05/22/2008
Fighting On...
Whether you agree with her strategy or not, bewilderment at Clinton's continuing "crusade" to win the Democratic nomination is the consensus among most media at the moment, and pretty accurately reflected in this "flesh wound" clip which has begun going viral.
Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...
Clinton's Last Crusade: 'Count Our Votes' [newsweek]
Clinton Goes On and On and On... [afp]
Clinton campaigns as attention wanders elsewhere [reuters]
Clinton Still in the Game, but Wants Rules Changed [abc news]
Opposition Grows To Clinton's Delegate Cause Celebre [huffington post]
Reuters FACTBOX offers up a few reasons why Hillary Clinton might still be running.
Posted 9:23 AM EST by Andy Towle in Barack Obama, Election 2008, Hillary Clinton, News | Permalink
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Wow...the Obama supporters are doing a great job trying to unite the party and welcome in the Clinton supporters.
Posted by: Mike | May 22, 2008 10:35:22 AM
Andy...so is this a video of Obama and his supporters?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_l5ntikaU
Posted by: Mike | May 22, 2008 10:41:59 AM
I LOVE IT!!!!!
NI! NI! NI!
Posted by: Rad | May 22, 2008 11:00:00 AM
22,000 hits is now considered going viral? Or is that just how sites cover themselves by not wanting to appear like they are piling on?
Posted by: Viral? | May 22, 2008 11:04:38 AM
"Wow...the Obama supporters are doing a great job trying to unite the party and welcome in the Clinton supporters."
Or could it be that everyone is getting annoyed that Clinton is still in the race? Where is her honor, and desire to support the Democratic Party?
Posted by: Luke | May 22, 2008 11:12:39 AM
I'm sorry, but that Reuters article left off the most likely reason she's still in the race, which is that she and her husband are completely obsessed with power and will do anything to keep it, including:
1) Making promises not to campaign in FL and MI and then turning around and demanding their delegates be sat,
2) Repeatedly injecting race into the campaign by talking about "hard-working, white voters,"
and
3) Saying that McCain would be more fit to lead than Obama on day one.
That's why she'll keep going, and that's why she'll try anything to take the nomination from Obama at the convention.
Sorry if this irritates the Clinton holdouts here, but it's the truth.
Posted by: Morgan | May 22, 2008 11:19:46 AM
She has psychological issues. I am not trying to say that in a mean and demeaning way, but I think she really does have lost her grip on reality.
Yesterday, she was even trying to compare the campaign to that of Zimbabwe. It is beyond the pale to try and claim that her supporters are being murdered in the streets and dying for democracy, as people are in Zimbabwe.
I am extremely dissappointed in her supporters too. The fact that everyone needs to treat her with kid gloves. Watching her is like watching Blanche DuBois at the end of Streetcar.
Posted by: Jack | May 22, 2008 11:25:49 AM
This is a mean-spirited, violent, misogynistic, unfunny video.
Posted by: Alec Sarkas | May 22, 2008 11:42:24 AM
Again - impugning Hillary's "honor" because she chooses to continue her campaign is ridiculous - and precisely the kind of approach that is going to keep the party divided. People seem to dismiss her support as vapid and "uneducated" - but the fact is her supporters are just as passionate as Obama's - and should be treated with the same respect.
Its odd that no one is calling Ted Kennedy a power hungry and dishonorable man for taking his campaign to the convention against Carter when he had far FEWER delegates than Hillary has now.
The simple fact is that NO Democratic candidate in history who has the number of delegates Hillary has now, has NOT taken their fight to the convention.
People seem to think a convention fight is bad - and blame HRC for it. What about the DNC rules committee who helped make this mess by penalizing MI & FL so severely? If it goes to Denver so be it. If Obama is as strong a candidate as we're told, then it shouldn't be a problem.
