News

Hillary Clinton's Aides Prepare to Concede

Monday 02 June 2008

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by: Toby Harnden, The Telegraph UK

photo
Hillary Clinton's victory in Puerto Rico was overwhelming, but the turnout was much lower than expected.
(Photo: Getty images)

Senior advisers to Senator Hillary Clinton have prepared the ground for her to abandon her 2008 presidential ambitions within days and not dispute the Democratic nomination all the way to the party convention in August.

    Although she won by a wide margin over Barack Obama in yesterday's Puerto Rico primary - with 85 per cent of the vote in, she was leading by 36 percentage points - the former First Lady made no mention in her victory speech of taking her fight beyond this week.

    Instead, she made a final appeal to some 178 uncommitted "super-delegates" - party officials whose convention votes are not tied to the primaries - that she would be the stronger general election candidate against John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

    "The decision will fall on those leaders in our party empowered by the rules to vote in the Democratic convention," she said in San Juan. "I do not envy you the decision you must make." She needs some 90 per cent of the 178 to back her, which is almost certainly a vain hope.

    Mrs Clinton's Puerto Rico win was overwhelming but the turnout was much lower than expected, damaging her hopes of amassing a clear and potentially highly symbolic lead in the overall popular vote. She nevertheless stated that she was winning the popular vote - a dubious assertion that relies on some creative mathematics.

    Mr Obama is expected to be able to declare himself the party's candidate against John McCain as early as Tuesday, when South Dakota and Montana become the final states to hold their primaries or failing that within the 48 hours after.

    Just after the Montana polls close, Mr Obama, who could be accompanied by senior Democratic party figures, is to hold a huge rally in St Paul, Minnesota at the venue where John McCain is due to accept the Republican nomination in September.

    Mr Obama's aides were working furiously yesterday to amass the two dozen or so "super-delegates" - party officials whose convention votes are not tied to the primaries - he would need to ensure that the South Dakota and Montana results give him a majority.

    Terry McAuliffe, Mrs Clinton's campaign chairman, told ABC News: "We'll see where we are when we finish up Tuesday. Then super-delegates will begin to move. But we're going to make our argument right up until someone has that number."

    Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, said the nomination would be decided this week: "We don't want to go to the convention, have a big fight at the convention, and lose the presidency."

    A dispute over whether and how to seat delegates from Michigan and Florida was resolved on Saturday by giving each delegate only half a vote as a penalty for those states defying the party by holding early primaries.

    The Clinton camp was unhappy with the decision, which raised the number of delegates needed for victory from 2,025 to 2,118, but showed little appetite to challenge.

    According to the non-aligned RealClearPolitics website, Mr Obama has 2,051 delegates to Mrs Clinton's 1,876. There were 55 delegates at stake in Puerto Rico, which voted yesterday and 31 will be at stake in South Dakota and Montana.

    Mrs Clinton was expected to win in Puerto Rico while Mr Obama appears to have clear leads in the last two states. If the two candidates split the delegates, that would leave Mr Obama needing just 24 of the remaining 178 undecided super-delegates for outright victory.

    Even Harold Ickes, Mrs Clinton's fearsomely combative senior adviser, appeared to be close to conceding defeat.

    When asked on NBC television whether the former First Lady would congratulate Mr Obama on Tuesday, he responded: "We expect to get the nomination and we're making the case."

    Last week, Mrs Clinton said she expected undecided super-delegates to make up their mind quickly after Tuesday. Her rapidly fading hopes rested on her being able to persuade 90 per cent of them to overturn Mr Obama's delegate lead because of her contention that she would be the stronger candidate against Mr McCain.

    Mr Obama indicated on Saturday night that he thought Mrs Clinton, in consultation with her husband Bill, would concede this week so that the party could unite against Mr McCain.

    "I think that Senator Clinton and former President Clinton love this country," he said.

    "They love the Democratic Party. I think they deeply believe that Democrats need to win in November. And so I trust that they're going to do the right thing."

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Comments

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I notice that Hillary

Tue, 06/03/2008 - 22:31 — Anonymous (not verified)
I notice that Hillary opponents here can't even spell her name correctly. I guess they're lucky that O-Ba-Ma is phonetic. One other correction - Hillary has the popular vote WITHOUT Michigan, but since we democrats have a nice, eight year-long history of giving the election to the presidential candidate with the FEWEST votes, why stop now? Let's select a man with light qualifications to go up against one of the MOST qualified republican presidential candidates ever, John McCain. That sound smart. It is too bad that people can't see that this entire Obama win was engineered by the Rove types from the very beginning. Did you all know that it was the republican state congresses in Michigan and Florida that got the state primaries disqualified by moving up the votes? Now why would they want to do that? Maybe, just maybe, Obama is the one they want to run against. FOX News sure hates Hillary and almost leaves Obama out completely. Why? Because FOX is pulling for Obama - Rupert even endorsed him! Why? Cause Obama is owned by the Chicago mafia and he is going to embarrass our party in the final elections. Don't say I didn't tell you so!

