I've argued for some time that Hillary Clinton is almost certain to lose the Democratic presidential nomination -- but I am not in the "Hillary should drop out" camp.
Sen. Pat Leahy, the veteran Democratic Vermonter, yesterday became the latest to call for Mrs. Clinton's withdrawal from the race. But the one person who can shut down Hillary Clinton's campaign before the nominating convention is Hillary Clinton, and she has every right to stay in the race until convention delegates (super-, pleged-, etc.) cast their ballots. I don't think she will, but she can.
Put yourself in her shoes. I understand that outside of the Hillary Kool-Aid Caucus it's fashionable to view President and Mrs. Clinton as power-hungry monsters who would rather see Dick Cheney coronated as emperor before someone not named Clinton is elected president. But imagine for a moment this scenario: Suppose she really believes that Barack Obama is George McGovern part two (or part too), that he will be painted as too-liberal, too-inexperienced, too soft, and too black (who knows how many more Jeremiah Wright tapes are waiting for their moments in the sun?) by the GOP attack machine and that his nomination would likely lead not only to President McCain, but President McCain with a landslide mandate to move our troops out of Iraq and right into Iran?
I'm not saying that's a correct analysis of Obama's general election prospects -- I don't think it is -- but the issue here is whether it's a reasonable one. Can someone reasonably look at Barack Obama and see electoral disaster? Yes. And can someone reasonably look at the last eight years and conclude that this election will be vitally important to the course of the country? Yes.
So if you were the last, best chance to stem the tide of domestic and foreign fiascos that have marked the Bush presidency, what would you do? Drop out because Pat Leahy asked? (Or, perhaps later, Howard Dean? Or Al Gore?) Or fight like hell until hope is extinguished?
(I'm not claiming to have divined Hillary Clinton's motives, or those of her aides -- I doubt there's a single reason for her remaining in the race any more than there was a single reason that we invaded Iraq.)
But here's a practical reason why Leahy and the others should quiet down: Party unity. There is a core of Hillary Clinton supporters who are deeply invested in her candidacy who won't be any more pleased by her being shoved out by party elders than would Obama-philes if he were trumped by superdelegates.
All of that said, however, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a Clintonite, cannot have had a straight face yesterday when he said this, quoted in the New York Times:
"Just flip it for a second," Mr. Rendell said. "Let's say Senator Clinton was ahead by about 110 delegates and ahead by less than 1 percent of the vote cast, and she and her supporters started to call on Senator Obama to get out. Just picture what the media would be saying. They'd be saying you're being racist, you're being everything in the world. It's nuts! It's nuts!"
Seriously? Is there any doubt that if Obama had lost 11 primaries in a row and had a virtually insurmountable pledged delegate deficit that Rendell and other Clintonites would be calling for his withdrawal? Come on, gov.
Barack is black (half white and half black, but can't be biracial) because of the outside forces see him this way. It is his choice whether or not he allows the repressive barrage of female or racial angst to overshadow his ability to take the US presidency. Sometimes it is better to let their resentment speak for itself.
Let them talk while you build the consensus you need in order to be elected breaking the glass ceiling over the Oval Office. Door to door. House to house. One American at a time.
In the debate she referenced the Monica Lewinsky affair to demonstrate her toughness. Obama wasn't even in national politics at the time. Was it her husband's infidelity and lying that set that firestorm off? I am a woman and I am tired of her throwing her female credentials as both victim and vanquished in my face.
Let's face it. In Geraldine Ferraro's parlance, if Hillary was not married to Bill could she have won the Senate seat of NY? If Hillary was not married to Bill, would she have been the inevitable Democratic nominee? She was lucky. She was also cursed with being married to Bill too. He was ambitious risk taking alpha male. She had several of Morris/Carville bimbo eruptions to manage and overcome. She has had to fight and had to stare down Bill's enemies and liaisons without publicly breaking down.
It has sucked to be her on countless occasions.
This is not a qualification for office. It is a reason to admire her grit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEb0njdbsOg
This is the worst sellout I have ever seen, Ducey is scum.
PA citizens are so embarrassed.
At this point the voting should be completed including making FL and MI relevant and then address the best way to win in November. Given Dean and the DNCs mess so far, it is the arguments between who should step down, or that the primary is over that brings down the party, not the voters who want it to continue by over 60%.
Make every vote count and make every vote relevant as designed.
IT IS ONLY NINE!!! They are counting the nights they split (2/5 and 3/4) to come up with that number. TYPICAL MEDIA SPIN!!!
