May 7, 2008 at 6:34 PM by David Pleasant
“Paging Senator Clinton. Please report to Senator Feinstein’s office immediately.”
That’s not a direct quote from Sen. Feinstein, but the message is the same. Feinstein said she will ask Clinton to “detail her plans for the rest of the Democratic primary,” The Hill reports.
These are direct press quotes from Feinstein, so it’s not like she was making a friendly call asking Clinton, “Whas up?” If Feinstein did not intend to send a message, why did she broadcast her request via the press? My guess is, Clinton refusing to return Feinstein’s phone calls, prompted some ingenuity on Feinstein’s part.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), one of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) most prominent Senate supporters, said Wednesday that she will ask the former first lady to detail her plans for the rest of the Democratic primary.
“I, as you know, have great fondness and great respect for Sen. Clinton and I’m very loyal to her,” Feinstein said. “Having said that, I’d like to talk with her and [get] her view on the rest of the race and what the strategy is”. . . .
“I think the race is reaching the point now where there are negative dividends from it, in terms of strife within the party,” Feinstein said. “I think we need to prevent that as much as we can.”. . . .
Feinstein stressed that Clinton is not an “also-run candidate,” but added that there is a question “as to whether she can get the delegates that she needs. I’d like to see what the strategy is and then we can talk further.”
May 7, 2008 at 5:03 PM by David Pleasant
This is from the email I noted in my last post. The Obama campaign is turning up the rhetoric to counter Hillary’s ever-changing rules to win the Democratic nomination. The timing and the tone of the message can hardly be coincidental. As of one hour ago, Clinton was meeting with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). My guess is, something was said or a scenario(s) presented, that probably struck a nerve in the Obama camp.
Here’s the math of where we stand …
There are only six contests remaining on the Democratic primary calendar and only 217 pledged delegates left to be awarded. Only 7% of the pledged delegates remain on the table. There are 253 remaining undeclared superdelegates, for a total of 470 delegates left to be awarded.
With North Carolina and Indiana complete, Barack Obama only needs 170 total delegates to capture the Democratic nomination. This is only 36% of the total remaining delegates.
Conversely, Senator Clinton needs 326 delegates to reach the Democratic nomination, which represents a startling 69% of the remaining delegates.
With the Clinton path to the nomination getting even narrower, we expect new and wildly creative scenarios to emerge in the coming days.
While those scenarios may be entertaining, they are not legitimate and will not be considered legitimate by this campaign or its millions of supporters, volunteers, and donors.
We want to be clear — we believe that the winner of a majority of pledged delegates will be and should be the nominee of our party.
And we estimate that after the Oregon and Kentucky primaries on May 20th, we will have won a majority of the overall pledged delegates.
Evidently, the Clinton campaign agrees. According to a recent news report, by even their most optimistic estimates the Clinton Campaign expects to trail by more than 100 pledged delegates and will then ask the superdelegates to overturn the will of the voters.
But we have our own case to make: that millions of Americans volunteering their time and donating in small amounts have built a campaign that has won the most delegates, the most states, and the most votes.
And this campaign — your campaign — will be the one that wins the presidency in November and delivers a wave of support for Democrats at every level of office.
May 7, 2008 at 4:34 PM by David Pleasant
(Updated below)
This is an excerpt from an email Obama’s campaign just sent out. It’s a rather effective way to illustrate who may, and may not, be elitists.
News broke this morning that Senator Clinton made three separate loans to her campaign in the past 30 days — including one as recently as Monday.
These loans total more than $6.4 million, which combined with her previous personal loans, add up to at least $11.4 million she’s loaned her campaign since February.
A spokesman said she may continue to “loan the campaign additional money out of her jointly-held assets” — which include more than $100 million in income since her husband left the White House. . . .
We need to show that the voices of more than 1.5 million ordinary people donating whatever they can afford are more powerful than one person giving more than $11 million to their own campaign.
Update 4:39 PM: I failed to include the most important point. It also illustrates a campaign falling apart.
Related post - Obama Camp: Wildly Creative Scenarios To Win Nomination Are Not Legitimate
May 7, 2008 at 4:07 PM by David Pleasant
A newspaper calls for Clinton to drop out and Obama gets the endorsements of four superdelgates and a former presidential nominee.
Former Sen. George McGovern, a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton until today, endorsed Barack Obama and urged Clinton to drop out. McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, is not a superdelegate (not sure why), but his endorsement and call for Clinton to drop out, will certainly catch the media’s attention.
Turning the heat up on Clinton, Obama announced the addition of three superdelegates to his team.
Today, in the wake of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, the Obama campaign is announcing three new superdelegates: Jerry Meek, chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, Jeanette Council, a member of the D.N.C. from North Carolina and Inola Henry, a member of the D.N.C. from California.
Moreover, The Washington Blade previously endorsed Clinton but today is calling for her to “end her campaign.”
Finally, for now that is, superdelegate Jennifer McClellan, a Virgina DNC member, dumped Clinton for Obama this afternoon. McClellan has been wavering, but the elections yesterday obviously pushed her beyond the threshold.
May 7, 2008 at 2:49 PM by Political Chase
This post has been removed. Please refer to this post.
