Game Over. Obama Won. Clinton Supporters in Induced Denial.
Simply put: Game over. Obama won.
As Todd Beeton accurately observes at MyDD:
"The upshot is that there is no way to spin away what happened tonight: Senator Clinton had a really bad night and Senator Obama had a phenomenal one. It's impossible to overstate the significance of what he accomplished, not only considering what he's overcome over the past three weeks but also considering how decisively he denied Clinton what she needed to continue to have a credible path to the nomination."
Hillary Clinton's campaign was crushed yesterday by Obama in North Carolina (115 delegates) by a 15% margin of over 220,000 votes. And she won Indiana (72 delegates) by a paper-thin margin of about 18,000 votes... apparently as much by the grace of Rush Limbaugh as by the grace of God.
MSNBC's tenatative delegate count, both committed and super, stands at 1,844 for Sen. Obama, and 1,694.5 for Sen. Clinton. Barack Obama stands merely 181 delegates away from capturing the 2008 Democratic nominaton for the presidency.
Hillary Clinton now has no chance to lead Barack Obama in elected, committed delegates or in the popular vote... even if renegade Florida is added to the totals. And after North Carolina and Indiana, her "I'm much more electable" argument to superdelegates is deader than roadkill.
About Money: Obama Has It. Clinton Does Not.
If the black-and-white electoral facts weren't devastating enough for Clinton's '08 ballot box fortunes, there's that whole money thing: Obama has it. Clinton does not.
If money is the oxygen of a campaign, then Hillary's candidacy is on life support. Obama's campaign is flush with contributions, most under $100, from over 1.5 million Americans, an astonishing, record-breaking number by any measure. In stark contrast, the Clinton coffers have run dry for a second time in four months, as the Clintons lent $6.4 million to their campaign in April. This is in addition to $5 million of their personal treasure they lent in February.
After cancelling most public appearances set for today, Sen. Clinton has returned to her Washington D.C. home to huddle with family and advisors.
In her Indiana victory speech, she cheerily proclaimed that "... it's full speed onto the White House." But her post-speech email tellingly excluded, for the first time in months, a request for funds. Instead, her short, bittersweet email ended with, "Let's keep making history together."
There's no visible sign, though, that Hillary Clinton plans to drop out of the race, nor is there historical reason to expect she will.
Who's in Denial, Who's Not
I don't believe that Hillary and Bill Clinton are in a state of denial. These are smart, politically astute people. And they're usually at their sharpest as the counted-out underdogs.
But the hard truth is that this time, barring tragedy or an insider travesty, they won't win the party's '08 nomination. They can be safely counted out as returning to the White House in 2009 as anything but a guest.
So why won't Hillary Clinton quit this race anytime soon? Because she has a goal.
She wants to be Obama's running mate (which I think is a good idea), or she's set her eyes on a 2012 rerun for the presidency, or she's hoping against hope that party insiders will still reject the 46-year-old junior senator from Illinois as too unvetted and untested. (For more reasons, see the New York Daily News' Ugly Truth Why Hillary Clinton Won't Quit .)
But I don't believe that Hillary Clinton is in denial.
However, to keep her base, she must keep them in denial about her chances to win the party nomination. And so she does... by pretending to be viable, by pretending to still have an equal shot in 2008, by revving up her loyal supporters with fighting words, feisty shots at Barack Obama, and always, pandering ad nauseum.
And so Hillary and Bill Clinton cynically make it about themselves and their ambitions, rather than about the good of the Democratic party that's been so good to them over the decades.
By coaxing their supporters to remain in angry, polarizing denial, Hillary and Bill Clinton selfishly may just be sacrificing the very future of this country by making it easier for a third term of George Bush policies via Republican John McCain.
And that, my friends, is precisely why more Democrats have voted in 2008 for Barack Obama: good character, as versus the same old selfish, polarizing, slash-and-burn, me-me-me, status quo politics of old.
Indeed, it is time to turn the page!
Related Reading
Boredom and the Race Between Obama and Clinton
Rev. Wright Is Irrelevant to Obama's Ability to Be President
Disrupting Democracy: Rush Limbaugh Really Is a "Big Fat Idiot"
i’m glad you made a point of noting that hillary isn’t in denial, that she’s actually working toward a goal here.
as you know well, i’ve been a very loyal supporter of hillary this whole way, and i’m not going to pretend today that i wouldn’t be thrilled beyond belief if, in some magical way, she managed to get the nomination after all. i do believe she’d be the best president out of the three people that are running right now, without question.
but it’s not going to happen. barack obama still has a LOT to prove to me, but that doesn’t mean i won’t be behind him 100% when he’s named our official nominee. i’m very, very cynical about his candidacy. i think he’s as much a politician as hillary, he’s not above dirty politics, and his message of hope and change only goes so far…he’s going to have to surround himself with far more capable task-doers, extraordinary advisors, and an undeniably great VP in order to win me over 100%.
it’s been a good race. i hope he can survive the generals. i hope he DOES name her as his VP. they’d be a formidable team, as the millions upon millions of votes they’ve garnered together show.
Kim-
I think his best VP choice for a successful ticket is Hillary Clinton. I hope he asks her, but I’ve heard many who say she doesn’t want the slot, and many more who say that he has others in mind. I guess there’s no love lost between Bill and Barack.
Kim, I heard one analyst comment that if she had consistently won just 15% of the Africian-American vote, she would be the nominee. I really believe their use of the race card against Obama was fatal, as it drove away more voters than it attracted.
Her constant pursuit of the Wright controversy cost her dearly in North Carolina among black voters. What hurt her most in that state was that 90% of black women of all ages voted for Obama.
Anyway, I hear everything you say here. Thanks, as always, for your comments!
Deborah
Sen Obama is no different from any other politicain and he will not get my vote if selected as the democratic nomination……no one will.
I don’t think that Hillary should be Barack’s VP because it comes off as a consolation gift. No one is running for the VP. Traditionally the VP has been a governor and we have an abundance of highly-qualified ones.