GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
As Time noted in a much-discussed piece yesterday, anyone who believes that Hillary Clinton (having spent every waking minute of the last 10 years preparing for this race) will drop out voluntarily is delusional.
Clinton is well aware of the long odds she faces in the battle against Barack Obama for delegates. She knows that as the Democratic National Convention gets closer, the increasingly bitter back and forth between the two campaigns hurts Obama’s chances of winning a general election and reinforces the image of the Clintons as a power-hungry couple who will do anything to win, even if they damage the Democratic Party.
But for the Clintons, quitting isn’t an option…When Clinton closes her eyes, she sees John McCain triumphing in November against Obama in a contest she believes she would win. Like all competitive candidates, Clinton is certain she would be a better leader than her rivals, and she feels an obligation to her supporters to fight on.
Clinton believes Obama’s support is largely a mirage — a bunch of true believers whose passion might help him cinch the nomination, but that may prove an insufficient bedrock for winning a general election when the spell might be broken by tough questions about national-security credentials, economic-policy plans and rich experience. She can’t stop from shaking her head in disbelief when longtime friends who are elected officials inform her that they are going to endorse Obama and were chiefly convinced by their children’s enthusiasm for his candidacy…
According to those close to her, she is hoping that as spring becomes summer, the potential for finding another skeleton or two in Obama’s closet will prove him ultimately unelectable in the fall…
Said a confidant who has talked to her regularly throughout the campaign: “This woman never quits. Neither she nor her husband.” So don’t expect this race to end anytime soon. [emphasis mine]
Also, PA Gov. Ed Rendell just released a statement pushing back on calls for Hillary to drop out:
“I respect Senator Leahy and like him very much but as the governor of one of America’s largest states, I am disappointed in his comments. By virtually every measure, this race is neck and neck with less than 1% of the more than 27 million votes cast forming the difference between the two candidates. To call for an end to this race before the people of Pennsylvania have had a chance to make their views known is wrong and a disservice to millions of Democrats.”
March 28th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
If the rumors that she’s broke and in debt are correct, she might be forced to quit….but that’s the only way it would ever happen. If it goes to Denver, she goes for the jugular.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
You have to give her credit. She is a “never say die” person. Of course, so was Captain Ahab.
March 28th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
[...] Also: Clinton’s Current Strategy, Media Blowjobs for Obama: Can Somebody Please Keep Score?, Hillary Will Not Quit, Nader to Clinton: Buck Up, Ignore the Anti-Democracy Chumps, and And Now For Somethign Completely [...]
March 30th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Clinton knows the numbers - I think it would be foolish to suggest she doesn’t. Clinton also knows the very low probability of winning given those numbers (especially the historic super-D’s record of voting with the populace). But perhaps she is sticking through to the end as a means to prove it is better to fight till the bitter end than (gracefully?) bow out.
But why prove it?
Clinton staying in the race in all the way to the Democratic convention, despite her funding issues, despite potentially causing a painful Democratic tryst, and giving more ammunition to the Republicans who will be “shooting ducks in a barrel” with the negative attacks come the national election. You could argue that it has always been her way.
But then, she trying proving it to whom? Her demeanor, her perseverance, her unwillingness to acknowledge the numbers/probability suggests a certain delusion, almost maniacal perception of the primaries. But assuming that she is in fact brilliant and in complete control over her faculties, perhaps she’s staying in the race to make a point. A point she has hinted at and used in her election campaigning all along: “I am a woman”. It does strongly suggest a “woman power” approach, in turn signaling to all women that she “will never give in, never bow her head in servitude to the ‘Male Machine’, and never go silently into that good night. And so can you!!”