Clinton Fights Pressure to Withdraw, Tees Up for Fight With Party Elders
Hillary Clinton campaigns at Mishawaka High School in Indiana Friday. She rejected mounting pressure to end her campaign. (AP Photo)
Hillary Clinton, under mounting pressure to bow out of the presidential race and avoid a floor fight at the Democratic National Convention in August, is standing firm in her determination to fight Barack Obama to the finish.
Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a former candidate himself, said Clinton has virtually no chance of winning, and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont said Friday the New York senator should just end her campaign.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants the party’s uncommitted superdelegates to support the candidate who has the most votes, which to this point is Obama. And Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean on Friday urged all those superdelegates to announce whom they will support by July 1.
But Clinton says she will not abide by anyone’s timetable.
“There are some people who are saying, ‘You know, we really ought to end this primary; we just ought to shut it down’,” she said Friday in South Bend, Ind. “Well, one thing you know about me, when I tell you I’ll fight for you, I’ll get up every day and that’s exactly what I will do.”
Clinton told FOX News in an interview Wednesday that the race is a “long way from being over,” and that she’ll take it to the convention if she has to.
The Clinton campaign sent a fund-raising letter Friday that argued: “Every time our campaign demonstrates its strength and resilience, people start to suggest we should end our pursuit of the Democratic nomination … and they know we are in a position to win.”
The promise of short-term reward is not lost on Clinton. Polls show her way ahead in Pennsylvania, which holds its primary April 22 and offers an attractive 158 pledged delegates. That is roughly how many delegates separate the candidates.
“I think there’s very little chance that Hillary Clinton will drop out at all,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “I think this will go all the way through to the end of the primaries. And look, she’s poised for a very substantial victory in Pennsylvania.”
But Democratic primaries are not winner-take-all. With a proportional allotment, Clinton has little chance of gaining much ground on Obama in Pennsylvania, even if she wins handily.
And party leaders are concerned that every day the Democratic race lasts gives another opening to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.
On the day that McCain launched his first general election ad of the campaign, Obama supporter Leahy called on Clinton to withdraw, citing Obama’s endorsement by Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey as the latest sign of her undoing.
“There is no way that Sen. Clinton is going to win enough delegates to get the nomination,” Leahy told Vermont Public Radio in an earlier interview. “She ought to withdraw and she ought to be backing Senator Obama. Now, obviously that’s a decision that only she can make. Frankly, I feel that she would have a tremendous career in the Senate.”
Dodd, who also has endorsed Obama, told National Journal radio that party leaders need to “reach a conclusion” over the next several weeks.
“I think it’s very difficult to imagine how anyone can believe that Barack Obama can’t be the nominee of the party. I think that’s a foregone conclusion,” he said. “I think you have to make a decision, and hopefully the candidates will respect it and people will rally behind a nominee that, I think, emerges from these contests over the next month.”
The upper-level pressure is coming from Pelosi and Dean. They are both uncommitted and are not outright calling on Clinton to leave the race, but they are stonewalling part of her victory strategy.
Clinton and her supporters are banking on uncommitted superdelegates to put her over the edge, and they are looking to the convention as a final opportunity to settle the dispute over the Michigan and Florida delegations. Clinton won the primaries in both states, but they were disqualified for holding their primaries early, and none of the candidates campaigned in either of the states.
Dean’s determination to compel the superdelegates to announce their picks on July 1 could result in a candidate being chosen before the Florida and Michigan controversies are resolved.
Appearing on CBS’ “Early Show” on Friday, Dean said: “Well, I think the superdelegates have already been weighing in. I think there’s 800 of them and 450 of them have already said who they’re for. … I’d like the other 350 to say who they’re on between now and the first of July so we don’t have to take this into the convention.”
In a separate interview with The Associated Press, Dean warned against “demoralizing” Democrats with a drawn-out fistfight between Clinton and Obama.
Pelosi, meanwhile, has urged superdelegates to follow the choice of the pledged delegates, more of whom favor Obama. She rejected an overture by wealthy Clinton donors Wednesday that she recant that position.
With no end to the intra-party squabbling in sight, Obama joked Friday that this primary season is “like a good movie that lasted about a half an hour too long.”
“I think there are some people who felt like ‘God, when will this be over?’” he told a Pittsburgh, Pa., crowd. He later qualified, adding: “It’s been hard and tough because both Clinton and I understand what is at stake, how important this race is, how important the next presidency will be to the American people and to families right here in Pennsylvania.”
Though trailing in Pennsylvania, Obama’s shown a resilience to the recent controversy over his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
According to a Gallup Poll released Friday, Obama leads nationally with 50 percent to the New York senator’s 42 percent, his biggest lead in that survey since the Wright controversy broke.
