Today is the day. After some tough talk from some trusted friends, Hillary has finally decided to read the handwriting that has been on the wall for months. She will suspend her campaign and throw her support behind the presumptive nominee Barack Obama.
About time. I’m an Obama supporter and have been for a long time now, but I say the following as someone who wants real change from the Republican nightmare that got me blogging in the first place. Here is what I want to hear from Hillary:
She should rally her supporters and thank them for their loyal support. Nobody can question their loyalty, which rivaled anything Obama supporters could bring. That’s the reason for the division, this equal loyalty on both sides that was equally as stubborn as well.
She should remind her supporters that they can still honor her and support what she believes in by supporting Barack Obama. She should also tell them in no uncertain terms that any talk of protesting her not getting the nomination by voting for McCain would dishonor her personally. She shouldn’t give some weak “that would be the wrong thing to do” as she has in the past. She needs to make it personal. Tell them they will be offending her personally if they do such a thing.
Her tone in this speech needs to be precisely opposite from her speech after the June 3 contests. She should stand proud, but not be defiant. She should lament a loss, but be hopeful in what an Obama campaign in the general can bring.
She should remind everyone of the danger of not uniting and losing the momentum that has seen Democrats come out in record numbers while Republicans have essentially settled for John McCain. We’ve not settled, we’ve fiercely battled and picked the best candidate in an energetic process that set records. We must continue to set records in taking back this country from a McBush continuation of the George W. Bush nightmare.
Hillary is a political professional. She needs to pull out all the stops and give the speech of her life. it will not only help us in the general election and help to heal divisions and give us a spark going into the Obama-McCain battle, but will enhance her future political ambitions. To do that, she needs to talk just enough about her race and what she accomplished. Her focus, however, should be on what happens now and what her and her supporters should do to help us win.
Obama has given her and her supporters the space they need to do the right thing. It is hard. Thinking of Obama suspending his campaign makes me nauseous. I can completely relate to what some Hillary supporters must be feeling. I’m truly empathetic to that. I know it will take some time and all the right moves by both Hillary and Obama. She can open the door to that process. I expect he’ll continue it in a way that will honor her and her supporters. He has to.
I look forward to a new day of unity and focus on winning in November. It’s the most important contest since I began blogging and those of us on our side of the political spectrum can not take this lightly. We have to win.
Go Hillary. Help bring us together. You do that and I’ll work hard to forgive and forget the primary.
Bottom line: I just don’t think she was hungry enough for it in the beginning. It wasn’t really until the ten-in-a-row loss that she started doing stuff like ‘Saturday Night Live’ and Jon Stewart. In the beginning, it was hard to get her to do those things.”
i think it was 11 in a row, but whatever. There are many more examples given by those in the know. Some we knew and others that were a bit surprising. Financial mismanagement bordering on fraud. More themes than you can shake a stick at. Inability to frame a campaign in a change environment. Circular firing squads. The list goes on. I’m sure this campaign will be studied for years to come. They took inevitable and turned it into unwinnable. Worth reading about the cautionary tale that is has become.
It would also behoove the Obama campaign to take a look see at what not to become in the general. They’ve been about as good as Hillary has been bad, though. It doesn’t mean their game doesn’t need to tighten up for a general – it does. There is certainly less room for error if he is to be elected in the fall.
Not surprising given the desperation that must have been setting in prior to North Carolina and Indiana:
One of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s top financial supporters offered $1 million to the Young Democrats of America during a phone conversation in which he also pressed for the organization’s two uncommitted superdelegates to endorse the New York Democrat, a high-ranking official with YDA told The Huffington Post.
They agreed in September to abide by the rules. This was back during the “inevitable” period. Now that they’ve had their inevitable asses handed to them, they want to count them as they voted despite the fact that their opponent wasn’t even on the ballot in one state and didn’t campaign in the other.
Great piece in the Chicago Tribune highlighting much of what I’ve been saying about what Hillary must do. The question is will she become a loser the likes of Kerry or Kennedy? The difference will determine the nature of her future political power and it is surely something that is currently being calculated.
Clinton’s options, other than winning the nomination, are many. She may gain more leverage from losing than most any other failed presidential candidate.
