aside from the facts that it is almost impossible for Senator Clinton to win the nomination at this point, and that her tactics are fairly destructive to the party and to the presumptive nominee, this race is costing a great deal of money that could be more productively spent elsewhere.
How about this, since it is equally true - "Aside from the facts that it is almost impossible for Senator Obama to win the nomination at this point, and that his tactics are fairly destructive to the party and to the presumptive nominee, this race is costing a great deal of money that could be more productively spent elsewhere. " What's good for the goose is good for the gander ...
I think your reverse logic is impractical magic. you can say it any way you want, does'nt make it valid. Anyone with a calculator can do the math and see that Hillary's chances approach impossibility.
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