Stick a fork in her…
Posted by Paul on May 20th, 2008
Hillary Clinton is done. She’s been done for months, but tonight it’s more or less official. Tonight, Obama has not just more delegates, but a majority of the delegates that will be elected directly by the people in the Democratic Party’s nomination process.
Clinton’s campaign continues to blather inanities about how they have won more “electoral votes” (apparently they haven’t really bothered to understand the process) or won the popular vote (as long as you count Michigan, where Obama wasn’t on the ballot, or Florida, where nobody officially campaigned, and as long as you don’t figure for the hundreds of thousands who turned out for Obama in the caucus states) or that if the Democrats had the same rules as the Republicans, why, she’d already be the nominee (well maybe she should be a Republican then!)
The reality is this: The race is over. She lost. And I know she’s a “fighter” and all that crap, but the reality is that every moment she stays in is another moment she hurts the cause of the Democratic Party from here on out.
Up until now, the only reasonable argument (IMO) for staying in the race is that the battle was inspiring more and more people to sign up and vote, but the reality is that the only even halfway justifiable way of saying it’s good is because one of the two candidates has at least a mathematical (if not realistic) chance of winning.
Tonight, Hillary Clinton doesn’t have even that mathematical chance. The only way, the ONLY way, she could win now is to convince enough of the superdelegates to vote for her instead of Obama- and that would essentially mean convincing those superdelegates to go against the stated, demonstrated, voted-upon will of the citizens who consider themselves members of the Democratic Party.
So if the supers want to do that- want to say they know better, to be the elite, to put aside the clear desire of the voters- they can certainly do so. Of course, if they do, they’ll piss off a huge number of Democrats.
I predict this won’t happen. The supers will start falling in line quickly now. I think they won’t bother waiting for the Rules Committee to meet in a week and a half; they’ll declare for Obama sooner, and will use it to bring the party together.
Because if they don’t, the party risks losing, and this nation can’t handle another 4 years of McSame.
May 21st, 2008 at Wednesday, May 21, 2008 @ 9:11 PM
Well, if that’s not the pot calling the kettle black (no racism intended — I know you Obama-ites like to find racism under every rock while consistently turning a blind eye to the sexism that has been running rampant in this campaign). You say Hillary “hurts the cause of the Democratic party,” but fail to see that you and other Obama-supporting bloggers are doing just that, by remarking about Hillary’s “blathering” and throwing around other insults (i.e., “she’s a ‘fighter’ and all the crap”). The thing is, despite my strong and unwavering support of Hillary, if Obama is the nominee, I intend to vote for him, if only to give Senator Clinton a chance to pass HER healthcare plan which will, in fact, cover everyone, and to give other Congressional dems a chance to do good work without worrying about a presidential veto. But posts like yours make me think twice about casting a ballot for Obama. Because it’s not Hillary staying in the race that’s hurting the party; it’s demeaning posts like yours that are dividing us, by pitting Hillary supporters against Obama supporters, democrats against democrats, me against you. You can make your point without insulting Senator Clinton, who has been a champion for all of us democrats for a very long time. If you’re so certain that your candidate is going to be the nominee, maybe you should start practicing being a gracious winner. After all, about half (more or less, depending on whose math you use) of the democratic party will need to be convinced to vote for your guy, and you won’t convince us by bad-talking our gal.
May 23rd, 2008 at Friday, May 23, 2008 @ 8:17 PM
Well, if she wasn’t “done” before, she is now, after the RFK thing. Man, talk about really bad judgment. She must be banging her head against the wall right now–not only did she bury herself, but she probably just threw away any chance to be VP. And if Obama is shot, the party will almost certainly turn to Al Gore, not to her.
May 25th, 2008 at Sunday, May 25, 2008 @ 2:35 PM
I thought Paul pretty nice to Hillary. Take this from Daily Kos…
Montana’s huge black population gives Obama the edge
Sun May 25, 2008 at 12:29:02 PM PDT
Census numbers:
Black Persons, 2006: 0.4%
White Persons, 2006: 90.8%
The rest are either Latino (2.5%) or Native American (6.4%).
Montana is also the nation’s fifth poorest state. It’s poor, it’s white, and has no African Americans to speak of. Therefore, if what the Clinton campaign and its apologists say is correct, if what the political news media tell me is accurate, Clinton should have another 30-point blowout in store. Right?
Mason-Dixon for Lee Newspapers. 5/19-21. Likely Democratic primary voters. MoE 5% (12/17-19 results)
Obama 52 (17)
Clinton 35 (29)
I expect the Clinton campaign to spin bullshit. It’s been the entirety of their campaign now for several months. But it’s shocking to me how difficult it has been for the political media to distinguish from Obama’s Appalachian problem and his non-existent problems with white voters at large.
Then again we can always ju jitsu this and ask, “Why is Clinton suddenly having a hard time with working class whites? Are they now abandoning her?” Such a question would be bullshit, of course. Obama has always done very well west of the Mississippi, and Clinton poorly outside of the Latino vote in the southwest. But if they want to deal in bullshit, we can always oblige.
M-D also polled general election matchups, and this state, which Kerry lost by 20 points, is a single-digit affair for Obama.
Mason-Dixon for Lee Newspapers. 5/19-21. Likely Democratic primary voters. MoE 4% (No trend lines)
Total Men Wom Rep Dem Ind
McCain (R) 47 50 44 85 12 39
Obama (D) 39 37 41 4 77 41
McCain (R) 51 48 48 91 7 50
Clinton (D) 40 38 42 2 88 33
There’s an obvious typo there — McCain can’t be winning both women and men with 48 percent of the vote, and overall 51-40. Regardless, once Obama brings home Democrats to Clinton-like levels, it’ll tighten Montana that much more. With his lead among independents and the larger number of undecided Republicans willing to give him a shot, Montana is definitely going to be in play.
And favorability ratings:
McCain: 46 favorable, 35 unfavorable, 19 neutral
Obama: 41 favorable, 38 unfavorable, 21 neutral
Clinton: 29 favorable, 50 unfavorable, 21 neutral
It’ll be nice heading into this general election without having to deal with Clinton’s sky-high negatives.