I’m Getting Tired
Of the calls by Obama aides and some supporters, and now even Obama himself, that Hillary Clinton should drop out. I’m in complete agreement with Chuck Todd: she should stay in the race until she’s either beaten or she has beaten Obama. Obama and his aides / supporters show that they’re basically not able to close the deal, and that they therefore need Clinton to drop out. It’s a sign of weakness.
Aside from that, the Democratic Party basically remains split. Both can still count on a significant part of the votes, and significant support.
Not only that, it’s also forcing both candidates to be better candidates; and… if Obama’s not able to deal with Hillary Clinton’s attacks, he won’t be able to deal with Republican attacks either.
Still, Clinton should feel vindicated for staying in the race in part because of the Rev. Wright blow up. As of now, it appears Obama has weathered the storm. He deftly shifted the debate from values to a discussion about race and society. For many Dems it was a leadership moment, which may not have occurred without Clinton in the race.
Now, Obama was dented a bit, and he certainly lost the very soft support he was getting from Republicans, according to our most recent NBC/WSJ poll. Nevertheless, he held steady with independents.
As one person commented to me, the Wright controversy forced Obama to use his “get out of jail free” card, meaning he had a reservoir of support he could tap into in order to get a large chunk of voters to give him the benefit of the doubt…
The party ought to lay off the calls for Clinton to drop out, at least for now, because her presence at worst is making Obama a better candidate. The Wright flare-up was the first true political crisis of Obama’s national political career, which is remarkable given how close he is to being the Democratic nominee. Who knows when the Wright controversy would have circulated had the nomination been locked up.
No, there’s no need for Clinton to drop out, and the meme that she should get out now should be thrown in the trashcan.
MyDD:
As we saw yesterday with the candidates’ respective speeches on the economy, this primary race does not preclude running against McCain and as we also saw yesterday, if Clinton does choose to try to win by tearing Barack Obama down instead of making her own case to voters in a constructive way, the superdelegates, which hold the key to both candidates’ paths to the nomination, will turn on her. But ultimately if Democrats who are concerned that Clinton will take this all the way to the convention really want to make sure this ends before July 1, as Howard Dean has now called for, they’ll urge Barack Obama to back remedies for Michigan and Florida. The idea that Barack Obama can claim a clear win without two states that early in the process would have gone handily to Senator Clinton is absurd. This IS her rationale for taking this to the convention, so anyone who would like to avoid that eventuality should get behind an alternative for those states. Gov. Richardson? Sen. Dodd? Sen. Leahy?
Sen. Obama?
Clinton may actually be able to start gaining some form of credibility if ole Bill doesn’t have to step in every time things get tough for her.
Thanks Michael for this article.
I think we are seeing the "Audacity of hope, dreams and ineptitude from Obama. Lot of my Obama supporters are turned off by these tactics. They have been to one of his speeches and came out in bliss but didnt take much time for a reality check. Of course I did my part;).
Its sad to see the democratic party become so undemocratic. If Obama’s team cannot deal with Clinton, I am not sure how they can deal with Republicans. I think i actually know. Its the "Hope".
I think it was Patrick Lahey to whom dick cheney gave his piece of mind. Dont want to repeat that here.
It particularly irritates me that PL says hillary makes a great senator. This guy cant talk to Dick Cheney. It shows that age does not necessarily translate to maturity, wisdom or courage.
Its sad that Obama & his camp suggest that all the voters who voted for Hillary are not relevant and only those who voted for Obama are. There is hardly a difference of few hundred thousand votes. And they deliberately are blocking Michigan and Florida ( Where every one’s name was in the ballot and She won).
They want super delegates to listen to the voters when most of the endorsements of the so called high profile guys have violated that.
May be if Bill RIch, Chris dodd, and not to forget Patrick Lahey, etc, stop ignoring the people for their personal goals, then may be the democratic party will have some credibility.
Hillary is running. Not bill. This is again same old obama chicago politics. Empty vessels making noise. And I think carl rove said he did little in the senate to support anything that Obama says he is going to do. Will the republicans call him "Senator "Do little"?
I dont believe Obama supporters can discuss anything on Credibility. Obama hardly has any.
Michael, it’s extremely misleading of you to say that Obama is calling on Clinton to retire. In the article you link he said that many people are thinking "My god when is it going to end?" which is of course true and is also a VERY long way off from calling her to drop out.
In fact, he has said EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE, and personally I think your post should be updated to reflect that.
You do not actually believe that she can run without Bill do you?
The Democrat party of Florida & Mich. is what caused that mess. They can live with their decision. Instead of Clinton’s - oh I go along with the National rules - wait, wait - no not now.