Unwilling to Fall, Clinton Knocks Out a Convincing Victory and Moves Onward
Tuesday: Hillary Clinton acknowledges supporters at her West Virginia primary night rally at the Charleston Civic Center. (AP Photo)
Hillary Clinton met her own expectations with a landslide win in West Virginia, adding to her delegate total and giving her the right to continue on in the final contests of the battle for the Democratic nomination.
But, as she returns to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, she also finds herself with renewed commitment to fight on against Barack Obama with a campaign that already is $20 million in debt. And she will have to shout to be heard over the increasing din that is focusing on the likely fight between Obama and Republican contender John McCain.
Clinton planned to meet with committed and uncommitted superdelegates Wednesday, but also with members of her national finance team in what is a bit of a breather before heading on to the final votes in Kentucky, Oregon, Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico over the next three weeks.
Meanwhile, Obama was campaigning and meeting with newspaper editorial boards in Michigan Wednesday, a state in which he refused to appear on the ballot to support the Democratic National Committee’s decision to penalize the state for holding its primary ahead of Super Tuesday, Feb. 5.
With Clinton vowing to stay in the race until every vote is counted — and the party likely to find a mechanism to seat Michigan as well as the also-penalized state of Florida at the Democratic National Convention in August — Obama may be trying to sew up some loose ends.
Some of those loose ends might include continuing his superdelegate grab. He racked up two more on Wednesday: Rep. Peter Visclosky of Indiana and Democrats Abroad chair Christine Schon Marques. But Clinton also grabbed up a superdelegate, Vicky Harwell, head of the Tennessee Federation of Democratic Women.
But the Illinois senator is talking like he is already the nominee, and heading to Michigan could be his attempt to signal that he has moved on to the general election and is preparing to fight for the potential battleground state against presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. Obama headed to Michigan Tuesday night from Missouri, another expected battleground, where he delivered a speech at an economic forum without ever mentioning Clinton’s name.
With his wide lead in total delegates and much of the political talking class in Washington ready to designate Obama as the Democratic nominee, Clinton has quite a mountain to climb to convince Democrats she’s the best candidate. But the New York senator tried her best to signal that her 41-point margin of victory in West Virginia proves the race is far from over.
“There are some who have wanted to cut this race short. They say ‘give up, it’s too hard, the mountain is too high,’” Clinton told supporters at a primary night rally in Charleston. “But here in West Virginia, you know a thing or two about rough roads to the top of the mountain. We know from the Bible that faith can move mountains and, my friends, the faith of the Mountain State has moved me. I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard.
“We are in the homestretch, there are only three weeks left … and your support can make the difference between winning and losing,” she said.
As the race hurdles forward to the final five contests, a top order of business for Clinton will be to stem the tide of superdelegates drifting toward Obama. Excluding Florida and Michigan, 796 superdelegates get a say in the nomination. Of those, 285 support Obama, 271 back Clinton and 240 have yet to designate a choice. After West Virginia, Obama has 1,883.5 total delegates and Clinton has 1,717.
It will take 2,026 delegates to clinch the nomination. It had been 2,025 through Tuesday, until the total number of available superdelegates increased by one due to the filling of an open Mississippi congressional seat. Democrat Travis Childers won that election, but hasn’t yet cast his lot with either candidate.
Obama has picked nearly 30 superdelegate endorsements since last Tuesday, after a double-digit win against Clinton in the North Carolina primary and a better-than-expected showing in Indiana. Clinton’s Charleston speech Tuesday night seemed at times to be an open appeal to remaining party officials and insiders to influence the fate of the election in her direction.
“I can win this nomination if you decide I should and I can lead this party to victory in the general election if you lead me to victory now,” Clinton said, adding: “I am winning the swing states.”
Central to Clinton’s pitch is that she is winning large and fickle states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that Democrats need in November.
The results of Tuesday’s contest, as well as the exit polls, underscored the trouble Obama is still having attracting the white, working-class voters that make up those states, despite his overall gains in the Democratic race.