And two of those are "democrats abroad" (15,000 voters) and "virgin islands" (1772 voters).
Number of states one IS MEANINGLESS.
8600 PEOPLE VOTED IN WYOMING. 2.2 MILLION IN OHIO.
GET IT???
Man, the bias is beyond belief.
UT, LA, NE, Virgin Islands, WA, ME, Dems Abroad, DC, MD, VA, HI, WI
Also, while HRC claimed the huge victory in NH, they tied for delegates.
Also, while HRC claimed a victory in TX, he won several more delegates.
Also, despite HRC's huge "comenback" on March 4th, she's further behind now than she was before.
What IS meaningful is the number of delegates, which Hillary CANNOT win. Try out Slate's delegate counter. It proves it's not close.
http://www.slate.com/id/2187679/
There are numerous precedents for wrapping up the nomination before all the states have voted. There's no precedent for the superdelegates to overturn the votes of the voters.
http://www.slate.com/id/2185278/
All the GOP attack machine has to do to is to quote Hillary's attack machine, and then follow it up with "and this is from someone in his own party!"
Don't you see? Her campaign strategy, not the simple fact of her quest for the nomination, is the problem with Hillary continuing - by doing McCain's dirty work with such glee, she's effectively endorsing McCain in a national contest between him and Obama. When the GOP starts painting in earnest, Hillary will supply the brush, the paint, and the numbers saying what color to put where.
The only time in recent history I thought the racist tag was blown out of proportion was Don Imus.......... but let's be honest its not so bad that you can't just TALK to black people or about them and not be called a racist. I mean he has been called alot worse by members of her campaign and her supporters......only that went through that really was Ferraro.
.......sure....don't use lynch or slave or the n word in your conversation but thats just courtesy and kindness isn't it? If a sports analyst said he got dropped like he was in Auschwitz or called someone a Jewish insult ....Or mexican reference wouldn't that be equally deplorable.
Not saying stuff doesn't taken too seriously sometimes but Jesus he is a Governor..........I expect comments like that from FoxNews something. Specially considering how much he has attacked Obama already .............he hasn't been tagged a racist yet.
http://www.slate.com/id/2187679/
YOU DONT KNOW HOW PEOPLE WILL VOTE IN PA, KY, WV, PR, NC, ETC.
She could take back the popular vote lead WITH JUST PA.
Does your little "anti hillary" website say that?
3 million votes in PA and she wins by 25 points? Thats 750,000 NET VOTES for her.
Get it??????????
She can't win the DELEGATES!!!
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It is AMAZING how the MSM had foold people into belienving certain "facts" like this?
Tell me how this is accurate???
That comment was racist, no matter how he tried to spin it just like his spin here is racist. For the Reverse Racism chorus out there, I am not calling the PA GOV a racist, but I am calling out some of his comments as racist because they are.
Rendell is Jewish and I'm sure there were people in PA who were not ready to vote for Lieberman in '04.
If someone had made that comment about Jewish candidates, what type of outcry would we have heard from Rendell and every Jewish organization in America.
So I am sorry..now Rendell is AT IT AGAIN, because no one called out this behavior as racist when he first pulled it.
What if Sen. Casey states publicly: "Some people in PA may not have known Rendell was Jewish and probably wouldn't have voted for him for GOV if they knew that about him, as sad as it makes me to confess about our electorate."
Though the observation may be true, would not the public utterance, analagous to screaming "Fire" in this American theater of race, just be the most racist, anti-semitic statement to make UNSOLICITED? You make the call, and I really hope someone does that so Rendell can stare down his Judaism and have to confront in the ballot booth the political ramifications he wants to so flippantly put on Obama.
They use the kitchen sink -Tonya Harding option against Obama the democratic parties frontrunner while throwing roses to McCain. The Clintons cuddling up to right wing media should give supporters of Senator Clintons pause. Bill going on Rush Limbaugh, giving an interview to Newsmax, her surrogates going on radio shows like Laura Ingrahams, Hillarys sitdown with Richard Mellon Scaifes newspaper and Hillarys new BFF television network of choice is Fox News. Its more than obvious the republican machine wants to run against Hillary, and Hillary knows it and shes using them to benefit herself and the cost of the democratic party.
And Hillary cries "victim" a thousand times more than Obama... so if it bothers you, you're rooting for the wrong team.
As to Rendell's statement, Bill and Hillary were talking about Obama (probably disengenuously) as a running mate while he held a lead, so he can't fault Obama-ites for doing the same.