In response to Leahy’s calls for the race to end, Clinton supporter Sen. Chuck Schumer in a conference call Friday urged supporters to wait and see, citing the upcoming Pennsylvania primary.
Former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday that he expects the Democratic nomination fight will work itself out before the party’s convention.
“What have we got, five months left?” he told The Associated Press in a brief interview after a speech at Middle Tennessee State University.
“I think it’s going to resolve itself. But we’ll see.”
Gore didn’t elaborate.
FOX News’ Aaron Bruns and Bonney Kapp and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Hillary, you said you wouldnt have Reverend Wright as your pastor. Your Husband Bill Clinton did….
Did you and Bill accept the reverends prayers for you and Bill, when he prayed to ask God to forgive your husband and heal your marriage. Did you accept him then Hillary!!!!!
From one who has been disenfranchised by the democratic dictator Dean, I find it no surprise that he seeks to further the disenfranchisement of the remaining democratic participants in the primaries by encouraging Ms. Clinton to concede. It is immoral what he and the leaders of the demcratic party propose, are we in russia??? The rules require that there be a stated number of delegates. Neither candidate have that number…so the race must continue. She has every right to move this to the convention floor. Women didn’t get the right because someone thought it was a noble idea…women had to fight for it. A woman will not be president because democrats feel it is a noble idea the woman candidate will have to fight for it. Fight on Hillary, you are a historic candidate and it’s too bad the male dominated democratic leadership are too chauvinistic to even concede that you have the qualifications to be President. Sexual Discrimination and bias is alive and well in the Democratic party.
Just goes to show that the Democrats are a party of Racists. Ranking right behind a proven Liar and a racist just like his Mentor and Preacher for 20 years.
The lies will catch up with the Clintons. Just as the snipers in Bosnia eventually got to her. If Cliton is not nominated I really love to see the expression on her face! That’ll be prizeless.
Over the last twenty years political leadership in the country has suffered a great loss, the ability to lose gracefully. We teach our children to lose with grace. Little leaguers line up to shake hands after a game. At academic competitions the losers applaud the winner. At the annual pageants the runner-ups give out hugs and flowers. At the Olympics, many compete knowing that they have very little chance of actually winning and in losing they take pride in honorably representing their country. However, when it comes to politics the adults in the room forget the lessons of life and resort to their preschool behavior of “me first” and “that’s mine.” The lessons learned in victory and in defeat are forgotten. It is no longer acceptable to compliment the winner. Instead the loser “spins the news” to explain why thy really did not lose and why their opponent did not deserve to win. The loser today refuses to accept the reality of defeat but vows to go on in spite of the odds and at whatever the costs. They adopt a “scorched earth“ approach which in the end makes losers out of everybody. Our leaders need to stop thinking of their own future and start thinking about the greater good. After all is not the true role of a leader to think of others before themselves.
OBAMA SHOULD QUIT
Obama could not win any of the big states that really count in the general election. Majority of the states he won, are GOP states. In the general election they go to republicans anyway. Hillary has won majority of the primaries, where millions of people vote. Obama has won more causes where is much less representation. Florida and Michigan –the states Hillary won- combines for more people than all the caucuses combined (that Obama has won). So who really has a chance in November? Common sense tells, it is Hillary and not Obama. So, Obama should quit and support Hillary and try to seat the delegates from Florida and Michigan
Hilliary Should Quit the race, and the democratic party and run as an independent. The Democratic Party tossed her under the bus for a unknown, untested, newcomer who is challenged on his own racial identity. This is what the Democratic party has become, a Big Comedy Party run in the Shadows by moveon.org.
Clinton running as an independent will most likely break the democrats, but truth be told, the Democratic party os a party that needs breaking and reforming under new leadership that will not sell out America.
It’s obvious that those politicians that are Obama supporters do want Clinton to drop out, but that would be foolish. Why should she just hand over the nomination to Obama. We know that the strategy is too get McCain into office. I can see it now, Obama whip by backlash to join Mccain. Hang in their Hilliary. Show what you got to work with. A woman in the white house would be a breath of fresh air.
By the way, where is his record as a Junior senator? If she did eight things rightly and two things wrongly in her whole life, her mistaken rate is 20%. If he did two things rightly and two things wrongly in his whole life, his mistaken rate is 50%. Who is more accountable? Furthermore, He proposed relief for homeowners and the long-term unemployed as part of an additional $30 billion stimulus package this week, much like the one Clinton offered last week.
Fight on, Hillary! Let the body slams commence. If only she can get out of this figure 4 leg lock.