Clinton Campaign "Understands Reality", Admits Its Over

[kpete]

Clinton Campaign "Understands Reality", Admits Its Over
by PDonaldson
Fri May 16, 2008 at 08:03:08 AM PDT

This morning on MSNBC Andrea Mitchell broke the story. Those inside the campaign who are closest to Hillary Clinton now acknowledge that the race is over and that they are simply going through the motions.

This may not come as a shock to anyone who was following the math, but the fact that the Clinton camp is admitting they are finished is a dramatic departure from their seemingly un-ending optimism.

VIDEO and more at:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/16/105914/348/771/516876

[olkaz]

1. The question is: Will they keep going?

If they don't believe in what they're doing, and Hillary doesn't want to quit, what happens then?

[Kittycat]

2. At this point, as long as they put a leash on Bill and keep their message positive.

I think she should be allowed to finish out the campaign with no real anger or pressure from anyone. If nothing else, it will help keep the voter registration & turnout high - and she can start working toward bringing the party together.

But Bill out saying republicans are more progressive than democrats, and continuing the us vs. them mantra has got to stop.

[Cha]

11. A leash and a muzzle?

K Gardner (1000+ posts) Fri May-16-08 10:22 AM
Original message

"Bill Clinton: Republicans More Progressive Than Democrats. "It is Shocking and Embarassing to Me." :nopity: :nopity:

"In Montana, Bill Clinton Blasts Democrats"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x5995162

[MindMatter]

17. And no cigars, please

[Cha]

26. And you can forget about

any thoughts of blue dresses.

[MonkeyFunk]

40. Keep repeating to yourself

"it's just a cock. It's just a cock."

Eventually, you'll get past your obsession.

[davidpdx]

37. I agree if the message is kept positive, then there's no reason

for her to drop out yet. Some part of me would like to see her drop out on Wednesday after Kentucky and Oregon (Oregon is my home state) at which point there is no real pressure on the super delegates and they can start trickling out faster to give Obama the 2025 he needs. I think after Tuesday night, he'll be relatively close (maybe down to 70-75 needed to officially clinch).

[ellenfl]

3. does hillary know? eom

[Ian_rd]

4. This is huge (if it's correct) - nt

[bunkerbuster1]

5. Is this really news?

I've assumed that deep inside the campaign they've been looking for ways to tie up the loose ends in as dignified a manner as possible for about a week now.

[MindMatter]

18. If they want a dignified end to it, get her butt on the stage

with Obama next Tuesday night. You will be amazed at how quickly everybody is able to move on from there.

[CoffeeCat]

6. This is a bit of a relief...

I wasn't quite sure if Hillary was in the throes of some kind of denial spiral. She
was scaring me for a while.

It sounds like her campaign acknowledges the harsh reality.

As long as she keeps her message above-board, she should be allowed to continue as long
as she feels she needs to. This must be earth shattering for her.

I'm sure the Edwards endorsement was a tipping point for her.

[Bullet1987]

7. I keep saying that this is not going to the convention anymore...it'll be over soon

[Apollo11]

23. I think this will all be over by June 10th at the very latest

There is no way that Hillary Clinton can take this to the Convention if she does not have a clear lead in the popular vote, which now looks increasingly unlikely to happen.

[MindMatter]

27. It has been over since NC. If Hillary is smart

she will be on the same stage with Obama Tuesday night when she is mathematically eliminated. There is no other way for her to play it and have the Wednesday news be anything but horrible for her.

I fully expect that will happen. The campaigns have had something of a cease fire the past couple f days, even if Bill can't keep his yap shut. I think that is indication they are behind the scenes working our a reunification gala.

[K Gardner]

8. Does Bill know?

[quantass]

16. .

[grantcart]

9. Well they admit they are shopping book deals for goodness sakes

but we still have to tolerate attacks on Barack and Michelle here.

[Texas Hill Country]

10. andrea mitchell pushes all sorts of unsubstantiated memes... she is full of shit

[Lerkfish]

13. and you are?.....

[Bucky]

20. I agree. I'd wait until I see factual substantiation from anything she says.

[gateley]

22. Sincere question --

I got the impression that Mitchell was a strong Clinton supporter. If I'm correct, would she report that if it weren't true? I'm thinking (again, assuming I'm correct) that she has a pipeline into the campaign. :shrug:

[Texas Hill Country]

24. she has been floating rumors for weeks, if not months... and no, she is not a Clinton supporter

and i have yet to see one of her exclusive little inside tidbits turn out to be true.

[gateley]

25. Okay -- thanks for the clarification.

:hi:

[TexanDem]

34. I think Andrea is assigned to cover Clinton's campaign, travels with them and...

.. whenever I see her on a panel or her show or anything, her questions and comments are ALWAYS very pro-Hillary. When she made her report at the end of the Indiana primary, she was just about in tears, really. I trust what she says about the inside scoop. But what is said among themselves in the camp and what they actually do could be two different things. When they stop coming up with changing rules and crazy ways to nap the nomination, maybe I'll believe it -- like saying that if they don't count caucuses and if they count MI and FL, she wins. lol Wasn't that just today, as well?

[dorkulon]

43. She's been covering Hillary and known her a long time.

She was even on the plane to Bosnia with her for the "sniper fire" landing. No disrespect, Hillary people, just saying she's known her a long time and I believe she wouldn't say such a thing if it weren't true. Besides which, by now all of Hillary's people would be clamoring to squelch this story if it weren't the truth.

[Zachstar]

12. Get Bill under control and I could care less if she went till June 3

The problem is Bill who lately has been spouting bullcrap and this crap about MI and FL.

Clinton has MOSTLY been just talking about her and not Obama and vice versa and that is fine. Just stop the crap.