May 7, 2008 at 1:31 PM by David Pleasant
I’ve said numerous times since the February 18 Wisconsin primary that it was impossible for Clinton to win the Democratic nomination. It’s clear today she’s running around in a state of denial, but her staff is not. They’ve known since February as well.
"Absent some sort of miracle on May 31st, it’s going to be tough for us," said a senior Clinton official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to be frank. "We lost this thing in February. We’re doing everything we can now . . . but it’s just an uphill battle."
How long does Clinton think her staff is going to hang on? She’s Hillary Clinton, not Queen Elizabeth II. These folks are going to bail out as soon as they can find a winner that will have them. Hard to believe they’ve stayed this long.
May 7, 2008 at 12:47 PM by David Pleasant
If somebody told Clinton to quit last night because of the damage she was inflicting on the party, it did not work. Instead, it may just be worse.
On the Hillary conference call, Hillary chief strategist Geoff Garin made the case for her electability in some of the most explicitly race-based terms I’ve heard yet.
Garin argued that the North Carolina contest, which Obama won by 14 points, represented "progress" for Hillary because she did better among white voters there than she did in Virginia.
May 7, 2008 at 11:27 AM by David Pleasant
(Update I and Update II below)
The results from yesterday’s elections are surprising, at least to me they are. I expected Obama to win decisively in North Carolina, but I did not expect him to trounce Clinton in N. C. And, I must admit, I was really concerned about Indiana – PA type of concern. I believed many in Hillary’s core demographic group (low income, under-educated less educated) would buy into her pandering and “testicular-fortitude” brand of rhetoric. Many did, but not enough to give her campaign legitimacy going forward.
I also believe Obama’s relentless efforts to push back on the gas tax pandering probably helped considerably.
But despite legitimacy (or absence of), I’m not ready to buy into the requiem the media was selling last night. Tomorrow maybe, but not today.
It was obvious when Hillary gave her speech last night that she was emotionally drained. But on what basis and to what extent?
How much of that anguish was attributable to losing and how much may have been attributable to a looming financial crisis that just got considerably worse. I know the two are closely related, but they can be very distinct. There has to be a lot of psyche going on in any presidential candidate’s head just to endure the grueling pace from one day to the next. And when that psyche takes a hit, money has no bearing either way.
So, what’s Hillary going to do? All the pundits I heard last night and early this morning were getting out their black attire and calling the florist. Yeah, Hillary’s campaign is dead. No reasonable argument can be made to continue, that a reasonable person will accept. The operative word here is “reasonable.”
Hillary will not pull out today. She has unfinished business.
The campaign has a huge debt and it will not be retired for years if Clinton puts a screeching halt on her campaign. Of course, no one expects her to bring in $10 million a day at this point, but if Hillary keeps up appearances at some level, there are plenty of suckers out there willing to contribute. And Hillary will be pleased to take their money.
Furthermore, the more Clinton continues to campaign, the more Obama has to spend time and money fighting her. I think the idea of this is revolting, but she’s probably going to ask Obama to pay off at least part of her debt, if not all of it, and until he does, she just keeps campaigning. At some point, it becomes a business decision rather than a matter of principle.
Clinton may be far more concerned about what kind of deals she can extort out of Obama, rather than how much money. Last night, the Elite Washington Punditry was chattering about a V.P. slot for Hillary. Frankly, I don’t see that happening right now. I don’t believe either of them will consider it. But many of Hillary’s staffers, which she is deeply indebted to morally and economically, will soon be out on the street. Clinton can probably force Obama to pick up many of them.
I don’t think Clinton will be announcing any withdrawal until she has made substantial progress on those issues – that’s a best case scenario.
Then there is the Rachel Maddow theory. Clinton has not had a viable, logical argument to keep her campaign going for a long time, so, why would she all of a sudden take a logical, realistic approach about what she will do tomorrow. Valid point, but the illogical just gets harder. I would not discredit the possibility of Clinton firing up her earth-scorching machine at any moment, but by default, the probability reduced significantly last night.
Furthermore, I had a sense last night that someone – the right person – told Bill and Hillary it was time to shut it down. Moreover, that message may have been a direct result of exit polls showing the party falling apart versus “you’re losing.” Their message flipped on a dime last night, but more striking to me was Hillary’s tone and Bill’s body language.
Bill Clinton looked as bad last night as I can ever remember seeing him – far worse than the Rose Garden speech after the House impeached him. I know he’s older and the physical stress of the campaign were indeed factors, but it went beyond those elements. They’ve known the campaign was sinking, there could not have been a surprise.
Bill Clinton, I thought, looked as if he had just been told his child died – metaphorically, that is. No association with Chelsea intended. And Hillary had to obviously draw on her litigator skills to get through her speech.
If Hillary winds the campaign down, I’m sure it’s a mixture of elements. That notwithstanding, this afternoon, I will not be surprised to hear: “Shame on you, Barack Obama. Shame on you!”
Update 12:00 PM: I intentionally did not look around to see what "newsworthy" events were popping up before I wrote this post. Now, I’m glad that I did not.
Update II 2:01 PM: Some might be inclined to think or be persuaded to believe that one reason Clinton is staying in the race is to fight for seating the Michigan and Florida delegates. She may use that as a bargaining chip while she can, but the moment it no longer suits her purpose, those states will be a distant memory for Clinton.
May 7, 2008 at 1:27 AM by Political Chase
NBC calls Indiana for Hillary
