Along with the assassination of Robert Kennedy, the other reason for staying in the race that Hillary Clinton gave on Friday was the idea that her husband didn’t clinch the 1992 Democratic nomination until June.
Well, that really isn’t the case:
[F]or weeks before that June 2 contest, few doubted that Mr. Clinton would be the party’s nominee, including those involved with the campaign of his remaining challenger, former Gov. Jerry Brown of California.
“Even if it wasn’t technically finished, it was clear to everybody involved that it was over well before June,” Steve McMahon, a media strategist for Mr. Brown in the 1992 race, said Monday in an interview.
Even more, back then, the Clinton campaign (Bill version) was making the same arguments that the Clinton campaign (Hillary version) is now complaining about:
[T]he Clinton campaign in 1992 used some of the same tactics that Mrs. Clinton and her supporters now decry, like declaring the nomination secure early and encouraging party leaders and the news media to climb on board.
In the weeks before the California primary that year, much of the attention was already focused on the general election, with Mr. Clinton treated as the presumed Democratic nominee challenging President George Bush. Sights were set on November, with speculation about how Ross Perot, a well-financed independent candidate, would affect the prospects of the two men.
Recalling the race on The Huffington Post over the weekend, William Bradley, a California political strategist-turned-writer, said he had personally delivered a message to the Clinton campaign before the California primary that Mr. Brown “would run no TV ads in the California primary and would pull back from the sharp attacks,” in recognition of Mr. Clinton’s strength.
In fact, the race had for all intents and purposes ended weeks earlier, on April 7 in New York, when Mr. Brown made something of a last stand. It was ultimately a bust: He came in third, behind Mr. Clinton and the second-place finisher, Senator Paul E. Tsongas of Massachusetts, who had suspended his campaign weeks earlier.
That night, George Stephanopoulos, who was then a top aide to Mr. Clinton, declared that it was “mathematically impossible for Brown to get the nomination” — the start of a campaign to declare Mr. Clinton the presumed nominee, even as several other major primaries loomed.
“So, lightning would have to strike,” Mr. Stephanopoulos, now with ABC News, said at the time, a phrase he repeated last week to describe Mrs. Clinton’s chances against Mr. Obama.
But you know, these are the Clinton’s so they see nothing wrong with having it both ways.
Update: Even Bill Clinton’s autobiography puts the lie to the Hillary’s latest excuse:
Despite Sen. Hillary Clinton’s insistence that her husband didn’t clinch the Democratic presidential nomination until June 1992, Bill Clinton had a very different recollection in his own memoir, My Life.
He writes: “On April 7, we also won in Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. On April 9, Paul Tsongas announced that he would not reenter the race. The fight for the nomination was effectively over.”
I can’t believe this was a mistake, this was a lie as bald-faced as the Bosnia story, and it’s really becoming old.
H/T: Donklephant