Why isn't my awesome post

Tue, 06/03/2008 - 03:16 — Anonymous (not verified)
Why isn't my awesome post there yet??? Oh well, in summary then: longtimedemocrat has less of a valid point than he thinks. The projected results now will mean nothing in the five months between now and the general election. A lot will happen. Also, what I get from those stats is only how much more unwilling Hillary supporters are to back Obama than Obama supporters are to back Hillary. In my country, we call that arrogance and bad sportsmanship.

Hey all you Hillary

Tue, 06/03/2008 - 03:08 — Joke-finder (not verified)
Hey all you Hillary supporters who believe one of the following: 1) Hillary has more of the popular vote 2) Hillary has been treated more unfairly than Obama. For one thing, Hillary's math includes her "win" in Michigan, where Obama wasn't even on the ballot, and includes a number of dubious calculations. And second, Hillary's last name is Clinton and she's white. Obama is black and previously unknown. And there must be many more racists in America than anti-feminists, or else the KKK would have been after women for all those years. Oh yeah, and by the way: Projected results in JUNE tell basically NOTHING as to what will happen in the fall. NOTHING. Things can, and will, CHANGE in FIVE MONTHS. As long as it's a democrat, he (or, to be fair I suppose, she) will receive millions upon millions of democratic votes because he (or she) will use the next five LONG MONTHS to prove his (or her) supremacy over John McCain as the better candidate. Just to drive the point home: Projected stats in May or June have been shown to have little to no standing when November rolls around. That means that, while Obama may appear the weaker candidate now, time may very well prove them wrong. To me, it only demonstrates how much more unwilling Hillary supporters are to switch to a hypothetical nominee Obama, than vice versa. And that's sad, not to mention unfair.

Bought time Hillary should

Tue, 06/03/2008 - 00:03 — Anonymous (not verified)
Bought time Hillary should quit. She couldn't even win when she was the 'inevitable frontrunner' and now she wants us to believe she is better prepared to run against McCain in the fall? What a load of bile.

A primary election and the

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 23:10 — Anonymous (not verified)
A primary election and the general election cannot be compared state by state. They are entirely different animals. It is most likely that the large states that voted for Clinton or Obama and lean Democratic would vote for either Democratic candidate in November. Furthermore, if we are to continue to use the "large state" argument ( as if Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut, Mississippi, Georgia, etc., are not large states), Obama is polling quite a few points ahead of Clinton in a match-up with McCain, in California, though both candidates beat McCain there, as they both do in New York. This is a bogus argument advanced by Clinton supporters to point to her "electability". Meanwhile, in Bill Schneider's "poll of polls" today (Monday the 2nd), Both Obama and Clinton poll exactly the same against McCain, 47% to 44% in favor of the Democrat. All arguments based on "electability" in the general election are specious. And who cares if Clinton is "electable" if she's not worth electing?

Hilary and President Bush

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 22:57 — Marilyn Dell Brady (not verified)
Hilary and President Bush share one quality. Both are able to create a bubble around them and avoid reality. Bush can say we are winning in Iraq, while Hilary claims she can still win the Democratic nomination. Another reason for Obama NOT to choose her as vice-presidential candidate.

Presidents Clintons 11th

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 22:29 — Anonymous (not verified)
Presidents Clintons 11th hour pardon of the Puerto Rican terrorist who killed many innocents in NYC obviously paid off.I'm sure Hillery get it,even if voters and supporters don't.

This American female who is

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 22:26 — Paz Love (not verified)
This American female who is of the same generation as Ms Clinton will NOT be voting for her and I have great trouble understanding how any decent Peace loving person could even consider casting a vote for her. That being said, Obama isn't much better. McCain is downright scary and certainly is NOT presidential material. How have we allowed ourselves to again be manipulated into being asked to vote for the lesser of two evils? I guess that so long as watching American Idol, CSI and other idiocy is more important than reading and watching things upon which our very lives depend we will have "elections" like we'll have this November...at least until martial law is declared and elections are ended.

to Longtimedemocrat....the

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 22:08 — Anonymous (not verified)
to Longtimedemocrat....the backlash against the DNC is exactly what I would expect from triangulating DLC'ers

