Is Hillary Hanging It Up? Don’t You Bet on It.
There’s a little bit of buzz being generated by the announcement that Hillary Clinton is going to give an election speech in New York, accompanied by the rest of her family. About half of the Democratic Party is, right now, exploring the value of religion as they are praying for this to be The Concession Speech. Michelle Malkin says the end is nigh. Allah’s channeling his inner Bruce Dickinson and counseling her not to fear the Reaper. Ace is saying this is probably the end, my friend.
Sorry, guys, but this ain’t it.
Not only did her campaign come out and give a pretty strong statement that she’s not hanging it up, but her dropping out right now makes no sense at all. She may be out of money for the present, but she really doesn’t need money for ads and a huge staff. The voting part of the primary season is pretty much over. Now is the time that the Clinton campaign will go full-bore at the delegates and superdelegates to get as many to swing to its side as it possibly can.
It’s pretty fashionable to count Hillary Clinton out, but let me remind you, plenty of other people, political opponents and otherwise, have done just that and woke up two months later asking if anyone got the number of that truck. Hillary Clinton knows the rules of her party exceedingly well, especially the rules about how not even pledged delegates are locked into a vote by the results of a primary. Every single delegate is in play starting right now and I would not be so quick to bet against her. Barack Obama is an electoral rookie. He’s never faced a serious challenge in his political life. If he thinks he can ride his glow over the Clinton political machine, he’s going to wake up sometimes around mid-December sore and confused as hell.
Robert McCain thinks she’ll take it at least to the first vote at the convention. I think that’s all it’ll take to run the naif Obama out of the race.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Reason Number One to Vote for Hillary
- Johnny Mac’s Lost Another Blogger. Can I Win Him for Hillary? (Or, Jimmie Plays Palpatine)
- Oh, Come On People. Is This the Best Thing We Can Find to Talk About? Seriously?
Category: Featured, Hillary!, The Obamessiah
I agree totally. I have stated it many times, that Hillary will be the nominee and I will stand by it. I know the Clintons like I know every inch of my glorious naked body (to quote Rush).
She'll stay in.
"Hillary Clinton knows the rules of her party exceedingly well, especially the rules about how not even pledged delegates are locked into a vote by the results of a primary."
Actually, she doesn't. She thought California was winner-take-all despite the fact that Ickes voted for the proportional representation proposal. She has an ability of delusion that rivals, and probably beats, George Bush's. She should have known damn well that all states were proportional, but she wanted to believe that winning California meant winning the election. And her backup redneck vote in Appalachia couldn't save her like she thought it would. She screwed up because she didn't understand that caucuses would be disproportionally represented and that local organization would be critical in the caucus states. Obama understood the rules and played them well.
As I write this, I'm listening to Hillary's speech. Only the proper combination of whiskey, fine Darjeeling tea, and cigarettes can keep me from puking. But I'm thinking about why he won. He really shouldn't have. And I think about playing pool with my uncle. I was always the better player (I'm a 5 on amature ratings), but he'd always win. My uncle won because because he'd use my confidence against me. He'd take any easy shot and when faced with a difficult one, he'd pull off a legal safety that didn't give me even a chance to return the favor. And then take a ball in hand. If I didn't run it on my first shot, I couldn't win. And that's really what Hillary had to do. But she didn't get the organization in place in the early contests to make it happen.
tom, he didn't win.
The Cali thing was not Hillary, but her campaign guru. You're going to have to find me a quote that attributes that knowledge to her and not to her campaign manager.
I'm serious. If you think the projected delegate counts given tonight are what the final total will be come the convention, you're being incredibly naive. Mark my words, Barack Obama is in for a few very big surprises. Remember, he's the campaign newbie that was floated to a huge lead thanks largely to an entirely uncritical press. His star has been fading and, surprise, Hillary Clinton has played an incredibly strong game in the past three months. She's won in every single swing state while Obama was busy denigrating votes he'll need in November in exactly the same way you did.
Mark my words, this isn't even close to over.
"The Cali thing was not Hillary, but her campaign guru."
True, but she's stupid enough to listen to him. Look, I knew that California was proportional two years ago. I'm not some super campaign guru. I just looked it up on the net. Hillary can't hire some high school kid for $5/hour to do the same? What a joke. Her style of leadership is the same that we had in the corporate world in the 70s. Don't bother to care what's really going on, just listen to your experts. Sperry did that perfectly, as did PDP and CDC. Any of those dinosaurs around now? And if you think Hillary has some magic control over the party, you need to think again. The old school power brokers in the party are broke. They can't come up with enough money to get out of debt. They have already lost their control over the party and only money can buy it back. And Obama's got the money. What's Hillary got to offer? Power? Maybe, but Obama's already offering that. And money, too. Hillary can only rely on charisma to get her past the money and power problem. And she doesn't have much charisma. Marrying Bill doesn't make you Bill. Oh, and Obama's got some mojo. And I will mark your words. Your ability to predict elections is even worse than Zogby. Bring up your 2006 predictions if you don't believe me. And you can check my history on my blog. Not great, but way better than Zogby. And I beat FiveThirtyEight tonight. And most of the polls.
As for the election, McCain will win if Obama is assassinated. If not, Obama wins.
Obama and his campaign and the media are currently putting on the appearance of victory – so he won't have to actually win in Denver. He hasn't won. But I'd venture a guess most people can't tell the difference at this point, including many a member of the party. I don't see how Hillary can convince anyone that she deserves to win if everyone with a say in the matter believe she has already lost. Your logic is impeccable, Jimmie, and potential pres Obama won't hold a candle to potential pres Hillary, but at this point the dems would have a riot on their hands if they go against the obamaniacs. Sniff.
"so he won’t have to actually win in Denver"
Yeah he will. Every candidate from both parties still has win the floor vote at the convention. Obama will have to do the same. But with the money, party leadership, and (most importantly) the delegates backing Obama, he'll win that floor vote. Hillary's only chance now is assassination. It's happened before (in my lifetime), so it could happen again. And it really wouldn't surprise me if Hillary would go to that extent. If she does, I'll be the first person to argue for her execution (I usually oppose the death penalty, but I'm willing to make an exception for assassination of important leaders). And I won't be voting for her before her conviction. I don't like McCain, but I will not support anyone who would win by killing their opponent.
Heh. The Rezko verdict just hit, and Hillary's suddenly looking a little less down-and-out, isn't she?
I think you're right on…
News says that she will be conceding on Friday. I don't know how you seriously believed any other possibility.
I hope that she will become vice president.
Fostert,
If Hillary did want someone to up and assassinate Obama, I'm sure she'd have found a smoother way to do so than publicly compare him to Kennedy.
Now that it's looking like a sure bet Hillary really will throw in the towel, I'll be interested to see whether the conservative blogosphere picks plague or cholera or just laying down to die.
I guess we'd better hope for Sarah Palin – her as VP would go a long way towards making McCain a palatable candidate.
Wow, Tom, you're all into the conspiracies of late, aren't you?
Hillary isn't goign to assassinate Barack Obama. Barack Obama's past associations with criminals and bigots will do that to his campaign just fine.
I am already reading what a bitch Michelle is after listening to this for years about Hillary. Why is it so easy for people (men and women) to talk like this about women when they don't do it when they are talking about a man.
dar, I think that part of it is that there's only one word to describe a sour or just plain spiteful nasty woman. We use plenty of other words to describe men in bad ways ("wimp", "wuss", "deadbeat", "curmudgeon", "fogey", "grouch", "asshole"). There doesn't seem to be a corresponding word for "bitch" to describe a man. Maybe "prick" works there and that does get used quite a lot, too.