Clinton Name to Be Tested, as Primary Race Nears Its End
Bill and Hillary Clinton have posed a formidable challenge to Barack Obama. But pundits wonder how their party standing will be affected if Hillary Clinton loses the nomination. (AP Photo)
The Clintons have found quite a bit of success since leaving the White House. Bill Clinton earned more than $50 million in speaking fees alone, and Hillary Clinton won election and reelection to the Senate.
But no one really knows what the Clinton brand will be worth once the 2008 primary race is over.
The Clintons together have run a tireless presidential campaign that projected an image of political might, even as Hillary Clinton’s Democratic nomination went from inevitable to unlikely. In doing so, however, the couple has rattled party elders and alienated voting blocs that once held them in the highest esteem.
As Barack Obama appears poised to clinch the Democratic nomination, many ponder if the Clintons will ever bounce back to be the power duo they were at the start of the campaign.
“It’s never gonna be the same, it’s never gonna be what it was,” Democratic strategist Dan Gerstein said. “The name is never gonna be hallowed the way it was in African American communities.”
The Clintons are still ruffling feathers. Bill Clinton lashed out at a critic who challenged him and his wife on health care earlier this week in West Virginia. And after Hillary Clinton lost the North Carolina primary to Obama Tuesday by double digits, she turned to race as a way of explaining her electoral appeal.
“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she told USA Today on Wednesday. Then she declared “a pattern is emerging here” and cited an Associated Press article “that found how Senator Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”
New York Rep. Charles Rangel, who is black and a Clinton supporter, told The New York Daily News, “I can’t believe Senator Clinton would say anything that dumb.”
The term “graceful exit” is one that’s thrown out a lot these days by political pundits.
“If she bows out gracefully … she can in fairly short order repair some of the damage that’s been done to her reputation and standing in the party,” Gerstein said.
Though he noted the ground Clinton and her husband have lost among black voters, he said she has galvanized support among women voters, a trend that could lead her into her political future.
“If she does this the right way, (she) would be in a very powerful position … to be a real advocate and a voice for women in Washington,” he said.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen, too, said Clinton is “looking for a graceful exit point.”
He said he’s done the math, and “it’s done.” He said the only way Clinton can win is if Obama makes such a “serious mistake” that he alienates his own supporters, which Rasmussen doubts will happen.
South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the highest ranking black member of Congress, has already warned that the racially charged Democratic contest could turn away black voters, and he said Bill Clinton’s conduct on the trail had “incensed” the black community.
The former president’s most criticized moment was probably when he equated Obama’s victory in the January South Carolina primary to Jesse Jackson’s win in the state 20 years ago.
A FOX News poll in late April showed the former president was still viewed favorably by 52 percent of Americans, but not every survey is so rosy. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in late March found that more Americans viewed him unfavorably than favorably, 45 to 42 percent.
Hillary Clinton loses about 90 percent of the black vote to Obama in just about every contest now, but she wasn’t always polling so low. A survey of black primary voters taken by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in October and November found that 51 percent viewed Clinton very favorably, compared with the 40 percent who viewed Obama the same way.
But once the dust settles on the primary race, Democrats may just be willing to forgive and forget.
Democratic pollster Doug Schoen believes Hillary Clinton still has a bright future in the party, and that her near-50 percent haul in the popular vote this primary cycle qualifies her for an influential role among Democrats. He’s advocated for a joint Obama-Clinton ticket, though other strategists aren’t so sure.
“She’ll be a voice in this party … in years to come,” he told FOX News on Saturday.
After all, national polls still show her almost pulling even with Obama.
If post-primary unity is an issue, Obama said Saturday in Oregon: “I know there is a lot of concern about division but let me assure you: this party will be united come November.”
Clinton last week told North Carolina Democrats that she will gladly support Obama and campaign for him if he is the nominee. Obama made the same pledge to her.
Even Rangel is holding nothing against Clinton.
“We were with Hillary Clinton before, we’re with Hillary Clinton now,” he said at her New York fundraiser Saturday, firing back at reporters who repeatedly asked him when Clinton is dropping out.
“When in the history of this country or the world did winners quit?” he asked.
FOX News’ Aaron Bruns, Shushannah Walshe and Judson Berger contributed to this report.
Only egomaniacs like the Clintons could continue the bloodletting in the Democrat race without regard for the consequences.They know beyond a doubt they cannot win but will savage Obama because he has stolen her birthright.Then when people begin to criticize Hillary for her power hungry ambition she will dissolve into tears and play the victim while Bill goes on a tirade about how much they have done for America,and how wrong the Democrats got it by nominating somebody who doesn’t have the breadth of support Hillary had(read:white folks won’t vote for him).I’m a conservative so I don’t have a candidate in this election,but it’s still a hoot to watch Obama,Clinton and Mccain all pander to every political group they can find,except conservatives of course.
America will not be the same after the Clinton’s and that is strange in more than one view. History may yet reveal that Obama got to where he is because of the Clinton’s and after him America will never be the same.
Seeing how Obama could not even properly debate with Senator Clinton, except to usually agree with her statements, he’s going to have an extremely difficult time trying to run a respectable campaign or ever debate smartly against McCain.
Its obvious to me that if Clinton is not the Democrat nominee that McCain is our next president.
Good grief! People are burned out on the Clintons and their fractionation of the electorate. Retire this campaign already, and send the Paul Begala’s, Lanny Davises, and Mandy Grunwalds back to
where they came from.
I have talked with a lot of people they all say they won’t vote for obama. He won’t debate Hillary and it is because he knows she is more qualified for the job. The one thing I really like about Hillary she is a fighter. She fights for what she believes in and she will stand up to any bully that comes after her. She doesn’t play the gender card like the race card has been played. Even if the Democrat party takes it away from the real winner who would beat McCain in November and gives to obama it won’t be because she gave up. Hillary will alway be the winner in my book. Al Gore should understand how Hillary’s feels. He should had been the President. Remember the voters in FL their vote wasn’t counted correct and now FL is being treated unfair again.
If Obama is the nominee, I’ll write in Hillary’s name in November.
WE NEED HILLARY IN THE WHITE HOUSE AS PRESIDENT. IF SHE IS NOT ON THE DEMOCRATIC TICKET, I WILL VOTE FOR JOHN MC CAIN. I’M AM NOT ALONE.
It saddens me how Senator Clinton’s supporters feel towards Senator Obama. I spent 23 years in the Army and is now retired. I served my country for “ALL” citizens. I did not discrimiate between black and white, even though I am a black female. When it came to serving my country, I did not feel I was there only for a certain segment of citizens, but for all citizens. The bottom line is - THE WINNER IS THE WINNER!!!!! Senator Obama is not winning by cheating or not following the rules. He’s winning because of VOTES!! Throughout life, even as children, we have been told: 1. You compete. 2. You follow rules. 3. You win or loose. I am a supporter of Obama, but if he was loosing, I would not expect people to break rules to allow him to win. That will not be fair for all the citizens who has voted for him. Are the Clinton supporters saying they expect rules to be broken to allow her to win. How would that look.. I am also a school teacher, that teaches that “Democracy Works”!! Come on Adults, lets not teach our young people that you can win by not following the rules.