7 Reasons why Clinton should stay in the race

from Mark Ambinder comes this missive today:


**One is perfectly capable of acknowledging that the identity of the nominee is no longer in dispute and still find that, aside from morbid speculation and existential unknowability, there are reasons for her to postpone any plans for a concession. Some of these reasons may be unpalatable for Democrats and for Obama, but they are not entirely irrational.

1. Florida and Michigan. Clinton, not Obama, is identified with the cause of seating those delegations. Since FL and MI won't decide the nomination now, Clinton has every reason to push for a negotiated settlement. It way well be that Clinton refuses to officially drop out until she is satisfied that the voices of Florida and Michigan are heard.

2. Her voters. Almost half of those voting in the Democratic primaries chose Clinton. Certain parts of her support base -- older women, for example -- are as fervently in her corner as Obama as college kids are in Obama's corner. For these women, Clinton has succeeded in convincing them that her candidacy is just as historic as Obama's. Forget about the nomination: Clinton has a much deeper political base than when she started to campaign for the presidency. She needs to tend to this base whether she continues to represent New York, becomes Senate Majority Leader, becomes the vice presidential nominee, or runs in 2012.

3. Embarrassment. If she drops out tomorrow and winds up winning in West Virginia and Kentucky, Obama will be mightily embarrassed. Having her in the race gives him an excuse for losing those two states. (I ran this by an Obama adviser who said, "We'll take our chances.")

4. The Ask. Does Clinton want to be Obama's vice president? Who knows? But does Clinton want to be asked whether she wants to be his vice president and this be in a position to decline it? Surely. The more Obama is reminded that Clinton cannot not be dispensed with, the more pressure he will feel to at least solicit her views on the subject of the vice presidency.

5. The Party. David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said again this morning that he is confident that the entire party will unify around Obama. If that's the case, then giving Democrats in the remaining states the chance to exercise their vote -- and by exercise, I mean it in the conventional sense -- to practice voting -- will be a boon for Democrats in the fall. 1.5 million Democrats voting in Indiana is spectacular; the primaries are serving as a dry-run of sorts for the entire party. It wouldn't hurt to extend those dress rehearsals to West Virginia and Kentucky either, not to mention Oregon and Montana.

6. Superdelegates. If they're so eager to end the race, they can end the race. They haven't.

7. Unity. If Clinton campaigns appropriately, she can help Obama begin to help heal the party.

http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/05/reasons_why_clinton_should_sta.php

and own it. He has let her frame it for too long. She keeps repeating it like she is their champion. SHe agreed to the rules long before the first vote.

credit for her self-serving NEW position.

see it, both states will have to be penalized for what they did. An absolute in order to keep other states from doing it in the future. They will most likely do what the Republicans did, cutting their vote in half. Not sure what will be done with Michigan.

They've suffered from electile dysfunction before and no viagra was prescribed back then...

Right wang, left wang, flacid wang.

The Rules called for a minimum punishment of 50% of the delegates. I say hit them with the minimum.

However, given that the primary was illegitimate, the DNC must find some other means of selecting those delegates. Otherwise we end up with state control over the party (see: China).

The DNC should advertise across the state for anyone wanting an all expenses paid trip to Denver to represent the Florida Democratic party at the Democratic National Committee!

Oh, and no superdelegates from Florida and Michigan. Those bastards were right at the heart of this fuck-up.

live in states that effed up like that? They deserve everything they get for living there!!!!

I don't like it, but the GOP figured it out a decade ago. If you can change the electoral college, then the dynamics will change.

Meanwhile, a couple of big states (including Florida) will decide the Presidency of the United States.

Ask Karl Rove. I HATE him, but he's a genius.

If you loose closely divided big states, then Obama vs. Hillary is irrelevant. You get McCain, war in Iran, no health care, rich get richer, etc......

I'm voting for the Democrat no matter who it is, but you you can't ignore 2 million voters....

Anybody know how many of those she'll lose in the general election?

and a way to cover up the fact that Republicans are losing voters to Democrats WITHOUT Rush ever opening his mouth. That started BEFORE he did his Operation Chaos crap.

His obedient flock and Hannity's only know and do what they're told and far outnumber the ones with common sense and any fraction of decency.

besides, it keeps the Democrats up front and center with the media, giving little or no chance for McInsane to get any viable message out.