Why no mention in Truthout

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 21:40 — Anonymous (not verified)
Why no mention in Truthout of Clinton's big 68% win in Puerto Rico? How is that supposed to make the 400,00 Puerto Rican voters feel? Truthout's unabashed bias for Obama has been blatantly obvious, just like the rest of the media pack. But to not even mention Puerto Rico's preference in light of the fact that they don't get to have a say in the general election is simply inexcusable. Sexism is undoubtedly rampant, but Classism is beyond belief in the supposedly educated Obama camp. It is so unchecked that it's bound to rear it's ugly head in the general election. How exaclty does Puerto Rico play into the media's analysis of the white/black vote? Is that why it's going unreported? The media refuses to adress the problem of Class in this election. But, unfortuneatley, the voters will speak to it in November. Hillary's the only one who really gets it.

From the Clinton campaign

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 20:51 — Anonymous (not verified)
From the Clinton campaign e-mail this morning. This doesn't sound like she's leaving the race: Tomorrow is the very last day Americans will have the chance to vote in this hard-fought and historic race for the Democratic nomination. Every vote we receive in South Dakota and Montana will help us add to our popular vote total. Every vote helps us make our case that I am our party's strongest candidate in November. Nearly 18 million people have stood with us -- the most votes cast for a candidate in the history of presidential primaries in either party. We've defied the skeptics and answered an important question: Which candidate best represents the will of the people?

Think TRUTHOUT, like so many

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 20:45 — Anonymous (not verified)
Think TRUTHOUT, like so many of the MSM, and used to be "liberal" websites is definitely jumping the gun. A report read this morning at CNN and FOX say that the Hillary Clinton campaign has issued a statement that Mrs. Clinton has vowed that she is not quitting, and plans to stay on and fight. I hope she does. She is far the better candidate and has a much better chance of defeating McCain than Obama ever had, even before the Rev Wright, the Ayers, the Resko, the Father Pfleger questions about his association and long-term relationships with the Hate/Dam/blow up America persons. Maybe I feel this way because I'm just one of those bitter Americans clinging to my guns and religion.

It is not over yet even

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 20:43 — Radline9 (not verified)
It is not over yet even though it looks that way. I feel Hillary has been treated totally unfairly from the beginning, and her supporters did not listen to the infotainment news hype always with a disparaging word, always choosing second place for her even while it was really a dead heat, and there were those who were anti feminist, and democrats picked up republican ideas about why we should hate and be bitter about this woman who has done nothing but work hard and fight for America. The democratic national comittee screwed up Florida and Michigan for her and I am totally unhappy about that. Will Florida's vote ever count? This is not the end for Hillary, she will continue to be an important democratic leader well into the future.

She deals from the bottom of

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 20:40 — Anonymous (not verified)
She deals from the bottom of the deck. She loses the hand She fumbles with her cards and accuses every one else of cheating. She tries to walk out with the pot. DUH. She is obviously a sociopath and a Republican.

No doubt longtimedemocrat

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 20:32 — OKBob (not verified)
No doubt longtimedemocrat has a valid point- however, I doubt that the voters who turned out for Hillary in the primaries (or currently indicate their preference for her in polls) will turn out for either Democrat in the fall. Leaving aside the "Limbaugh effect," those who are uncomfortable voting for a Black man are also uncomfortable voting for a woman. Perhaps the race discomfort outweighed gender discomfort in the spring. However, in the fall they'll have a white male to vote for. So they're lost to the Democrats no matter which of the 2 candidates is nominated. Personally I say good riddance. It's time to build a new coalition and a new majority, which will vote on the basis of patriotism, not prejudice.

Since the redesign it tajes

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 20:25 — Anonymous (not verified)
Since the redesign it tajes forever to load on a blackberry Please fix

looks good

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 19:45 — dennis Eberl (not verified)
looks good

If democrat superdelegates

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 19:43 — longtimedemocrat (not verified)
If democrat superdelegates cared about winning in the fall, they'd be looking at the state by state polling data and the projected electoral college vote -- that's what will determine who wins in the fall. This difference suggests a large margin for a win for Clinton (projected based on that data from (electoral-vote.com) at 327 to 194 while for Obama it's 276 to 238. It takes 270 to win and Obama's 276 total includes 25 EV from two states he "wins" with less than 5% of a difference with McCain-- in short, the likelihood that Obama will win in the fall is -- at least at present --much less and much more iffy than it is for Clinton. This reflects where disproportionately more of Obama's delegates come from (e.g., very red states). I hope superdelegates are paying attention to this. If we lose the general because we put forward the candidate that was less able to win..I'll predict now that this could cause a huge backlash against the DNC and the powers that be that go with Obama now.

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