Corporate interests likely pushed Edwards out. Could corp. interests be pushing Clinton to stay on?

[cascadiance]

I sometimes bang my head against the wall thinking about this whole election where the Dems have had an opportunity to get who they "really want" in moreso than perhaps in my lifetime, with the Republicans on life support in terms of public support.

I bang my head how we've been pushed into so many corners not getting what I feel are really grass roots issues and candidates heard in this election. Edwards leaving the race unceremoniously before the first super tuesday really frustrated me, and had me wonder who behind the scenes pushed him out, because I really don't believe he came to that decision by himself.

I now wonder if those same interests that pushed him out that likely felt his candidacy, one way or the other (winning or being a convention power broker) was going to hurt them, are actually PUSHING Hillary Clinton to stay in the race until the bitter end (with the emphasis on "bitter").

I wonder if Hillary behind closed doors has wondered if she should pull out gracefully and do the honorable thing to help the party, but is being told by her contributors and other "bosses" that she should stay in.

For her, I have to believe if she goes on much farther the potential damage to her political life could far outweigh the benefits she MIGHT get from some very remote possibility that she can win this thing "honorably" and in a democratic fashion.

On the other hand, the corporate interests I believe LOVE her prolonged campaign. They do because:

1) It has her and Barack pound each other, increasing both of their negatives, so that from their point of view McCain has a better shot at winning in the general election and serve their wishes in their best outcome.
2) Perhaps Hillary can win if she stays in, and that makes the general election a lot less concern to them, since even if she wins over McCain, she's a lot more friendly to their concerns than Obama is likely to be.
3) All of these nit picking personal backstabbing back and forth generates far more attention than any of the other far more important stories of our economy going into the crapper, or other things our country is doing that needs more accountability and scrutiny that the corporate media is avoiding. They feel they can take a holiday from true news reporting if the public accepts the tabloid coverage of this election as the only "news" they want to be occupied with.
4) the media companies love it, because the more this continues in primary season, the greater amounts of ad buys they get, and in effect get a lot of their "bribe" money back from the candidates.
5) the parties and candidates themselves will take all of the blame for this personal "war", and not them, even if they are the ones behind this "push" of keeping her in the race.

I'm guessing we won't hear about this if its really happening. At least not for many years, and hopefully at a time we have public campaign financing and the corporatocracy more on a leash then and not running our lives like they do now.

But I still wonder if this might be happening. Might help me to respect Clinton as a person more, if I knew perhaps some of the pressures she's under if she's inclined to do the right thing, but perhaps still not respect her a lot for not doing the RIGHT thing by ending it, and instead listening to these corporate whores (and I do believe the corporate lobbyists deserve to be called whores far more than anyone else) too much and not calling them out when they go too far.

If it is happening Hillary, PLEASE MAKE IT STOP! For the party's sake, for all of our sake, for your sake! We need to fix this corporatocracy now!

[papau]

1. Corporate interests have favored Obama from the beginning because he is fake change

[cascadiance]

4. Please explain...

If you can't, then I think I understand how you feel that way, since the media perhaps has succeeded with you.

[blm]

8. Are you saying corporate and powerful interests FEAR Clinton? Didn't Bill prove his fealty

to corporate and fascist agenda enough when he protected BushInc and his powerful cronies throughout the 90s?

Gee - he deepsixed all the oustanding matters of IranContra, Iraqgate, BCCI and CIA drugrunning for GHWBush and his powerful corporate cronies throughout the 90s, even as his own party and country suffered, so why would corporate America not be in HRClinton's corner now?

Wouldn't YOU go with a PROVEN procorporate lackey and Closed Government protector like Clinton instead of a newbie lawmaker with Open Government ADVOCATES standing with him?

[NashVegas]

2. GE, Time-Warner, NYT, Disney et al Certainly Aren't Among Them

And the defense industry is saving it all for McCain.

[cornermouse]

3. No. They're pushing her out as well.

[cascadiance]

6. So I guess John Edwards made a "rational choice that he had no chance" on his own...

... and she feels she still has "a chance" which is why she's still in? In my book, at the time that Edwards left, whether or not his poll numbers were down, he had far more of a chance then, and even if he didn't he had far better opportunities to accomplish some worthwhile political objectives than Clinton does by staying in at this point.

And it isn't so much that they WANT her. It's that they want the best situation for them to continue their corporatocratic ways...

Their best scenario to least preferred scenario is:

1) McCain beats Clinton.
2) McCain beats Obama.
3) Clinton beats McCain.
4) Obama beats McCain.

They are shooting for #1 or #2. This strategy facilitates that with the outside chance of #3 happening as well.

[Ninga]

10. I debated over and over again with Edwards supporters about why he suspended when he did.

It didn't make sense to me that he would do it just days before Super Tuesday. The Edwards I had come to appreciate had a strong history of fighting big battles in the court room, and wining.

It doesn't feel right that he would just roll over for the big corporations. :shrug:

[cornermouse]

17. It didn't feel right to me either.

I went ahead and voted for him anyway. He was MY choice.