“I think she can win if superdelegates ask themselves the question: Who is the strongest candidate against John McCain?” Clinton supporter Lanny Davis told FOX News late Tuesday.
“This nomination fight has a long way to go,” Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said Tuesday. “People say ‘why doesn’t she get out?’ You know why? … Hillary Clinton keeps winning!”
But West Virginia was one of the smallest prizes left on the calendar, with just 28 pledged delegates, and it is also one of the least diverse states in the nation demographically. Polls show Clinton ahead by double digits in Kentucky, which votes next Tuesday, Obama is ahead in surveys in Oregon, which is also voting on that day.
Obama is within 150 delegates of clinching the nomination, so even if he won just one-quarter of the remaining contests and about half the remaining superdelegates, he would seal his victory. Many political strategists are wondering why Clinton chooses to stay in the race, in the face of such daunting odds.
One wild card is the Michigan and Florida primaries. Though party officials have so far resisted plans to count those contests, Clinton repeated the call to do so at her Charleston rally Tuesday night. She won both states.
Speculation still abounds whether she is setting herself up to be Obama’s vice presidential candidate.
“I think she’s just preserving her options to figure out what she wants to do,” Democratic strategist Kirsten Powers said, naming the vice presidential nomination as one option.
“It gives her bragging rights,” strategist Bob Beckel said of Clinton’s latest win. “It gives her the opportunity to go on to the next week.”
America needs a president to realised that it profits man nothing if he gains the whole world and suffers the loss of his own soul through setting man’s moral law above God’s.
— From Michael Finnegan, Tralee, Ireland
The Character of a Leader is exposed when the greater good
for the common cause is put first.
Hillary’s lack of this quality shows her selfish lust for power
by kicking Obama from behind while Obama is crossing the finish line.
Hillary’s Flip Flop and deceit on promising to follow Democratic Rules for
the Primary counting in Florida and Michigan states that violated the rules is
another reason her negative is so high.
The media, the DNC and the Washington “good old boys” haven’t yet figured out or listened to the voters across America. We don’t want an inexperienced, elitist, typical politican to face John McCain in the fall. We want a proven leader, hard-working, tenacious, intelligent leader to represent us in the GE. One who can actually win the majoirty vote. The DNC hasn’t figured out yet that many democrats are poised to leave the “party” in droves if Obama gets the nomination. He is too inexperienced, elitist, far left and frankly lacks good judgment to lead this country in these very, very scary times. In the DNC’s eyes, the voters really don’t matter (see FL and MI - even though some other states moved up their primaries as well) and regard the media’s support as somehow the public’s support for their anointed candidate. DNC and media push for her to end the race and every single poll shows a strong difference of opinion with the public: let it play out.
Any objective, unbiased observer will tell you the push has been on since before January to “get behind” Obama and Hillary went on to win each time they counted her out. New Hampshire, OH, TX, PA, IN, each time “this is it”, and she wins. Sometimes BY HUGE margins, like tonite.
I will NOT vote in the GE for Obama, and will write in her name instead. I can no more, in good conscience, vote for an inexperienced, racist (contrary to what he and his supporters would have you believe, the signs, words and hints are all there), politician then I could vote for a Republican. Being from FL, I am not alone in my stance that not counting my vote now, as it stands, means forget me in the GE. Good luck.
Hillary, my humble message to you is this: If the “boys club” in Washington can’t take your strength, poise, intelligence and perseverance and the DNC chooses instead to nominate an inexperienced, slick, elitist politician, then PLEASE run as an Independent. Your 16 million supporters, to date, are behind you and we want YOU as our next President. Period
As a long time West Virginian, I am embarrassed by yesterday’s election results. Unfortunately, there are still too many red-necks in the hills of the state to make a rational decision. No wonder our state is still in the dark ages! My apologies to the other more progressive states for such an outcome. My hope was to have an outcome yesterday to help wipe that porcelain smile off Clinton’s face. Alas, not the case.