New Republic: Hillary's Kamikaze Mission

[scheming daemons]

The morning after Tuesday's primaries, Hillary Clinton's campaign released a memo titled "The Path to the Presidency." I eagerly dug into the paper, figuring it would explain how Clinton would obtain the Democratic nomination despite an enormous deficit in delegates. Instead, the memo offered a series of arguments as to why Clinton should run against John McCain--i.e., "Hillary is seen as the one who can get the job done"--but nothing about how she actually could. Is she planning a third-party run? Does she think Obama is going to die? The memo does not say.

The reason it doesn't say is that Clinton's path to the nomination is pretty repulsive. She isn't going to win at the polls. Barack Obama has a lead of 144 pledged delegates. That may not sound like a lot in a 4,000-delegate race, but it is. Clinton's Ohio win reduced that total by only nine. She would need 15 more Ohios to pull even with Obama. She isn't going to do much to dent, let alone eliminate, his lead.

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Some Clinton supporters, like my friend (and historian) David Greenberg, have been assuring us that lengthy primary fights go on all the time and that the winner doesn't necessarily suffer a mortal wound in the process. But Clinton's kamikaze mission is likely to be unusually damaging. Not only is the opportunity cost--to wrap up the nomination, and spend John McCain into the ground for four months--uniquely high, but the venue could not be less convenient. Pennsylvania is a swing state that Democrats will almost certainly need to win in November, and Clinton will spend seven weeks and millions of dollars there making the case that Obama is unfit to set foot in the White House. You couldn't create a more damaging scenario if you tried.

Imagine in 2000, or 2004, that George W. Bush faced a primary fight that came down to Florida (his November must-win state). Imagine his opponent decided to spend seven weeks pounding home the theme that Bush had a dangerous plan to privatize Social Security. Would this have improved Bush's chances of defeating the Democrats? Would his party have stood for it?



The full article is here:

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=ba30ff16-a5af-4035-a883-cf15ffee406c

[KittyWampus]

1. at this point, I imagine Clinton supporters must be either blind or stupid. Or Republicans.

and that isn't meant to be inflammatory.

How the heck anyone who keeps informed on what is going on could possibly support her is beyond me.

She will never catch up in pledged delegates.

She will never get more super delegates to go over to her side at the Convention.

[angie_love]

4. this is a fuckin nightmare situation for the democrats

She should have quit before Tx and OH b/c she was never going to catch up anyway. Now she is hell bent on destroying the party. If Obama lost 11 in a row you can sure as hell believe he'd already be endorsing Hillary right now.

[jefferson_dem]

6. I scrolled past the Laura Ingraham hatefest this morning and she was gloating like a mutha'...

"This is working out just as we planned"...she grunted.

Ack!

[roguevalley]

12. since Hillary believes she's fully vetted, so the blogs are taking

her up on it:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/5/151147/0655/52/469804

of course, the hillary fanatics will tell you that dailykos is the new hitler.

[underpants]

7. I wouldn't say never

clearly her strategy at this point is just get close enough to get to Denver without looking like she is hanging on for her own ego's sake THEN she and Bill and their vast array of supporters (party bigwigs) can start working the crowd. Don't fool yourself-as the last Dem President and because he had 8 years as the party's head they have a LOT of power within the party. If she is stopped this year that could change but it hasn't yet.

[underpants]

2. The New Republic is turning on Hillary!?!?!

:nuke:

[geek tragedy]

5. Martin Peretz HATES her. n/t

[Eurobabe]

3. If Obama takes Wyoming and Miss. Hillary needs to go. ASAP

She is ruining our chances of securing the White House. :grr: :nuke: :mad: :rant:

[Bread and Circus]

8. This is one of the best articles I've read as of late. Spot on. Perfect.

It's too damn bad there are too many uninformed and unenlightened people out there to force the issue to some good resolution.

[Bread and Circus]

9. Bump...shout this from the rooftops.

[AzDar]

10. Kick...

:kick:

[Steeler1623]

11. Hillary has no path that doesn't involve rioting in Denver