By Robert Schlesinger
Josh Marshall makes a good argument in favor of Hillary Clinton not dropping out of the race just yet:
One concrete reason is that among the three contests to come over the next two weeks — West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon — two are among the best for Hillary in the country. So having him become presumptive nominee just before losing the West Virginia primary doesn’t necessarily allow him to hit the ground running. And as Obama’s speech last night signaled, his campaign seems intent on giving Clinton the space to make the decision on her own. The eventual nomination he has in hand; what he’s got to work on is deescalating the tension between himself and Clinton’s supporters. That’s the necessary prelude to building the party unity he needs to win in November.
I’ll add another one. Hillary’s got a hard core set of supporters (and no, I don’t mean the blue collar workers who were wowed by her ability to handle a toot of Crown Royal) and they need her to finish what she started. If “party leaders” come together now and give her the “it’s over, time for unity” speech, there’s a real danger that her Hilllaryites will conclude that she’s being muscled out by the old boys network. (Never mind that the only time blacks got anywhere near the old boys network it was as waiters serving drinks in a smoke-filled back room.)
Hillary’s supporters need time to accept the inevitable. (And in the mean time, someone should tie up the Joker Terry McAuliffe and prevent him from going on TV any more to proclaim that she’s on the verge of victory.)
2 Comments
May 8, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Here is the problem with your theory. Hardcore supporters, donors, volunteers of Hillary Clinton will NEVER vote or support Barack Obama. Why? No one knows anything about his voting records in the state senate. He has lied repeatedly about his past affiliations with pastors, criminals, mobsters etc… and he has not even served his first two years in the US Senate with honor or dedication. He has the worst attendance/voting record in the Senate. Therefore, when Bill Clinton vaguely conjured up the scenario of an Obama pipedream, he wasn’t kidding and its high time someone gave the young Senator and his supporters a wake up call. BTW, we do not take kindly to Obama giving the finger to our candidate on the air or dusting off the dandruff from his shoulder implying that Clinton is dirt. He is highly disrespectful and will never get our vote. His supporters tried to steal the primary in Lake County by deliberately holding up the electronic ballots disclosure and the Mayor of Gary is a crook who aided and abetted this disgrace. THAT IS WHY WE DO NOT EVER WANT OBAMA IN OFFICE! Do you finally get the picture? Good!
May 10, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I have to admit, I’ve never understood this point of ?view. Are you saying that you’d throw away your vote if Clinton doesn’t get the nomination? Write in “Bill & Opus 2008?” Vote for McCain instead?