An adviser to Hillary Clinton has essentially said that it doesn’t matter now many more primaries Barack Obama wins:
A top Hillary Clinton adviser on Saturday boldly predicted his candidate would lock down the nomination before the August convention by definitively winning over party insiders and officials known as superdelegates, claiming the number of state elections won by rival Barack Obama would be “irrelevant” to their decision.
The claims no doubt will escalate the war of words between the campaigns, as Obama continues to argue superdelegates should vote the way of their districts. But the special class of delegates, which make up about 20 percent of the total delegate haul, are not bound to vote the way of their states and districts, as pledged delegates are.
(…)
Harold Ickes, a 40-year party operative charged with winning over superdelegates for the Clinton campaign, made no apologies on Saturday for the campaign’s convention strategy.
“We’re going to win this nomination,” Ickes said, adding that they would do so soon after the last contest on June 7 in Puerto Rico. “You’re not going to see this go to the convention floor.”
Ickes predicted Clinton and Obama would run “neck and neck” in the remaining states and that there would be a “minuscule amount of difference” between the two in pledged delegates.
But he said superdelegates — who “have a sense of what it takes to get elected” — would determine the outcome and side in larger numbers for Clinton.
If Ickes and the Clinton camp think they can get away with something like this without having to fight it out on the floor of the convention, they’re even more arrogant than I thought they were.
February 17th, 2008 at 8:43 am
Never underestimate the democrats ability to fuck up something totally fucking easy like nominating Obama for the slam dunk election.
February 17th, 2008 at 8:47 am
As an observer from the UK, it seems that “win by whatever means” is still prevalent in the USA - witness the unfair election of Bush re: the Florida voting. Shame on the Clintons that they are prepared to resort to anything goes to get elected. As far as I can see, the majority of Americans are prepared to elect Obama, but what chance does he have if this rhetoric I read from Clinton’s adviser is true? For a country which prides itself on judging other countries’ election methods, I fear that America is once again prepared to do the dirty thing and elect someone who is not the popular choice by employing methods we hoped had been discarded after their unfortunate “election means” in the past few years!
February 17th, 2008 at 9:11 am
I think that most of the heavies in the Democratic party are going to have to face facts on this well before the convention. The party cannot afford to have Obama in the lead for delegates but not win the nomination.
Black America would see this as theft of the Presidency. So would young voters. Republicans would feed into that. I think it would be on a scale comparable to the 2000 “selected not elected” flap… but it would be internal to the Democrats, and it would fracture the party and cripple it.
The heavies will recognize this and will have to act to prevent it.
February 17th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I think the Clinton thing is very much “by any means necessary.” Hillary can’t ever run for President again, so she might as well make the most of her last chance. That being said, the Clintons are headed straight into a Greek tragedy situation. I wonder how her race hustler friends like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are going to shill for her.
As far as what Mary Clarke said, remember that the 2000 election was decided fairly. Bush got a plurality or majority in more states with a majority of electoral votes, so he won, fair and square. Those were the rules going in, and that’s the way it came out.
I agree with Wulf that blacks would certainly see this as a theft (regardless of the historical facts from 2000), and wonder if putting Obama on the Veep spot would placate anyone. Now one can say that Hillary Clinton would still win according to Democrat Party rules, but the victory would hearken back to the days of smoke-filled rooms. All this being said, she would still be a formidable candidate in the general election, and I would not count her out.
Harold Ickes’ flip-flop on this issue is telling. Let’s see how many big State fundraisers Bill Clinton headlines for all of a sudden.
On the flip side, some people better be careful what they wish for with Barack Obama. They might get it!
February 17th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Wulf,
The Democratic superdelegates aren’t stupid. If Obama is the people’s choice, I think they’ll go with him. Also, they want to win in November and, right now, it looks like the candidate best positioned to beat McCain is Barack Obama.