Is Senator Clinton about to lose the nomination due to her campaign’s incompetence, reliance on the same-old, same-old shameless populism, and her willingness to go negative? Joe Klein of Time magazine thinks so.
Is Senator Clinton staying in the race, hopeless as it seems for her, in order to get the vice presidential post? George Stephanopoulos of ABC News thinks so.
Will Senator Obama claim after May 20 that he has a majority of committed delegates (not including Florida and Michigan); or, will the Democratic National Committee’s rules committee meeting May 31 produce a compromise that gives Florida and Michigan some representation but leaves Obama well positioned to claim a majority of delegates; or, will Senator Obama after the June 3 primary, announce a cascade of 20 to 40 superdelegates, which puts him over the top without identifying any single superdelegate as having made the decision? Michael Barone of U.S. News thinks these are plausible scenarios.
Here’s how it stacks up as of today:
| Senator Obama | Senator Clinton | |
| Pledged Delegates | 1589 | 1424 |
| Super Delegates | 261 | 272 |
| Total Delegates | 1850 | 1696 |
| Popular Vote | 49.6% | 47.3% |
| Pop Vote w/Florida | 48.7% | 47.5% |
She faces an impossible task now, and should save her money and go to Bermuda for a couple of weeks. Maybe she could get a gig in the Corona beer commercial with Bill, where the couple lie on the beach, sipping beer while the waves crash ashore.
I think she did a good job, but it’s time for a reality check for her campaign. However, having said that, I think she should stay in until the West Virginia and Kentucky primaries are finished. She is heavily favored to win these primaries and if she withdraws from the campaign now, she is likely to nonetheless win these states. She is on the ballots there and can’t be removed. This would be an embarrassment to Senator Obama.
Most pundits are thinking the Clinton and Obama campaigns will abide by a sort of ‘nuclear non-proliferation’ agreement from now on. In other words, she will agree to stop slinging the mud at Senator Obama and he will likewise cease any negative comments toward her campaign. I think this is probably correct. Her attacks on him have not worked and generally help the McCain campaign more than anything at this juncture.
Will she be asked to be Vice-President? She brings all the demographics that would greatly enhance Senator Obama’s campaign against Senator McCain. I think she will be asked to join the ticket. What’s passed is past, and it was just politics anyway. I have to say, I might have some hard feelings about it if I were in his shoes but that’s why he is where he is at and why I am where I am at. He can get over it.
Which is why I think he would be a good President.
Also, I thought his stand on the gas tax issue summed up his character. The proposal to cut the gas tax for the summer probably wouldn’t have passed until summer was well over, and it was what it was thought to be by most everyone. Pandering. He stood at variance with Senator Clinton and Senator McCain, which took some courage to do.
May 9, 2008 at 3:11 pm
As a Hillary supporter I now accept that she’s almost certainly out of the race. However, it really annoys me when the media make it look like Hillary is doing awfully – c’mon, as you’re table shows, she’s only 2.3% behind Obama in the popular vote. She’s done amazingly well to get this far despite all the heavy anti-Clinton pro-Obama media hype, and the predictions before every single vote that this will be the last primary of her campaign.
Six months ago I’d never have considered voting anything but Democrat, but if Obama becomes the democratic nominee I’m almost certainly going to switch over to McCain. Obama’s good at fancy speeches but not much else.
Go Hillary!
(By the way, interesting post Bill!
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May 9, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Hi Richard. You’re right, the media jumps onto anything they think will attract people’s attention. I’ve always felt I could vote for Edwards, Obama or Clinton, while my preference is Obama; if he doesn’t win, I still want a party other than the one in office to hold the Presidency. McCain is probably more of a pragmatist than an ideologue, so he is one of the better Republican candidates. It wouldn’t be a disaster for me if he won, but rather a big disappointment.
Due to the closeness of the contest, I feel it would be good to have Clinton & Obama on the same ticket, perhaps creating some synergies there.
I think Clinton’s mistake was not particpating in the caucuses allowing Obama to get delegates which allowed him to lose a few primaries later on, like Pennsylvania, and not be hurt too much. She however had to win just about everything to catch up, and ran out of time, and money it seems.
The next phase should be interesting as well.