Can Hillary Win Without Blowing Up the Party?

Can Hillary Win Without Blowing Up the Party?
By David Broder


WASHINGTON -- On the day last week when Hillary Clinton suffered the first of two costly defections by Indiana superdelegates, I went to see an old friend working in her national campaign. I knew he was loyal to her, but I also calculated that if he were guaranteed anonymity, he would give me an honest answer to the vexing question: Does the Clinton camp still see any realistic way she can deny Barack Obama the Democratic nomination without blowing up the party?

The question is not new, but it has gained force week by week, as the ranks of uncommitted delegates dwindle and the remaining number of primaries and caucuses shrinks. When Rep. Baron Hill, a freshman holding a battleground seat in southern Indiana, ended months of neutrality and endorsed Obama, without waiting until Tuesday to let his constituents vote, it signaled bad news for Clinton, not just in the primary but in the overall fight.

It got worse for her the next day when Joe Andrew, a former Indiana and national Democratic chairman under Bill Clinton, announced that he was switching to Obama, in part because the long-drawn-out contest is so divisive to the party.

How then does Clinton hope to win? Her fate rests entirely on the last uncommitted superdelegates, the roughly 75 members of Congress and 150 party officials who have not picked sides.

All of them have been wooed intensively by both Clinton and Obama. If the race goes on another week, I will report more about the case Obama supporters are making to the superdelegates. But for now, let me describe Clinton's imagined course to the nomination.

To have a chance, the Clinton folks figure, she must win Indiana on Tuesday and do well enough to keep Obama's lead by the end of the primaries closer to 100 than to 200. She must also find a way to get some votes counted from Michigan and Florida, whose delegations are barred from the convention for violating the party's primary timetable.

more...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/05/can_hillary_win_without_blowin.html

..but BY GAWD Little Hillary is gonna have her nom lollipop no matter WHO or WHAT she has to destroy to get it!

Because what HILLARY WANTS is more important. TO HER.

What a FINE President she'll make with that attitude eh? Wait. Don't we ALREADY HAVE A PRESIDENT with that attitude?

Yep.

If this election is about change, Hillary is the antitheses of it.

Clinton suceeds in convincing the SDs to overide the popular and delegate vote and, in essence steals the nomination from the dem voter's choice....then, yes! What is it worth to be a dem and a dem voter in this country? What's the point in taking part in the system at all? If the SD actually did this foolish thing, what would be the point in voting at all?

..will leave the party and/or not vote Dem again. Her narcissism is literally destroying the Dem party from the inside out.

Essentially what Hillary W. bu$h is doing is driving a wedge between traditional Democrats and the DLC - that's where the split is. People say "well Obama calls himself the Uniter and look how the party is divided!"

That is a sad bit of projection there. They're projecting the results of HILLARY'S divisive campaign - which has gone on and on longer than it ever should have - onto OBAMA. OBAMA isn't the one dividing the party - HILLARY is.

To a Hillary supporter, Obama is to blame for EVERYTHING. Hillary's devisiveness, what a pastor said 16 years ago, who his NEIGHBORS were when he was eight years old, yada yada.

It's really rediculous.

...none. This election, I think, will decide a lot more things for a lot more people than simply the question of who moves into the White House.

Already has blown up the party.

NOBOMA!

It's over.
Still.

Thus preserving one last shot in 2012.

I hate that that theory is even plausible, but given the way she's conducted her campaign one has to consider it possible.

No 2012 for her. She will be marginalized as retribution. Count on it.

Duke

A loss in 2008 also signals the ouster of Dean as DNC chair. You don't think the Clintons are waiting to plug one of their people in there again?

She'd not just be torpedoing Obama, she'd be taking down the entire non-Clinton wing of the party.

If Obama does not get this nomination, the Blacks will create
problems, pull out of the party,

Essentially constantly threatening the party to point of intimidation.

Not a day goes by that there is not an AfricanAmerican on show
after show. The Blacks will not like this.

No one ever mentions Hillary's supporters threatening the party.

Yes Hillary goes after SuperDelegates Yes, so does Obama.

Does anyone think what ordinary Americans are thinking as they
hear the constant intimidation from one side.

although the whole "teh Blacks" thing makes me suspicious.

Duke

As Obama supporters.

Obama's not the one going out there trashing Clinton and saying that McCain is more qualified than the other Democrat to be president.

Hillary Clinton is the one that is hitting below the belt, not Obama

But go ahead and keep blaming it on "The Blacks" It's a popular way to go lately.

you don't think Hill supporters haven't threatened the party? Think again, and this is from just a cursory search: might want to rethink that line of reasoning. :eyes:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=5713463

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=5799130

...out there hiding in the woodpile, right? Thanks for the heads-up.

that HRC's staying in the race is seen as a legitimate method by which to bolster her chances for 2012/2016. If she were to drop out now, throw all of her support behind Obama, and encourage her supporters to get behind him as well, she could rightly claim a substantial amount of credit for reuniting the party. She would still have a solid base of supporters, and would have another 4-8 years in the Senate in which to do what she says she does best in "getting things done". Since voters have notoriously short memories, by then most would have moved past the tusla, wvwv, etc. issues. If she has the opportunity of a dem controlled congress and a dem in the white house, there's a lot of opportunity to prove the "anybody but clinton" crowd wrong. The longer she stays in, the more negative feelings build up, and the less chance she has in the future.

She will sacrifice anyone or anything in her quest to win - even herself.

I've lost any respect that I once had for her.

both parties are tied to the corporate-owned MSM, because the most corporate-friendly candidate wins. The corporations will choose our President, and in November it will look like this:

McCain vs. Clinton (either acceptable to big-business), or
McCain/Clinton vs. Obama.

They won't allow Obama to win. He is not beholden to the corporate god.

Just like they didn't let eco-friendly Al Gore win.

Come November, we will put on our flag pins, and drive to our polling place, where they let us hold elections. And then we will return home, feeling like we had a choice, like we made a difference and we did our patriotic duty; now we can just kick back and tune in to the latest episode of "American Idol". Gosh, you just never know what that crazy Paula Abdul is going to do next! :sarcasm:

Naughty

She may push the progressive base into creating a new grass roots party only I want to take Dean with us. I was always a November nominee supporter until just a couple of weeks ago and now I don't think holding my nose will work. In fact, I don't think a case of wine would and I don't drink.

If she pushes the nuclear option as pundits are suggesting she may, I swear I will send a contribution to any democrat running against her for the senate seat. The nomination was hers to lose and lose it she did. Creative math isn't cutting it. I have more faith in blue collar workers than many of her supporters do. I think when the democrats finally get to campaign against McCain they will vote for Obama.

I used to admire her even though she was my last choice when we had a wealth of candidates. Now, I can't stand to look at her and I have gotten really fast with the mute button.

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