[Radical Activist]

14. The motions of what? Destroying Obama's chances in November?

[cascadiance]

15. I think if she keeps her campaign going it should be as follows...

It should NOT try to do any more character assassinations or beratements of the Obama campaign. That serves neither her or the Obama campaign OR the Democratic Party in general by doing that. Even the "surrogate attacks" like Geraldine Ferraro's HAS to stop!

If she wants to continue the campaign, then do it with the understanding that she's doing perhaps one or more of the following:
1) Helping to attract individual contributions to pay off her campaign debt so that she can better get her senate campaign started soon.
2) If there is an issue or a set of issues that her and her people feel is not being addressed sufficiently by the Obama campaign (and I can think of a number of things I'd like more attention given to), that she can constructively say she wants to speak for in the coming weeks in a NON-attack mode but in an "issue awareness" mode, that is constructive. That is what I would have expected Edwards to do on many of his issues had he stayed in the race. Then staying in to the end helps bring more people concerned about these issues into the party, and builds awareness on the Obama team on which of these issues needs more attention from them.

If she can do things like the above, her staying in could be viewed as a positive thing, and the more democrats that get attracted to vote in the primaries will be there more to JOIN the Democrats not to just vote for their person and perhaps drop out later.

[AtomicKitten]

19. Until she concedes, all bets are off.

[bobthedrummer]

21. Of course, yet the DLC's diva keeps on following her own agenda

"Inconvenient truths about the New Democrats, the Third Way, Democratic Leadership Council, etc."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2973191

[TBF]

28. I haven't heard her concede yet.

[Justice Bork]

29. I'm ashamed to have voted for her.

[democrattotheend]

32. Awww, glad you've seen the light now

And welcome to DU.

[TBF]

38. As the campaign has gone on she has gotten more divisive and hate-filled. It is sad.

Be glad it was just the primary - you will have the chance to repent at the GE. :) No worries, you are on the right team now. President Obama is going to do his best to actually help people - he has not taken corporate/PAC donations so he is only responsible to us.

[TBF]

39. delete - dupe

[BeyondGeography]

30. Apparently, they're keeping this guy in the dark

[psychopomp]

31. Somebody tell Bill

http://bp1.blogger.com/_L6pDyjqqsvY/R7kGwAYqyzI/AAAAAAAALXQ/wpQUE6nA9xY/s400/timken+high+school.JPG

[Cha]

36. Somebody tell hilary..

NormaR (1000+ posts) Fri May-16-08 10:24 PM
Original message
Clinton today told her "independent" bloggers to write about "how caucuses are unfair"
On a conference call with the campaign today, which Hillary Clinton was on, bloggers who support her were given instructions what to write about in order to coordinate with the campaign's line of attack. It is supposed to look like the bloggers came up with the idea themselves, however, not that the campaign told them what to write about.

Here is the report of the call from one of the bloggers on the call:

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/5/16/214911/396

There were more, some not so positive but I made a choice to focus on the positives.

One little tidbit on the negative, encouraging the bloggers to discuss how the Caucus system is not a fair representation. The example she used were beauty pageant primaries that follow the official Caucuses and how much better she did in the primary.

The argument fully ignores that they are in fact meaningless with low turn out, but what the heck let's not focus on the negative.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6003215

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Swamp Rat]

35. It's over for YOU Evil GrovelBot!

[ima_sinnic]

41. she could be gracious, like Edwards, Biden, Kucinich, and the others were, and concede, but

OH NO, not ole Hillary!
now the whole country has to put up with her "leaving gracefully" or "saving face" or some such bullcrap. but that would be like trying to make a monstrous train wreck "look good."

so, whatever. In a few decades, after she finally concedes, I'll believe it ... until then, ON WITH THE CHARADE!

[Patsy Stone]

42. We passed

the possibility of gracious about a month and a half ago.

[MilesColtrane]

44. Reminds me of "Downfall".

Everyone but the person calling the shots knows it's over, but all they can do is plaster fake smiles on their faces and salute the leader.

[sofa king]

45. Why not ride it out at this point?

Kentucky, Oregon, Montana, and South Dakota are all in play to some extent. All have Congressional elections coming up which can benefit from the riding of coattails, and every time a couple million people come out to vote in the primaries, it makes voter suppression much more difficult for the goons in November.

The coattails angle is especially important in South Dakota, which holds a Republican primary on June 3 to select the person who will run against Tim Johnson for the Senate. South Dakota is always tight for the Democrats and turnout is always very high, so this primary will be an excellent way to steal the thunder of the GOP there. (There's also a pretty decent chance that Johnson could wind up turning that state for the Democratic Presidential nominee, rather than the other way around, but it will require feet on the ground there.)

The race itself has done a fantastic job of marginalizing McCain's campaign--he may be saving money, but he's falling ever farther behind, thanks in large part to the more than double-teaming of coverage on the Democratic side. The most attention McCain has received in the past month has been for standing by the Worst President Ever and his ignorant-assed comments on the Nazis he ever more closely resembles.

If the Clinton campaign really does tacitly concede the nomination while remaining in the race for the next two or three weeks, it will help both camps to set a new tone of friendliness and unified opposition to this malevolent President and his sycophantic party. If Sen. Clinton goes the extra step and quietly accepts a position as Obama's running mate, it actually gives us a considerable head start on the general election: McCain doesn't have a nominee yet and the one he eventually picks is sure to be an asshole white man of lesser stature than either of the Democrats.

I know it's hard for some of you to see the bigger picture, but I think Clinton, Obama, and Howard Dean all see the opportunity couched in this supposed controversy. I'm glad things have turned out the way they have--and all of you will be too, come November.

[lojasmo]

46. She ought to coast until June.....

Bill needs to shut his fucking mouth.