[cornermouse]

16. No.

Edwards was forced out. Clinton is being forced out now. They've chosen Obama and if you turn on the tv, you'll see they're pulling out all stops to get him the nomination.

[cascadiance]

21. Hmmm... Again WHY do you think they've chosen Obama?

I don't think they've "chosen" Obama any more than they've "chosen" Clinton.

They're choosing to prolong our corporatocracy, whatever way they can... And if that means keeping Clinton in the race well beyond any REASONABLE statistical chance she has at winning the popular vote-based pledged delegate count, they will do it.

If this were election night and the votes were all tallied as they are so far with what was remaining still of votes of "pledged" delegates, any TV news organization a long time ago would have called this race for Obama. They are manufacturing reasons to keep this race going, because it serves their purposes, just like pushing out Edwards early ALSO served their purposes.

[Hieronymus]

5. Buchanan, Scarborough, Scaife, and other Republicans sure want Hillary.

[Adelante]

7. But Dems didn't "really want" Edwards

If they did, they would have voted for him. That is the truth of the matter.

[cascadiance]

9. The truth of the matter is that they were marketed both Hillary and Obama...

Just like they want now McCain and Hillary in the general election, and ideally McCain in the general.

They've minimized any coverage that helped give Edwards a real chance. I'm sorry, but I've lost a lot of faith in the American public to get themselves independently informed any more, both because they don't have time (or at least prioritized time) to do so, and the media sucks at providing them decent and readily available information that keeps them informed (and not just "infotained")...

[cali]

12. bzzzzt. Iowa is a retail politics state and Edwards spent years

there. His loss to Obama in Iowa cannot be placed at the door of the MSM.

[cascadiance]

18. Umm.. The Des Moines Register endorsed Hillary because he couldn't "work well with corporations"...

He DID beat Hillary there, despite the Register's appeal to voters to pick her instead.

Obama was picked by a lot of the other papers there and promoted far more than Edwards was.

I'm not trying to be so picky about Edwards' chances at WINNING the election as that he was going to be a thorn in the corporate interests' grand master plan of keeping ANY discussions of things like corporate ownership of our government that Edwards was trying to get heard from being heard.

It wasn't that they wanted him out because they thought he'd necessarily beat Hillary or Obama, it's because they felt he'd be a power broker and one to turn the conversation onto topics they didn't want to have the MSM feel pressured into covering. THAT's why!

I think if the way that corporate interest lobbying, bribery, etc. were put on the table in front of each average American, and they were informed on how it affected just about every item of business in our government now, it would be at the top of their criteria in who they pick for president. The problem is that it isn't, and that is BY DESIGN by these corporate interests. They would rather we think about things like whether a church pastor is insulting America, or Hillary was under fire in Bosnia, or Nathalee Hollaway's murderer was finally caught, or if our next president will pick a judge that supports Roe v. Wade, rather than the core isssues that take away their power.

They won round 1 when they got Edwards to leave the race.

Now round two is to try to keep us distracted and get the person elected that will be least apt to go after them.

[crankychatter]

15. Despite apologies, like Clinton, Edwards was not credible on the WAR

I was an Edwards Delegate in '04. He would've won. I just wanted to see us win... but not a YANKEE soul in Washington State would hear me.

His re-invented persona regarding poverty was compelling, but difficult to sell after decades of propoganda regarding social services (creeping socialism). The Clinton's moved us so far to the Right in the 90's, we are scarcely distinguishable on some issues.

I ended up with Kucinich... not a bad end really.

[crankychatter]

11. precisely true... this is not about personal ambition..

...mostly

This is about an insurgent candidate that did an internet based, end run around the entrenched, dependent symbiosis between our elected officials and Corporate PACs.

They've been Jerry Brown "Moonbeaming" and Howard Dean "Deanscreaming" anti-war candidates since they hijacked the media, and figured out they don't have to shoot them anymore.

God rest RFK.

[Poll_Blind]

13. The big money which sent that letter to Pelosi is putting enormous pressure on her. n/t

PB

[cascadiance]

20. And the fact that now both she and Barack say she can run as long as she likes...

... tells me that THEY want this thing to go on as long as they can prolong it.

It is going to be someone that wants to lift a middle finger to the corporate interests that will have to call people together to stop this mess I think. And that's going to take courage, and hopefully some public support, once we all understand what works best for everyone, and hopefully not be too partisan about it.

[mod mom]

14. Who counts the votes? Is there a coincidence in Hillary's claim to Richardson that "he can't win"?

[cascadiance]

19. Yup, who counting the votes is plan C, etc. too.

If Barack wins the nomination, I believe that is more likely to go into effect then too.

I think we as a nation should realize now collectively, that the business/corporate interests that have been for 20-30 years now (and longer to la lesser extent before Reagan) have been manipulating this political process to their advantage, are sensing a time of reckoning now where if they don't play the right cards, their applecart might be turned over.

They have a lot of power to prevent us from realizing this collectively, with their control of the media, our politicians, and many other entities that won't corroborate this, but I feel it is real nonetheless. It is upon us to wherever possible disrupt and minimize these plans. We're not going to have any home runs, but we can hopefully get some big hits and set up an inning down the road where we can win the game later.