(fact is (when looking at a traditional electoral map) - and people are realizing this - he ISN'T the stronger general election candidate)
If you want Hillary out of the race then BEAT her by getting the number of delegates needed to win (either 2026 - or some other number that accounts for a FAIR resolution of MI & FL). Any call for her to exit otherwise, is simply absurd.
And if you can't beat her under those circumstances - then the better complaint isn't "Hillary is a power hungry, race baiting politician" - but simply "Obama can't close the deal. Why?"
Posted by: AERES | May 22, 2008 11:48:30 AM
I voted for Hillary on Super Tuesday.
And I've resisted the temptation to call on her to withdraw while there was still a chance she'd win legitimately. But come on, North Carolina was really Hillary's final shot at a genuine upset. And she simply didn't win.
It'll end up being 2,100 Obama and 1,900 Hillary on the convention floor. I know that is very, very close. But the fact remains... 2,100 is larger than 1,900.
So, at this point, I think she needs to step aside and let the party's nominee -- Barack Obama -- take the fight to McCain (who has been getting a free pass for way too long).
Posted by: John | May 22, 2008 11:57:06 AM
I agree that we shouldn't alienate Clinton supporters, because I think most of them are interested in the good of the country and the Democratic Party and have far better motivations that Clinton herself or her closest advisors, including Bill. But at this point her campaign needs to end or be stopped in no uncertain terms because it basically has been reduced to trying to communicate the notion that a combination of sexism and party insiders have stolen the nomination that rightfully should be hers. And what this does is all but declare that Obama will be an illegitimate nominee, which is in no one's interest except McCain's. It is one thing to let her supporters have their day at the polls. It is another to allow her continual, self-serving changes of the rules of the game to go unchallenged.
Her campaign signed off back in December to on the sanction MI and FL for holding early primaries. Her campaign is now determining which votes should count and which shouldn't to make BS statements that she is ahead in the popular vote. And it is her campaign that has changed her tune about whether it is the popular vote or the delegates count. When she was way ahead in superdelegates and further behind in the vote, her campaign was telling her it was the delegates that count. Now that she has fallen behind in the superdelegate count and has won the popular vote in a few primaries, she is going on and on about the need to count all the popular votes (but not those in caucus states), including MI where only she appeared on the ballot. And now she is comparing her not getting her way with MI and FL delegates to the violent suppression of political dissent by a longstanding dictator in Zimbabwe? This is totally offensive.
I wish large numbers of delegates and superdelegates, whether previously uncommitted or committed to Clinton herself, would abandon her because of her self-serving destructiveness (to the Democratic Party), and to explain publicly to Clinton supporters why they are doing so. She should not get any more power than she deserves, which as far as I'm concerned is none.
Posted by: Michael J | May 22, 2008 12:06:46 PM
"This is a mean-spirited, violent, misogynistic, unfunny video" - It's Monty Python. Perhaps you should stay in the cave you've been inhabiting for the last 30 years.
Posted by: D.R.H. | May 22, 2008 12:09:28 PM
Let's face it, the media has been calling Obama the nominee for weeks and weeks now. No presumptive nominee for the presidency should be losing primaries by 30 to 40 points. It's embarrassing and doesn't bode well for his candidacy. That said, I will vote for him over McCain.
Posted by: jmg | May 22, 2008 12:21:49 PM
Monty Python rules, and that's coming from a Hillary supporter. I'd comment on the ridiculously tired "she's a power-hungry race baiter" BS posted by Morgan here and others previously, but what's the point. Barack Dukakis will be the nominee. Good luck with that in the fall.
But seriously, if the Democratic Party can't survive it's own convention, does it really deserve to survive?
Posted by: Marco | May 22, 2008 12:24:56 PM
Excellent comment Michael J!
Posted by: AdamN | May 22, 2008 12:43:17 PM
Give me Barack any day over wooden and inept Hillary... The second coming of Mondale would have lost this election by 10% or greater.
