Hillary Clinton
The Associated Press

In it to win it ... still.

Featured Topic | Posted 1 year 8 weeks ago

Obama looks like the nominee. So why won't Hillary Clinton quit?

They started writing Hillary Clinton's political obituary after the Iowa caucuses. Then she won New Hampshire. They tried again after Super Tuesday. And still she fought on. Now Clinton has failed to score any kind of knockout blow against Barack Obama in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries. Once again, the pundits are saying its over. Even George McGovern is saying she should drop out -- and George McGovern knows from losing. Clinton has even been forced to loan millions of dollars to her own campaign just to stay afloat. Still: There's no sign of quit.

Should Hillary Clinton drop out of the Democratic race? Why is she staying in?

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Ben likes: The nominee?

Jonathan V. Last/The Weekly Standard

The general consensus seems to be that last night's results settled the Democratic nomination fight. But I'm not exactly sure why that is.

For months now--since South Carolina--it has been pretty obvious which states Obama would win and which Clinton would carry. It seemed clear all along that Obama would win North Carolina comfortably and that Clinton would take Indiana by a close margin. And that's what happened yesterday. So why all the talk about how the race is finished now? Look: If you believed that the nomination fight was signed, sealed, and delivered before yesterday, that's a perfectly reasonable position and the results only confirm your theory. After all, because of the way Democrats apportion delegates, the pledged delegate lead has been out of Clinton's reach since early February--something everyone watching the campaign has long understood. But if you thought that Clinton had a small, but viable, chance to sway superdelegates at the convention by making the case of a popular vote victory, then I'm not sure how last night changed anything.

In other words, it's not clear how yesterday changes anything. The candidates performed roughly to expectations and the next three weeks are going to be a gauntlet for Obama as he gets clobbered in one place after another--all while being touted as "The Nominee." What has been Clinton's gambit since February--her attempt to be leading at least two of the popular vote counts by the time of the convention--will finally be given the chance to mature as she has a string of contests with very favorable demographics. It seems to me that there's no reason for her to quit now and every reason for her to stay in the race. And that this gambit has as much chance of succeeding today as it did on Monday.

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Joel likes: The irony of the end

Kyle E. Moore/Comments from Left Field

At this point, Hillary Clinton's arguments have all been shot down. Florida and Michigan will no longer save her, she has no hope of winning the pledged delegate lead, and she has no hope of winning the popular vote. By contrast, Obama has proven that even when his campaign is getting kicked around and beaten with baseball bats, he can still perform, and he can still come up with a meaningful as opposed to a symbolic win.

There is a way for her to remain in the race, and not do herself, her party, and the eventual nominee harm, and that would be to go 100% against McCain. Stay in the race, ignore Obama, and let's have  instead of a two on one gang up on Obama, a two on one gang up on McCain. Under these conditions, I would be more than happy for Mrs. Clinton to remain in the race, it would give the voters in the remaining states a sense that they are contributing, and hopefully create more excitement for the eventual nominee, and it would double the intensity of attacks on McCain, and hopefully, for the first time since McCain looked to be a doomed candidate late last year, actually force the media to put him in the hotseat.

But barring that, the race is over.

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