The only way for her to accomplish this would be to campaign vigorously for Obama and get the sour grapes crowd to work for him and vote for him as well. It’s her best out. It sounds like this is the thinking on the inside as well:
The thinking among some who have talked with her campaign is that she would be a vigorous campaigner for Obama throughout the fall campaign, wiping out any memories of damage she might have inflicted while prolonging the primary season. In the process, she would also maintain and perhaps even enhance her own viability should Obama lose the general election to presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain.
So even Hillary people are saying what I’ve been saying. SHE needs to be the one to wipe out any damage she may have inflicted in the drawn out primary. She can and will be a powerful political force for years to come. It all depends on how she handles the exit here in the next few weeks.
Last week in West By God Virginia it was 36 percent. Just 36 percent of Democrats who voted for Hillary Clinton said they would vote for Obama in a general election. This week in Kentucky it was 33 percent.
Two-thirds of Clinton’s supporters there said they would vote Republican or not vote at all rather than for Obama, according to the polls.
Forty-one percent of Clinton supporters said they’d cast their vote for John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and 23 percent said they would not vote at all.
This being the case all the while most polled say they think Obama will indeed get the nomination.
So I will ask Jill and the rest who are harping on what Obama must do to heal this type of problem (and it IS a problem): How is someone supposed to convince voters to side with him when they vote for his opponent knowing she will not win and claim they will not support him once he wins the nomination as they are predicting? 64% will vote McCain or not vote. That’s a huge problem.
Hillary Clinton’s problem. She has leverage with this bloc of voters. So much so that they support her over the party. They support her over a person with very similar policies and positions – policies and positions that have made them a huge Hillary supporter.
Hillary is a smart woman. She knows the likelihood of her winning butts up against sheer anarchy in the party and the odds of that being allowed to happen are so slim as to not even exist. She is making overtures in her speech tonight of taking this thing to the convention and being unwilling to stop her campaign of party divisiveness. It should be noted that her speech was again devoid of any recognition for Barack’s accomplishments despite his seizing the high ground again with congratulating her on a win.
She must be stopped. Someone needs to tap her on the shoulder and let her know if she succeeds in any plan to seek later redemption by cementing a defeat for Obama this time that there will be a loud cadre of people who may have supported her who will absolutely join in her destruction down the line. There will be no 2012. Face facts.
I’ve seen Hillary say voting for McCain would be a mistake blah blah. That’s not good enough. She needs to either give a speech and step down or give one telling these idiots that not voting or voting McCain would be betraying their votes for her should Obama win. It needs to be forceful and it needs to be NOW!
I think it’s time for the online community to do so as well, including the Ohio blogosphere. Let’s show some leadership ourselves and form a tight circle around our nominee. Shall we?
Sen. Barack Obama’s 16-point lead over Clinton in the latest Gallup daily tracking poll of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters comes from even higher support among groups that have been supporting him throughout the primary race, and from newfound support among several groups that have backed Clinton
Obama’s strengths have all been increased while pulling closer in demographics typical of Clinton strength. Obama leads or ties Clinton among women, Easterners, whites, adults with no college education, and Hispanics.
I hate to keep saying this, but it’s over. Been over. There is absolutely zero reason to continue to talk about anything other than unity. That Hillary is at this point continuing to say things like “this is nowhere near over” should be a clear signal that she has zero interest in healing any rifts and forming tight circles to compete in a general election. It’s as irresponsible as the idiotic group of women claiming they may vote for McCain in protest. Seriously delusional.
The argument that we Obama supporters need to coddle to such delusion is not compelling. No such coddling needs to be done. She lost. He won. Move on. Is it incumbent on the one being coalesced around to reach out and accept into the fold the supporters of the loser? Sure. The larger point that is being missed is that he can’t do that until the loser actually concedes losing and calls on her supporters to get behind him. To somehow argue that Obama needs to “do something about this” is insane at this point. Not in the midst of Hillary claiming it’s far from over and her supporters threatening widespread revolt against her opponent.
The only person who has any influence at all on those who would wreak havoc in their post-mortem tramatic stress syndrome is the candidate they are willing to do it for. Hint: It ain’t the guy currently in the lead. His job was to get more delegates and he did just that. Her job was to run an effective campaign that would anoint the inevitable candidate she was when this began. She failed to do that. In fact, she not only failed to do that, but she succeeded in a scorched earth kitchen sink policy that would make such supporter rapprochement much more difficult.