Posted by: Kyle | May 22, 2008 12:53:55 PM
The guy in the clip playing King Arthur (in white) was Graham Chapman, the first person I ever saw talking about being gay on TV in the 1970s, at a time when the subject was rarely discussed in public. Always been a hero of mine for that. He was one of the founders of the UK's Gay News as well as being a fantastic comedian.
Posted by: John C | May 22, 2008 1:04:34 PM
JMG nailed it: If Obama is the presumptive (and self-annointed)nominee, why is he losing primaries at all? Edwards, Huckabee, et al got out because they were no longer winning any primaries. Hillary still is. It's going to the convention- and thats a good thing. This is the real American Idol (but with less voters)- if pundits pontificated about AI, they would have been calling for David Cook to drop out, that David Archuleta was the presumptive winner all season. We now know how that turned out.
Posted by: dc8stretch | May 22, 2008 1:08:03 PM
Stupid video.
She can run as long as she wants...I believe Obama's sink will be sinking soon...and luckily Hill will be there to save face...
For the good of the party let's PRAY Obama is not the nominee because if he is..we can start calling McCain Mr. President VERY soon. I don't want to hear poll numbers either because we all know polls don't mean a thing.
Leave it to the Democrats to screw ourselves out of the White House by nominating someone who can't win..McCain is a war hero...you think Obama can beat him? Not likely...great job Dems...
Posted by: daveynyc | May 22, 2008 1:08:53 PM
>2) Repeatedly injecting race into the >campaign by talking about "hard-working, >white voters,"
By implication, she is saying black voters are not "hard working". This is 1950s racist tripe. Why isn't the MSM pointing this out ? Why are they giving her a free ride ?
Whether she thinks this way or not, she is allowing her campaign to use such language.
Posted by: Alex | May 22, 2008 1:31:37 PM
>2) Repeatedly injecting race into the >campaign by talking about "hard-working, >white voters,"
By implication, she is saying black voters are not "hard working". This is 1950s racist tripe. Why isn't the MSM pointing this out ? Why are they giving her a free ride ?
Whether she thinks this way or not, she is allowing her campaign to use such language.
Posted by: Alex | May 22, 2008 1:31:55 PM
If the demographics cleary show (as proven by exit poll after exit poll) that "blue collar" (i.e. low income) caucasians are voting for HRC, and that "blue collar" (i.e. low income) african americans are voting for BHO, how is it racist (or race baiting) for someone (candidate or pundit alike) to state that fact publicly?
Sure - its probably not politically smart to say it - but its certainly NOT rascist or race baiting to state a fact.
Why can pundits say "blacks are voting for BHO in overwhelming numbers", but then they can't say "low income whites are voting for HRC in overwhelming numbers" without being called rascist or engaging in race baiting?
Im so sick of people saying race has been "injected" into this campaign by this candidate or that candidate. The simple fact is race was always INHERENTLY part of the dialogue the moment an African American declared his candidacy (just like gender was when a woman declared her candidacy). Stop blaming people and just realize what the reality is.
Posted by: AERES | May 22, 2008 1:56:04 PM
Michael J. is Michael Jensen, editor of AfterElton.com. They've had a huge anti-Sen. Clinton agenda since last November.
Posted by: Mike | May 22, 2008 2:08:05 PM
Maybe reverse psychology will work... Everyone should encourage her to keep going and she'll say "No-one's going to tell ME what to do!!" and quit.
Posted by: anon | May 22, 2008 2:38:32 PM
AERES
Please explain Obama taking the majority of lower income whites in Oregon, VT, etc
It isn't race
It is APPALACHIA
The irony being that 37% of low income white registered DEMS in the appalachia area voted for BUSH over Kerry.
Senator Jim Webb discussed the appalchia thing yesterday. His being scots-irish and from a low income background like them gave some interesting insights. Google it, to learn what he said
Anyway; The above vid is not funny in the context of the primaries.
It is not helpful in any way shape or form.
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | May 22, 2008 2:53:44 PM