“I’m staying in this race until there is a nominee,” said Senator Hillary Clinton Wednesday morning at a press conference. In other words, bring on the fight in Denver. First engage in a battle over the delegates from Florida and Michigan, and appeal, debate and fight again. Then ask for the floor vote and roll call of delegates. After the first vote does not bring about a nominee, release the pledged delegates and call the roll again. And then let the back door politics, the comments from “an anonymous source inside the (blank) campaign who asked not to be identified” and then let the brawl begin.
If Clinton stands by her words, this time, and stays in the race until there is a nominee, the DNC convention will shatter television ratings—I will remind you later in the summer but make a note to yourself to erase all the old USC football games, the Laker games, the Audrey Hepburn marathons from AMC, and the “This Old House” episodes on kitchen remodels from your TiVo/DVR to make sure you have room to record all day every day between August 25th and August 28th of the convention. Forget NBC, this will be “Must See TV”. YouTube will have to engage more servers to make room for all the postings they will have. I can see the hazy cellular phone shot video posting of a Clinton supporter and an Obama supporter going at it in the Churchill Bar at the Brown Palace Hotel, “…we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” (Of course Ole Winnie also said appropriately to political contests, “We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”) Denver will become the summer we will never forget as the Democrats rumble over each delegate and each vote as they choose their nominee.
Yes Hillary plans to fight it out. Despite being called out by many in the media, by the far-left and the MoveOn.org and DailyKos brats to withdraw and hand the nomination to Senator Barack Obama, Hillary is standing firm. Tactically her reasoning is that she, and her supporters, feels she is more electable than Obama in a match-up versus Senator John McCain. Based on the demographics of the exit polls she has a strong advantage in the states that saw significant enough numbers of Democrats vote for President Bush in 2000 and 2004 to give him his victories. Based on the daily polling she is either ahead of McCain in a head to head match-up, or she is less behind than Obama. This is why she is continuing the fight, she is telling Democrats that she is the one who can deliver the White House and that Obama cannot. Using the polls she stands on firm ground. Using sentiment and votes of the party elite she is on not-so terra firma.
There is something more to her fight than just polls. A deeper reason as to why she will not, cannot, quit. If she quits then what does she have? Clinton only became a Senator so she could run for the White House in 2008. At the time she, and many others but not enough, thought that Al Gore would win his race for the Presidency and then run for re-election in 2004 leaving the White House as an open seat in 2008 for a Democratic field. This would give her just over one complete term as a Senator to “credential” herself. Running on the Clinton name she would become the first woman President. If she quits ten years of planning, ten years of work, ten years of a personal mission are for naught. She knows this is her only chance of capturing that goal: first woman President. If Obama does not win the nomination, or the Presidency he has other opportunities; go back to the Senate, run for governor of Illinois, re-group, get new friends, new pastors, new rhetoric, and run again. Clinton has no options; this is her only chance.
Politically correct she says, “I am the best chance….” Really correct would be to say, “I have no choice, and this is my only chance…”
She is making the Democrats decide whether they want to nominate the individual that has the best chance of putting a Democrat in the White House, or the individual who makes them feel best and is much more representative of the liberal wing of the party. A tough choice, go for the win or stand by your ideals. Based on recent history of nominees there is a good chance they will make the wrong choice.
Personally I enjoy the fight, I also agree with Hillary, I think she has the best chance to win in November and should stay in the race; not that she will win but that she has the best chance to win.
Do you think Hillary should step aside, why or why not?
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