If you think Hillary is hard to fight, wait until she drops out (which she'll most likely do by the first week of June), wait until Obama is up against RNC's "Swiftboating" machine. Read the damn article!

why do you think only hillary supporters' votes matter? what about edwards and kucinich's and gravel's and biden's and richardson's supporters, who all RIGHTFULLY dropped out??? they dropped out, i moved on to the next best thing. now it's time for ALL of us to move on to fighting mccain- this has gone on WAY long enough.

i read the article. this is not about how "hard" she is to fight- it is exactly BECAUSE obama needs to fight the mccain swiftboating machine NOW instead of fighting hillary, but the longer she stays in, the harder that is going to be.

i haven't supported the DLC or hillary in about 5 years, at least not solidly- i was never opposed so much as i didn't find they/she matched my ideals, but had no problem with sharing parties with them- at one popint i would have even voted for her. now, it is beyond "done," it is beyond simply sharing the party and tolerating them and acknowledging that we are a party of broad ideas that i'm not always going to agree with- now i want nothing to do with them, NAMELY hillary clinton. if she dropped out today, it would be too late. last week, maybe, but no more. done. i am equally opposed to the GOP, the DLC, john mccain, and hillary clinton.

and don't give me any "shame on you, beezlebum obama supporter! shame on YOU for not supporting a fellow dem!" she is not my idea of a dem anymore, and she is certainly not my fellow ANYTHING.

will never vote for her. if she somehow gets the nom, i will change parties. the end.

everybody's alreadly done that math. Done deal. So you can stick around and suck it in until the fat lady sings.

That is how the Democratic party works, I know - been one for 40 years now.

she is HURTING the nominee's chances. he needs to start on mccain. if i were her supporter, i would IMPLORE her to drop out, lest she ruin the chance for dems.

and act as if he is the presumptive nominee which he more or less is already. And yes, I think that the Superdelegates will simply say to her that by the end of this month when most of the primaries are already over, "exit stage left"!

I don't believe that she's hurting his chances at all. By her being there, she's energized Obama supporters who are against her such that they have actually REGISTERED TO VOTE! Many for the first time in their lives.
Had she not been there, this might not have been such a huge race. We will need all those voters to still be geared up enough to vote in November.

are you an advocate of John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Biden, Kucinich, etc etc etc getting back into the race?

it's OVER

it's OVER

it's OVER

the needs of the party are greater than the needs of a single candidate and her supporters. you need to understand that hillary, by staying in the race (while having zero shot) is merely delaying the inevitable and destroying the party.

common courtesy dictated that edwards, huckabee, romney, richardson, etc etc all dropped out of the race when they realized that they had no chance to win. clinton's funding is done. she is running on empty, on fumes. she has no chance to win.

why extend this pain? to give you the chance to vote for her in a meaningless election?

you are being selfish, and do not appear to be incredibly educated on the facts. while we can all hope to participate in dazzlingly spectacular primaries, sometimes it's better to take the normal route and get on with life, stop being selfish, and think about things from multiple angles.

Hasn't it been obvious all along?

She didn't care when she agreed they wouldn't count. She didn't care when she stated publicly and signed a contract to that effect. SHe didn't care when she agreed NOT to campaign in those states. She also didn't care when she refused the idea of MI holding a "Firehouse Primary" >She sisn't want that solution, because it wouldn't have benefited her.

What started as a ploy to get the Nomination through sham Primaries has become her "wedge issue". She is trying to blame Obama for the states breaking the rules.

I know it is hard to understand this, but the math, the lack of funds are clear on this

IT IS OVER

and it is time for the candidate and the base to get it

She's selfish and egocentric - it's BEYOND time for the superdelegates to STOP THE BLEEDING! :(

McCain doesn't have to spend his money telling America how bad Obama is, she's spending millions of her own money doing that

campaign "appropriately" for him. She didn't do it for herself, why start now?

That's just plain stupid. I'm sure Obama would make it though just fine without Hillary's big heart.

"the Ask" is pretty dumb too. She doesn't deserve to be asked.

so I think Obama supporters should start to think with their minds, not with their overheated emotions. We must and I repeat, MUST be smarter than the Repugs.
The Hillary bashing is turning off a base without which he cannot win the GE!

she deserves to be asked that. How would she repair all the damage she's done?

sort of a "pre-vetting" and I think by the looks of the voting yesterday, it did nothing but strengthen him.

Those loans aren't going to pay themselves back.

And what makes anyone think she is going to start "campaigning appropriately" now? She already pushing the "whites won't vote for Obama" thing today. Is that helping the Party too?

