Hillary's Four Point Plan of Attack

[Jersey Devil]

She knows there is next to no hope that she can achieve a majority of delegates going into the Convention so her plan to win the nomination I think can be summed up with the following arguments:

1 - Caucus delegates are inferior - Hillary hopes to win a majority of the delegates elected through primaries and then argue that Obama only has the total lead in delegates because he garnered more delegates through the unfair caucus process, thus entitling Hillary to the votes of the superdelegates.

2 - Popular vote - Hillary will argue that the popular vote rather then pledged delegates should determine who superdelegates vote for. Corzine is now out shilling this meme. As a subtext to this meme, she will argue that should she pull within, let's say 50 delegates or less of Obama, that it is "tied".

3 - Big states - Hillary will argue that the winner of the "big states" should get the superdelegate votes if she also wins PA, trying to make a case that the old Red-Blue map is most important and that Obama's 50 state strategy won't work, so pledged delegate totals should be ignored by the superdelegates who should, of course, vote for Hillary.

4 - (The most desperate argument) Elected delegates are not really bound to any candidate and can vote for whoever they want. I think by far this one has the most potential to completely blow up the Democratic Party if she is able to pull it off.

Have I covered all the bases here?

[Medusa]

1. Rinse, Repeat?

No, I think you have the Clinton Spin cycle pretty much identified!

[Tarc]

2. Works for me.

[Crazy Dave]

3. She answers the phone at 3 a.m. wearing a pantsuit?

:shrug:

[DemVet]

4. Actually, what I think she is counting on is....

...that Obama won't have enough votes (2025) on the first vote on the convention floor.

Then, all delegates, both regular delegates and superdelegates, can vote for anyone they wish.

She just needs to hold off Obama until the convention.

Your number 4 above is actually true and legal after the first vote.

:)

[sfam]

7. Who exactly would everyone be voting for on the first vote then?

Are you imagining that the Super Delegates will be sitting out for the first vote?

[Strelnikov_]

5. Wondered why all the 'Caucus is Bad, M'kay' threads were popping up suddenly n/t

[underpants]

6. Just get to Denver-yes I think you are dead on

This is something I wrote last week
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=342820

I have also read that she seems to be keyed in on just tearing him down to the point where she thinks she can stand up at the convention and say "Look he is a tainted candidate. He can't possibly run in the general election. The only reasonable thing to do is to nominate me"

Also don't think that the Clintons lost any of their influence in the party especially in the inner circles.

[Jersey Devil]

8. Yes, but she has to have something people can hang their hats on

to accomplish that and one of the above 4 arguments would provide that is a logical (but twisted) argument, like saying, "Ha, yeah, he won but look what I did to him."

[ProgressiveEconomist]

9. "Electability: I do better against McCain". The WashingtonPost/ABC poll tracks this

question for both Hillary and for Obama. Hillary can't say she wins the race against McCain quite yet, but apparently her repeated "CIC threshold" statements have knocked Obama's margin over the ancient Republican down from 12 points just before her bizarre scorched-earth campaign turn.

Unfortunately, such unprecedented denigration of a primary opponent to the glorification of the other party's man is not a zero-sum game. Almost twice as many people now say they want McCain answering the 3am red phone as EITHER Hillary or Obama.

It's this "electability" argument that I find most infuriating: Rather than droping out because she has no chance of catching Obama, she's actually destroying her own party's political advantage over unpopular Rs by building them up at the expense of both herself and Obama.

[Jersey Devil]

10. Yes, we should add that one as a 5th meme

By the time we get to the convention I'm certain she will have at least 10-15 very good reasons why the delegates ought to ignore who is the leader in pledged delegates and vote for Hillary.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. The irony about #1

is that Obama leads Clinton in PRIMARY delegates and popular vote.

Time for her to step down.

[Jersey Devil]

13. Yes, but she is counting her chickens from the remaining primaries

I guess she believes she can do it in the primary states with PA, WV, KY, etc.

Also, with respect to the popular vote, any do-over in Michigan would give Obama hundreds of thousands of popular votes he doesn't have now because he wasn't on the ballot. Hillary counts her vote in Mich in her versions of the "popular vote".

[bluestateguy]

12. Let's see here

1-Caucus delegates are inferior - Hillary hopes to win a majority of the delegates elected through primaries and then argue that Obama only has the total lead in delegates because he garnered more delegates through the unfair caucus process, thus entitling Hillary to the votes of the superdelegates.

I'm sorry it says that where in the DNC rules? It's hard work to rally your troops for a caucus. Winning caucuses shows dedication and committment of supporters and demands an excellent grond operation. A shame Hillary was unable or unwilling (as in the case of many small red states) to do this.

2 - Popular vote - Hillary will argue that the popular vote rather then pledged delegates should determine who superdelegates vote for. Corzine is now out shilling this meme. As a subtext to this meme, she will argue that should she pull within, let's say 50 delegates or less of Obama, that it is "tied".

She is unlikely to win the popular vote. Though I suppose if she employs some mathematical gymnastics she may claim that she did (by excluding caucuses, or excluding red states, or whatever). She'd have to win a blowout in Pennsylvania to even have a chance at this unlikely scenario.

3 - Big states - Hillary will argue that the winner of the "big states" should get the superdelegate votes if she also wins PA, trying to make a case that the old Red-Blue map is most important and that Obama's 50 state strategy won't work, so pledged delegate totals should be ignored by the superdelegates who should, of course, vote for Hillary.

By that logic she seems to be implying that she has the better chance of carrying Texas. And her plan for winning Texas in November is...? She forgets that small and medium sized states have superdelegates too, and they will be most offended by this argument.

4 - (The most desperate argument) Elected delegates are not really bound to any candidate and can vote for whoever they want. I think by far this one has the most potential to completely blow up the Democratic Party if she is able to pull it off.

That will only backfire. Pledged delegates are more committed to their candidate than Green Packers fans are to their team. That would be like asking a Packers fan to become a Bears fan.