Double Negative

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"The big question if Clinton stays in the race is this: Just how will she campaign? Yesterday, there were no negative TV ads or attack mailers. But Clinton did stress that she can win the general, implying that Obama might not be able to.

"'I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,' she told USA Today, citing her support with white working-class voters. It's comments like that one that might drive more supers toward Obama pretty quickly. Why? Because they know the math, but they don't want her to spend three weeks making a case that Obama can't win. It will only weaken him.

"Here's what Obama backer Chris Dodd said yesterday, per NBC's Ken Strickland. 'You're going to be asking a bunch of people [in West Virginia] to vote against somebody who's likely to be your nominee a few weeks later? And turn around and ask the very same people a few weeks later to reverse themselves and now vote for [Obama] on election day?'" -- from this morning's edition of MSNBC's First Read.

comment #1

Josh says ...

Hillary has to have him lose to Mccain if shes going to be viable in 2012.

comment #2

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Josh: Precisely. For all of her talk about wanting the Democrats to win, I don't believe she's not thinking that, deep down. It's always been about her all along. Ask the ghost of Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

comment #3

Mr. Buckles says ...

The primary race is over and the real one hasn't started yet but will be coming to a theater near you soon.

From my paper (Pittsburgh Post Gazette) on why some respect Hillary as a general election candidate over O:

"Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, a union that has spent hundreds of thousand of dollars promoting the Clinton campaign, also expressed frustration with what he sees as an imprudent rush to end the Democratic competition at the expense of the candidate he sees as the stronger potential nominee. He warned that the first-term Illinois senator offers a big target for the GOP.

"[Republicans] will have a dossier on Barack Obama like you never saw, that is second to none," he predicted in an interview yesterday. "The flag pin, Reverend [Jeremiah] Wright, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Weathermen, [the candidate's wife] Michelle Obama saying she was proud of America for the first time in her life -- they are going to build on all of that and try to pull him down.

"We need a Democrat in the White House, but we are frightened that there are problems already [with Obama]. If not, they'll find them, and we'll be in the fight of our lives."

Buckle up because the forecast is for choppy seas and nasty skies.

comment #4

Midwest Doug says ...

Right on, Josh. Though in my slightly more forgiving moments, I think Clinton is just a deluded egotist who can't believe she's going to lose the nomination.

I'm sure HRC thinks it's just so damn UNFAIR that in HER coronation year, HER time to finally get the spotlight, she's usurped by a black man. I mean, there hasn't ever been a black VP candidate. Obama is cutting the line, and it's unfair. Isn't this country supposed to be more racist than sexist? And yet Obama is winning. It's so unfair. Obama is the popular class president and she's the super-organized valedictorian and doesn't understand why she can't win.

comment #5

Midwest Doug says ...

As for the PPG story, McEntee might as well have said "In principle I'm all for blacks moving into my neighborhood, but I'm worried about what some of my neighbors might think. So it's probably best if those black people move into some other neighborhood."

comment #6

JeffTo says ...

What she is trying to do here is say: "The US will never elect a black man" without really saying it.

Matt Frei (BBC News): "The party hopes to ensure that the legions of women and white blue-collar workers who see Hillary as their Joan of Arc do not stay at home on 6 November or vote for John McCain.

America loves a happy ending, but I am not sure whether Hillary is prepared to give the Democrats one.

She is continuing to clench her fist and shout at the grim reaper.

And yet she has been careful to avoid the mortal sin that would force the super-delegates to pull the plug on her life support machine.

Bruised, battered and brazen, her attacks on Obama were conspicuous only by their absence.

If she picks another fight with the dauphin of the party the super-delegates will circle around her like ravenous vultures.

Hillary may soon be out of this race.

But whatever happens she is not saying adieu to politics.

Wait for her reincarnation as Senate majority leader, Governor of New York, future presidential candidate or even, as some have suggested, Vice-President. "

comment #7

nemo says ...

"[Republicans] will have a dossier on Barack Obama like you never saw, that is second to none."

As if they don't have a dossier twice as long on Hillary.

HRC is 60 now, 64 in 2012, and 68 in 2016. If Obama wins this year, her party won't tolerate her running against him in 2012. So her next chance will be in 2016, when she is nearly as old as Reagan was in 1980 -- the oldest President ever so far.

comment #8

Krazy Eyes says ...

I think the gist of what Hillary is getting at is that she thinks Obama's supporters will vote her over McCain but that a lot of her poor, white supporters will vote McCain if Obama wins the primary. She may have a point but, unfortunately, that's not how a primary works.

comment #9

D.Z. says ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080508/pl_nm/usa_politics_mcauliffe_dc
notes that Hillary's campaign manager claims she'll support Obama's campaign if he wins.

comment #10

alan says ...

He has won. Everybody on the planet seems to know that, except her and possibly her husband. So why isn't she supporting Obama's campaign yet?

comment #11

Josh Massey says ...

Four years ago, when I dared suggest Hillary Clinton was secretly angling for a John Kerry defeat, I was soundly called a right wing nut job and a tinfoil hat-enthusiast. After all, she would never do something like that.

comment #12

D.Z. says ...

Josh: I wouldn't call you a nut job, but I'd never believe it myself. I thought she'd have better footing than the competition, even in spite of her war vote. I can't believe she or her hubby would want to blow their legacy out of pettiness.

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