Patterico's Pontifications

3/4/2008

Question: Will Hillary Drop Out Tomorrow?

Filed under: 2008 Election — Patterico @ 7:19 am



Answer: not a chance.

11 Responses to “Question: Will Hillary Drop Out Tomorrow?”

  1. Agree!!

    Sue (ce8508)

  2. Double agree. Remember the impeachment? The Billary motto is “no retreat, no surrender”. Sigh. If only Hillary would use her cast-iron balls “for goodness instead of badness”. (“Get Smart” allusion there for the young’uns.)

    nk (7b0075)

  3. It’s my impression that the lovely Mrs Clinton has already determined that if she can’t win the presidency, then no Democrat can.

    Dana (3e4784)

  4. Not sure what you are suggesting. Are you saying there is not a chance that Hillary will lose both OH and TX, or just that there’s not a chance that she will take the advice of 51% of her fellow Democrats if she does?

    Xrlq (b71926)

  5. I think Hillary’s staffers refer to this course of action as “The Huckabee Option”.

    voiceofreason2 (590c85)

  6. I agree with VOR2, only at least Huckabee realizes his actions won’t win him the nomination. I don’t think Hillary has reached that point.

    DRJ (d8934e)

  7. Not sure what you are suggesting. Are you saying there is not a chance that Hillary will lose both OH and TX, or just that there’s not a chance that she will take the advice of 51% of her fellow Democrats if she does?

    Hillary has no fellow anything, she has obedient peons and enemies. It’s all merely a matter of degrees.

    Taltos (4dc0e8)

  8. “I don’t think Hillary has reached that point.”

    I don’t she will, either. If she loses, she will demand an immediate recount. Perhaps the only thing that might prevent her from acting in a most unbecoming fashion will be thoughts of 2012…

    Dana (b4a26c)

  9. Actually, I think the Clinton campaign has been on a “Win with the Superdelegates” strategy for some time and, therefore, will not concede soon unless the TX and OH votes are blowouts for Obama, which is unlikely.

    Consider what we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks (a few examples among many):

    The “Obama in Muslin garb” photo leak (I believe Matt Drudge that it came from a Clinton staffer, but in a way that was, of course, deniable); and note Hillary’s recent comment that Obama is not a Muslim, “as far as she knows.”

    IMO this photo leak is part of a focused effort by the Clinton campaign to drive down Obama’s national poll numbers against McCain, which have been consistently better than hers. The photo makes no difference to Democrats. It may make a difference, however, to Republicans and many Independents, so it can affect the poll numbers for the national match-up v. McCain in the fall – the question of which Democratic candidate is more electable.

    Combine this with:

    – Her continued refusal to agree that the superdelegates should follow the will of the people (most recently in the Texas debate where she blew off a direct question on this);

    – Continued criticism of the caucuses as less worthy;

    – Her campaign’s creation of a website just for her supporters to make it easy for them to contact their local superdelegates directly and urge them to vote for Hillary as the most qualified candidate;

    – A recent Op-Ed in the NY Times by her supporter, Gerry Ferraro, making a vigorous defense of the independent role of the superdelegates;

    – Another by ex-So Carolina Democratic Governor Jim Hunt, also a Clintonista, to the same effect in WaPo; and

    – The following comments in a HuffPo blog a few days ago by ex-Special Counsel to President Bill Clinton, Lanny Davis:

    Recent Polling Data Shows Serious Concerns About Senator Obama’s “Electability” Over Senator McCain vs. Senator Clinton’s. … Clinton is less vulnerable to the Republican attack machine. She will defeat John McCain. I worry that Senator Obama may not.

    Add that all up and what you get is the Clinton game plan for victory now: Forget the popular vote, forget the delegate count; the superdelegates should coronate Hillary as the most electable candidate.

    We’ll know more tomorrow, of course, but history and what the campaign has been saying and doing recently don’t lead to the conclusion that she has any intention of retiring gracefully.

    JayHub (2afe1a)

  10. That certainly may be true, JayHub. I think Clinton is also positioning herself for 2012, assuming she isn’t the nominee this time and Obama loses in the general election.

    DRJ (d8934e)

  11. any intention of retiring gracefully

    Of all the words which might apply to anything the Clintons do, graceful is about the last one I would ever think of.

    kishnevi (8731ef)


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