Otherwise every day she is in the race is another day and another million dollars wasted fighting each other instead of fighting McCain. That trumps everything on your list.

that golden number.. The golden fleece, the big kahuna... Until then both have every right to campaign...

so she has to go by June

But I think it's reasonable to be skeptical whether she will be campaigning appropriately.

I hope so.

and yes, I hope so too. If not, all bets are off.

If she wants the voices to be heard, then but Obama's name on the ballot and have another primary/caucus.

:hide:

:D

Yes, because that's exactly what we need! To encourage as much as possible, in two swing states, the ridiculous perception that the candidate who is NOT the nominee is the only one who cares about getting their delegates seated. Let's play that up as much as we can!

It is already an absurd miscarriage of justice that Clinton is associated with wanting those delegates counted when the staff of her campaign was mostly responsible for the rules that disqualified them in the first place and Obama had nothing to do with it, but let's just see how much worse we can make it before the GE.



Another excellent argument. Now, with the sure and certain knowledge that the nominee will be Candidate A, let's make sure we delay as long as humanly possible before we let the entrenched supporters of candidate B finally get out of the mindset that 'A' is the opposition and get switched over into GE mode. We surely don't want that happening until the last possible moment. That'll do us wonders against McCain.



And if she stays in and wins those two states we'll suddenly be hearing "I've got momentum! Obama is tanking!!!!!". Nice try.

With the nomination decided the margins will collapse, and if Hillary does win they'll be news notes for a day, maybe two. But if that's such a deep concern in the Clinton campaign reasoning then Hillary could, oh... throw her support to Obama very publicly in advance of those contests and tell her supporters to go out and vote for him. Just a thought.

Point 4: VP... not happening. Its just not. Let it go.

Point 5: Yes, the party will unify. But it takes time and work. Wasted time and work when it could have been directed at hitting McCain. Let's waste as much as possible and unify at the last possible moment? Is that the argument here?

Point 6: Wait for it. It's coming.

Point 7: Yes, she can help Obama unify the party... by campaigning FOR him. Campaigning against him doesn't really lend itself to that goal and it's mystifying that you would present this as a reason to stay in.

too late to take it off now. Soooo, let them vote and since Obama has alot more momentum now, most likely, he's going to do just fine in these next primaries.

Point 6 is the one that I think will be the deciding factor and I expect that will come out very soon.

...and openly throws her support behind Obama in those states then it won't really matter if she's still on the ballot. In the meantim her supporters all over the rest of the country are being held back from re-unifying with the rest of the party who are on board with the nominee by now. they're being encouraged to hold onto the mindset that Obama is the opposition. The enemy. That needs to stop now.

But I agree point 6 will be what settles it, and I also agree that's coming soon. That and funding. She can only give herself so many multi million dollar loans that she's never going to be able to pay back and not many other people are going to be helping her out there after this.

:rofl:

she's gonna try to raise money to retire her loan to the campaign, then she's out.

who voted for her and want to see that their vote counted for something.
You can hate her all you want but over 12 million folks so far liked her enough to vote for her. Obama is far stronger for the fight.

Heh, if she pisses of Obama supporters enough, they'll fight even harder to get him elected. And trust me on this, WE will fight like hell to get a Democrat in there. If the supers didn't see some advantage to this race, they would have stopped it long ago. As it sits now, it's energizing Democrats like no other race in history. A woman, a black man - famous firsts. What dynamic energy - my God, it's a palpable thing and it's a myth perpetrated by the media that she's hurting him. Democrats have never gotten this much media coverage. Kerry barely got anything but a wink and a nod during '04.
From the looks of the registration numbers, nobody has hurt anything.
Our numbers are spooking the hell out of the Repukes!!!

extremely valid. The big job now is party unity.

IMO, anyway

1. Hillary
2. Hillary
3. Hillary
4. Hillary
5. Hillary
6. Hillary
7. Hillary
8. Hillary
9. Hillary
10. Hillary

She is unacceptable as the VP of this party. Her only option is unconditional surrender, or she be taken down with cold, hard votes. She's awash in a sea of debt, knee deep is the mediocrity she built.

Let her drown in the mess she made.

What makes you think she can "campaign appropriately"? She hasn't yet. She hasn't asked forgiveness for her horrible scorched earth campaign and even if she does, I say --------. But then why expect any more from her. She never asked forgiveness for supporting George Bush and his war.