Clinton Insists Democratic Race Is ‘Long Way’ From Over, Looks Toward Convention
Hillary Clinton, shown here campaigning Monday at a community college in Blue Bell, Pa., tells FOX News the race is a "long way from being over." (AP Photo)
The Democratic race is a “long way from being over,” Hillary Clinton told FOX News on Wednesday, and she has no qualms about taking the primary fight all the way to the convention floor.
In a sit-down interview with FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren, which aired Wednesday night, Clinton said not to write her candidacy’s obituary yet, even though she’s trailing Barack Obama by 157 pledged delegates with opportunities dwindling to make up that gap.
“Sixty-two percent said let it go on,” Clinton said, referring to a new Rasmussen survey that found that portion of Democrats aren’t ready for either candidate to leave the race. “That is what people are telling me. That is what we have to do. Let the voters have a chance to be heard. Nobody should be writing obituaries on this race, because it is a long way from being over.”
The Democratic race has taken unexpected twists and turns in the last two weeks, from the controversy over Obama’s long-time pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. to criticism of Clinton’s claims that she landed in Bosnia in 1996 under sniper fire.
But neither candidate is expected to lock down the pledged delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the August convention. And although Democratic leaders are scrambling to avoid a prolonged fight that could give GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain a decided advantage, Clinton said Wednesday there are too many ifs for the matter to be settled yet.
“Well this is a really close election. Despite what some might say, it is a very close election in the popular vote and in the delegates,” she said. “We have 10 contests ahead of us, plus, don’t forget, Florida and Michigan. You know, I keep beating this drum … millions of people are going to be voting in the next three months, and I hope that will include Florida and Michigan.”
Clinton’s campaign has argued for seating the Michigan and Florida delegations, which were stripped after those states held early primaries in violation of party rules. Recent efforts to hold re-votes in those states have fallen through.
Clinton won both of those states’ primaries in January, though none of the candidates campaigned. Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan.
Clinton said, barring a resolution on Florida and Michigan, the fight goes to convention.
“You know, you can always go to the convention. That’s what credential fights are for,” she said. “Let’s have the Democratic party go on record against seating the Michigan and Florida delegations three months before the general election? I don’t think that will happen. I think they will be seated. So that’s where we’re headed if we don’t get this worked out.”
Clinton also has weighed in this week on the controversy over Wright, whose anti-U.S. sermons have raised questions about Obama’s judgment in choosing his associates. Clinton said she would have left Wright’s church.
“I was asked point blank yesterday what I would have done had I been in a position where someone was making those kinds of comments, and I said I would have left,” she told FOX News on Wednesday. “I’ve spoken out against all kinds of words that I thought were inappropriate. … You know, you don’t get to pick your family, but you do get to pick the church or synagogue you attend.”
Obama’s campaign on Tuesday blasted Clinton for trying wedge her way out of the fallout over her Bosnia claims by breaking her silence on Wright. Obama said Wednesday that he already has condemned Wright’s most offensive statements, and “we can’t afford to be distracted” from the real issues in the election.
Likewise, when Clinton was asked Wednesday about the Bosnia flap, she said that’s not what voters care about.
“I’m a human being. I made a mistake and owned up to it,” she said. “But that’s not what people talk to me about. When I’m out campaigning … people want to talk about the economy and health care, and they want to know what are you going to do to get fix our country and get it back on track, and help my family and me.
“And that what I’m really engaged in. Because, you know, when you’ve been on a campaign for 14 months there’s all kinds of other distractions, but at the end of the day this is a hiring decision,” she said.
both states re to be seated or else the democratic party will never win in the generalelection against mccain. it is a mockery of justice when a few eggheads dominate to roll over millions of voters. i believ e redoing the vote should solve it. obama should encourage it. if he wants to be the canddiate he must face the music. if he wins. totally good for him. if he loses in florida and michigan and he loses thenomination then he must accept the voice of the people as spoken not the voice that is manipulated by a few to favor him. he may be ahead nwo on the vote count but florida and michigan are two states rendering his candidacy useless when nogt seated.
That is not what she wants to talk about. But, it is what we are taking into account when it comes to her honesty. Of course, we all know that she is not an honest woman.
SHe just needs to give it up. With her track record of misstatements, how can we believe anything that she tells us.
America would be ill-served by a person who thinks lying is not a big deal. Integrity in private life carries over into public life. The Clinton’s have a very long history of lying and avoiding real issues of intergrity and morality. While Obama’s (former) minister is as dishonorable as they come, and completely off the reservation as far as Biblical understanding, he is not Obama. Obama did not say the things his Pastor said. The Clintons, however, are not stumbling because of what others say, but their own false recollection of facts and self-serving memmories of things that did not happen.
Does anyone actually want this type person “leading” our country?
Concerning Governor Bredesen’s proposal, I think it is fatally flawed because it does not resolve the Michigan and Florida delegate issues before the superdelegate primary would be conducted. In effect it is an effort to shut Florida and Michigan out completely. A second argument against it is that it effectively contradicts the call for the Democratic Convention by advancing the decision date and depriving the delegates of an opportunity to deliberate with one another. I should observe also that neither Clinton nor Obama delegates would be pledged to vote in either direction on a challenge to the Credentials Committee report (presumably but not inevitably denying seats and votes to the Michigan and Florida delegations). I see no just alternative but the convention process to resolve Michigan and Florida one way or another before the nomination is decided.
>>”He would not have been my pastor,” Clinton said. “You don’t choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend.” <<
Ah, but you do chose your husband. She chose to stay with a lying, cheating adulterer who was disbarred and impeached while he was the PRESIDENT of the United States. Tell me again why that makes her judgement so much more admirable that Obama’s?
Bill and Hillary are living proof that “monsters” are alive and well in the 21st century! She is willing to rip the party apart in her pursuit of the White House. Hillary wants to be President for Hillary and not for the country. She is the ultimate manipulative, phony politician in modern American history. The Clintons confirm that there are millions of people who can be mislead and “sold” by a say-anything, do=anything power hungry couple. I don’t care if 100 million respond to this when I say that anyone who believes Hillary is sincere or honest is brain dead! It takes an absolute idiot to applaud her pitiful attempts to sound capable and genuine. “Dodging sniper fire”? Hillary supporters have always touted her intelligence and savvy whenever possible. Now she “misspoke” about a story she has been telling for over 12 years! If she manages to STEAL this nomination I hope those that support Obama and McCain can unite and put and end to this sick, twisted soap opera!!!!!
she needs to move on in life……get over HERSELF
Operation Chaos!
Rush is Right..
Keep going Hillary… You are playing our game..
John McCain will make a good President!
Hillary Clinton should just quit. She has lied and has supported a man that has lied. Is it she is much better than Obama? No. Relegion and someones minister has nothing to do with this race. Obama should not be held responsible for what someone says. If this is not the case. Why would a woman support a cheatig lying husband, if she wasn’t capable of doing the same. As Hillary said you can”t choose your family, but you can certainly choose your pastor. I always thought you chose your husband or wife. Maybe Hilary is different……