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.
This is to the moderator, I have posted on more than this topic and have only seen three replies, what gives? Please e-mail me with answer.
Although I’m not a fan of Governor Romney, thus far he is the only politician who has shown any sign of class and apparently one of the few with an ego still in check. The possibility of a lawyer giving up on the greatest prize of all, especially when neither one is paying the bill is virtually zero. Good luck Hillary, I for one am rooting for you to single handedly shake up the Democratic Party enough that the leadership will look inside itself to perhaps seek leadership that reflects the greatness of FDR. As long as she plays by the rules, please continue…….
She can’t win. She cannot catch up in delegates or win the popular vote. She really believes she os “owed” the White House. She is full of herself. She was favored before this election began and now that the people have put her behind she doesn’t like it. Change the rules, lie about Bosnia she will do and try anything to win. Her negatives are going up daily. She is not the type of person that I want as my President. I haven’t even mentioned Whitewater and of course her loving husband. It would be great to see him in the White House again. What are you Clinton backers thinking?
Clinton is a poor representative for president. The democrats should have come up with a smarter and better candidate then Clinton especially if they wanted a women to run. There is nothing good about Clinton as a person and certainly nothing good about her as represenatative of the American people. The sooner we get her out of there the better off this country will be.
She should drop out. She has split the party. She is damaging it further every day she stays in. She has lost. There is no way short of a miracle that she will be the nominee. She is behind and if she is the leader she says she is, she should quit.
Fat chance. She wants this so bad she can taste it. She thinks she’s entitled to it. It shows.
I use to think people were out to get Hillary, but she has shown a side of her that is not pleasing and certainly not in a way that is concerned with the Party. It is not about not quitting, it is about the things she says that should be left for the opposite party to say in ghe general election. Are we really to beleive if she is not the winner, that her standing next to Barak and asking people to support him, would have a positive influence?
Unfortunatelly, she does not have the charisma that Bill had which made people want to believe in him. She is not looking very good right now. It is truly her choice to quit or not, however, her mark on this primary season is also a choice for her to make. Originally, I thought her being president would be very polarizing, regardless of how well she did. Now, I know this would be a factor and not only by those who are Republicans but also Democrats.
Poor Hillary being bullied-can you imagine that-better yet what would happen if she had to face real threats to our national security rather than say imaginary sniping? Playing the little girl victim card will not cut it-Obama and Mc Cain seem much mo0re straight forward in answering criticism by citing the issues involved rather than whimpering about being unfairly treated.
Once again, it those darn Obama supporters that think they can dictate how this goes. Why dont you tell Mr “Obama” do let florida and Michigan revote. This hypocritic makes me so disgusted. Yeah, they want Clinton to pull out before more surfaces on old Obama. And we all know it will. He needs to drop out. There isnt know way in hell, he could ever win the general election.
Hillary Clinton is a sleazy scumbag. Anybody who supports her is not facing the reality of this. She lives in a fantasy world about being under sniper fire, Chelsea jogging around the World Trade Center at the time of the attack, her bringing peace to Ireland, etc. etc. The Clinton’s have told so many lies it is hard to keep track and then creeps like Lanny Davis go on TV and say she only misspoke!!?? I have to laugh at these kind of liars and thieves. They act like
they will do it all for the middle class; whent he election is over the middle class working taxpayers will be forgotten just like always! Could someone tell me what Clinton has been doing for me for the last 8 years. As a senator from New York she could have been introducing
legislation to make things better; the only thing she has done is plan for her run for the White
House! Sorry you old hag; it just aint gonna happen….
Hillary or McCain 08!
Obama changed the Jeremiah Wright calamity from a values issue tor a race issue and the salivating media bought it wholesale. But, the Obamas still attend the church with its black liberation ideology. Nothing has changed but Obama’s stories…. He fits the story to the moment - true or not! Obama lacks authenticity, integrity and trustworthiness!
Obama is America’s worst nightmare!
He is an obfuscating, untruthful story teller with a lopsided view of America and a black liberation ideology. He is a con man with nothing to recommend him but an extremely biased media, some misogynystic males who favor his gender and blacks who see only his color .
This time people will not vote along party lines! They will vote for the best person to be president!
Hillary or McCain 08!