So as America begins to rally behind the eventual nominee, I’d call on those of us in the ’sphere to do the same. My arms are wide open Hillary fans. My guy can’t change his sex, but he can lead and fight for what you want fought for. Let’s do this. Let’s all join hands and sing:
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, kumbaya
Oh lord, kumbaya
Let’s all raise our voices in mass unity to those on the right circling like vultures during the bloodbath below awaiting such time as they should swoop down and snatch victory from the chaos. Let’s not let that happen. Let’s come together. Let’s shout to the heavens so that all will hear our voices as one: “Obama Bomaye!”
Yet another argument gone. The Super delegate gap has been closed and Obama now even leads:
I probably only do this because as I Kentucky native I constantly have to, but I’ve also known very bright people who were not racists that were from West Virginia. Roommate at West Point is one off the top of my head. Top flight guy. Love his Mountaineers!
I’ll let you say some, but not “West Virginians” or “Kentuckians”. To be honest, they are everywhere them hillbillies. I thought I wouldn’t see as many as back home when I moved to Ohio. Boy was I wrong!
Hell, even Rahm Emanuel is saying Obama is the presumptive nominee.
I’ve heard talk – and I don’t disagree – that Hillary is trying to ratchet down the rhetoric and ratchet down her fervent supporters in order to begin the healing process. This needs to happen and I hope it can happen.
The question I have is when does Chris Redfern become the biggest supporter of Barack Obama in the state? What’s the official time on that one? I wanna be there!
Hillary dismisses the Michigan delegate plan agreed to by state leaders. Surprised? Nah:
Camp Hillary is rejecting the new plan floated today by Michigan Dems that would seat the delegation by awarding 69 delegates to Hillary and 59 to Obama.
I thought giving her ten points in a race where Obama wasn’t even on the ballot was pretty fair.
Michigan’s Democratic leadership endorsed a plan late Wednesday that would seat Michigan delegates but partially penalize Clinton for the disputed nature of the primary, cutting her potential delegate advantage in the state.
The proposed compromise would give Clinton 69 pledged delegates and Obama 59. It would allow all 128 pledged delegates, plus Michigan’s 29 superdelegates, to be seated at the convention in Denver in August.
Clinton was to get 73 delegates if the Jan. 15 results were followed.
So that nets Hillary 10 delegates. Not gonna do it. No guarantee the rules committee will go along, but this does sound pretty fair.
After the voting is complete in Kentucky and Oregon, Obama will declare victory having the lead in every meaningful metric – and most importantly the delegate lead he has held since sweeping 11 primary contests in a row. Hillary, of course, will set up a nasty 11 day fight until the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee meets to consider what to do about Michigan and Florida.
From Politico:
On May 20 we’re going to declare victory,†said an Obama senior advisor who asked that his name be withheld to speak candidly, adding that after those contests they will be “the ones with the most pledged delegates and the most popular votes.â€
While the nature of that declaration of victory is “still developing,†in the advisor’s words, the Obama campaign contends that the winner of a majority of pledged delegates should be the party nominee.
“Senator Obama, our campaign and our supporters believe pledged delegates is the most legitimate metric for determining how this race has unfolded,†wrote Obama campaign manager David Plouffe Wednesday in a memo to superdelegates. “It is simply the ratification of the DNC rules – your rules – which we built this campaign and our strategy around.â€
Obama won North Carolina convincingly. He nearly won Indiana. This was the game changer Clinton was looking for, only in the opposite. Barack Obama just showed the super delegates that he could take the worst two weeks of his campaign, come off a big loss in Pennsylvania, and bounce back to surprise everyone. He outperformed and it’s becoming clear that he is the nominee.
Based on my predictions, he outperformed my expectations in North Carolina by 3.4% and Indiana by a whopping 6.4%.
There really is no argument left for Hillary. I predict much hilarity will ensue. It’s obvious the only thing left is to go nuclear and try to grab the delegates from Florida and Michigan. That needs to be resolved soon so as not to fracture the party more than it is. There are already indications that Hillary supporters are going to be “bitter” and not come along. Swift action needs to take place. Keep an eye on the supers as I expect them to start breaking.
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He always congratulates Clinton, even on narrow wins. What a refreshing difference!
I’ve watched Indiana go from +14 Hillary, to +10, to +8, to now +4.
This thing is over. She got blown out in North Carolina and barely won (if she does) Indiana.
Obama just gave a pre-acceptance speech and it was killer. He’s putting John McCain on notice that he’s coming and he’ll take all attacks with the grace and urgency that he has taken all of Hillary’s shit.
