As to Richardson’s timing … before Texas/Ohio he stated that it was getting to be time to declare a winner and move on to the general, that the ongoing process was going to hurt the eventual nominee’s chances and needed to end. He was, I am sure, expecting Obama to win the popular vote in Texas, and keep it close in Ohio. Hillary’s surprising performance there kept him out a bit longer. Now the race issue played to one his honestly held deep wishes for this country, and Florida/Michigan real votes seem out, making Hillary’s outside chance well nigh an impossibility. He sees that the fork is, as has been said, in. Hillary continuing will only hurt the Democratic party’s prospects, both for President and for Congressional seats. This is a point where his endorsement matters. It is time. So, in other words, mostly what BlueKangaroo said.
What major super will endorse who next and when?
I’m thinking Edwards pops next week. And then Gore starts visiting the Clintons to ask what she’d take to drop out, short of the VP spot.
I see Pelosi sticking with Obama - she clearly likes the man in her talks on CNN, ABC, and the like. Not sure if she’ll come out next week, but I’d expect it. I don’t know if Edwards will endorse anyone. If he does endorse someone and that someone turns out to be Obama, I think a lot of eyes will begin to turn towards Obama. I don’t know why he would support Hillary. I don’t know why ANY heavy hitting super would support someone who clearly needs a miracle to win.
Chris Wallace of Fox news [yes, I said fox news] stood up for Obama today on national television because he thought the early show fox commentators were bashing him unfairly. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard it.
It shows you this pastor experience was handled correctly, or at least the very best it could have been handled. Obama did a gret job and people recognize that.
The pastor story was over the minute Obama’s 3-18 speech ended. The story was only really resonating in the talkingheadosphere in the first place, and once he delivered that speech they seemed to move on to other things.
The fact that Obama’s national lead narrowed a little this week was a minor, barely-covered story. If they were still in backlash mode, they would have flogged it.
The Sunday shows will be about this: the 3-18 speech, Richardson’s endorsement, and the question of what it will take to end the Clinton campaign.
This race is over. I don’t understand why no one will tell Hillary. Maybe they’re afraid she’ll cry.
I agree that Gore is looking to play the elder statesman, which isn’t a bad thing in this situation, but I don’t think the idea of him asking Hillary to quit is laughable. I’ve always been curious what his relationship with the Clintons is like at this point; I had always felt it was probably very distant. I’ve read stories about him blowing up at Bill late in their term, either because he was disappointed in him personally or because he was upset that Clinton scandals were going to hurt his Presidential campaign. I got the impression there were also hurt feelings relating to Gore’s campaign, with the Clintons thinking he was stupid to leave exclude them and Gore thinking he’d been forced to do so. (His choice of Joe Lieberman, who was one of the first to condemn Bill over the Lewinsky thing, is instructive.) Does anyone know what things are supposed to be like between them today?
That’s true, but there are a fair number of voters who still haven’t weighed in, and perhaps more importantly there’s a lot of time left before this is supposed to be over. He’s winning, but hasn’t clearly won, even though the math does make it unlikely Clinton can catch him. If Pelosi called for an end to this now, it’d be somewhat hypocritical. If she waited until after Pennsylvania, North Carolina and a few other states, that would be different.
Not fooled by his name? Come on, homeboy went to Tufts and comes from old New Mexico ranch money IIRC. I don’t know how much pull with Hispanic voters he has outside of New Mexico.
I am glad that you are easily amused. Nevertheless such is the place that Gore has been positioning himself for. From a bit more than a month ago:
Pelosi has sort of already declared for Obama so would not be construed as neutral. Dean? I think not. Reid could maybe do it too, as he’s stayed neutral. But Gore has more gravitas right now. Clearly the agreement will be the price of her concession so the party can move on.
A quote from the article – (bolding mine)
The sources say Gore talks with both Clinton and Obama, and is on good terms with both. But with Sen. John Kerry and Bill Clinton both aligned to a candidate, Gore has a role to serve as the neutral elder statesman in the party.
Elder statesman, yes. neutral, yes.
Him setting up a meeting to tell the Clintons to quit, still funny.
The only people who Hillary will listen to are the super delegates. And my guess is that they’ll tell her to quit in June.
I could wish he’d done this sooner to cut into Hillary’s Hispanic support, but I’m happy he jumped on board. I was disappointed that he dropped out, but hopefully he can do more now for Obama.
I think the speech this week on race, while sending the right into a frenzy, effectively ended Clinton’s chances. The party honchos and the news media saw a guy who can not only take a punch, but can counterpunch. I’ve heard more talk about Clinton having to give up in the last few days than I’ve heard in the last month.
*One big fact has largely been lost in the recent coverage of the Democratic presidential race: Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning.
Her own campaign acknowledges there is no way that she will finish ahead in pledged delegates. That means the only way she wins is if Democratic superdelegates are ready to risk a backlash of historic proportions from the party’s most reliable constituency.
Unless Clinton is able to at least win the primary popular vote — which also would take nothing less than an electoral miracle — and use that achievement to pressure superdelegates, she has only one scenario for victory. An African-American opponent and his backers would be told that, even though he won the contest with voters, the prize is going to someone else.
People who think that scenario is even remotely likely are living on another planet.
As it happens, many people inside Clinton’s campaign live right here on Earth. One important Clinton adviser estimated to Politico privately that she has no more than a 10 percent chance of winning her race against Barack Obama, an appraisal that was echoed by other operatives.
In other words: The notion of the Democratic contest being a dramatic cliffhanger is a game of make-believe.*
Am I the only one keying in on the fact that Richardson said (my emphasis) “That’s typical of some of his advisers …”? Y’know Bill Clinton was a good President in his time. But the time is done.
Anyway it is hard to believe that Mark Penn fails to understand who the key voters are right now - the other supers. If Richardson wasn’t going to work on the other supers directly before, that disrespect from the Clinton camp, particularly after he went out of his way to not disrespect her (even threw her a prop or two) during his endorsement of Obama, will fire him up to do so.
kevja, and who do you see playing the role of “elder leader” trying to secure the terms of Hillary’s concession?
Hillary’s campaign has been from day one about disrespecting anyone in her way to the Presidency. In the beginning it was the disrespect of the entire field in general with her “Inevitability Meme.” Then she started with the dirty politics on Barack Obama early and often.
Remember the cocaine questions?
Remember the kindegarten essay?
Remember South Carolina?
After 8 years of being abused by this kind of crap from the Republicans she and she alone comes in and lowers the quality of the process, cheapens anything that doesn’t suit her, and makes up the rules as she goes. She stopped congratulating Barack on his wins.
She has no shame. Pure and simple. And once this is over she doesn’t deserve to have anything to do with Barack’s administration, nor will she be offered.
The Clintons have really done very little for their country that didn’t benefit themselves. Hillary now has to make the choice between herself and her country, and she’s showing just how rotten she is on the inside.
ETA: Hopefully this will be the last “fork” related thread we’ll need, but I fear it won’t.
No elder is going have to tell her anything. I think the supers are going to get together before the convention and vote. She’ll lose and be out.
Or she’ll do the math after ALL the primarys are finished, see the writing on the wall, and bow out on her own.
This idea of elders talking her down just doesn’t seem real. Her husband was a two term POTUS, for criss sake. Maybe she would listen to a personal friend or a campaign manager. But if i were HRC at this stage of the race, and Al Gore stopped by to talk me into quiting, he’d be shown the door very quickly.
