Today’s primaries in South Dakota and Montana mark the end of the Democratic primary season and, while the numbers make it clear that Barack Obama will be the nominee, the questions this morning all swirl around Hillary Clinton.
As the WaPo reports this morning, Barack Obama would like nothing better than to be able to claim complete victory tonight, but Hillary just won’t get out of the way:
TROY, Mich., June 2 — On the eve of the final two primaries of a five-month marathon, Sen. Barack Obama stood poised to wrap up the Democratic presidential nomination, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton weighed whether to stay in the race in hopes of delaying what appears to be an inevitable outcome.
Obama is optimistic that he will be able to claim victory Tuesday evening at a gathering in St. Paul, Minn., with superdelegates preparing to rally to his candidacy on the eve of the day’s contests in South Dakota and Montana and push him past the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
Clinton sent mixed signals about her plans throughout the day Monday. As her campaign recalled field staffers to New York, one adviser indicated that she would suspend, but not end, her campaign within days. But the candidate herself said she will continue to argue to the group of party insiders who will hold sway over the final outcome that her strong showing in recent contests demonstrates that she would be the more electable candidate in November.
“Tomorrow is the last day of the primaries and the beginning of a new phase in the campaign,” Clinton said in Yankton, S.D., before she prepared to depart for a Tuesday-night rally in New York. “After South Dakota and Montana vote, I will lead in the popular vote and Senator Obama will lead in the delegate count. The voters will have voted, and so the decision will fall to the delegates empowered to vote at the Democratic convention. I will be spending the coming days making my case to those delegates.”
I’m guess that she hasn’t heard about the rumors of a massive move of superdelegates to Obama by the end of the week, because the campaign itself is sounding like one that will continue all the way to Denver. And, at least some of her supporters still appear to be drinking the Kool-Aid:
We, the Illinois Finance Committee, want to show our full commitment to and support for Senator Hillary Clinton, in the fight for her rightful appointment as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee at the convention this August.
We believe she is, by far, the best candidate of the three, and the candidate most able to turn the ailing economy around, solve the housing crisis, end the war in Iraq and defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan, bring universal healthcare to our citizens, and finally make our country energy independent.
We also know she is the Democratic candidate best able to beat John McCain in the fall. One thing we are certain of is that the Republicans are good at winning elections. We, as Democrats, allowed them to win the last two contests, and we cannot afford to let that happen again.
Senator Clinton is ahead in the popular vote, and neither candidate can secure the nomination with pledged delegates alone. The automatic delegates can change their mind up until their vote at the convention, and that is why this nominating process must be resolved in August, and no earlier.
We Democrats will be united after our nomination process is completed, but only if that process is completed justly and in fair representation of the opinions of the members of our party. We believe nominating Hillary Clinton is the only way our party can guarantee victory in November.
Meanwhile, the rumors I noted yesterday regarding what appears to be the winding-down process beginning among campaign staffers continue, and at least one report claims that Hillary Clinton has named her price for withdrawing:
Negotiations are understood to be taking place between the Obama and Clinton campaigns about the Illinois senator helping to repay some of the massive debt incurred by his rival. One of Hillary Clinton’s donors said that the former First Lady’s campaign was as much as $40 million in the red.
In a conference call with major donors this afternoon, contributors were told by Harold Ickes, a senior Clinton adviser, that she was unlikely to pull out of the race until the issue of her massive debts was resolved. The New York senator has lent her own campaign at least $11.5 million.
One source close to a major donor said: “It’s not about the vice-presidency or any other position she might get. It’s about the money – in particular the Clinton family money.”
In other words, Hillary may have put up her own money, and Bill’s to keep her failing campaign afloat for the past five months, but she doesn’t want to actually lose money on the deal.
Apparently, she’s not willing to put her money where her mouth was.
Update: As much as I don’t want to get my hopes up until it’s official, it appears that it will be over tonight.
I don’t think I understate my feelings too much when I saw that defeating Hillary is a win for America.
Doug, you know that with Democrats it’s always other people’s money!
In 1980, Ted Kennedy took his fight to the Democratic convention even though he had a smaller share of the delegates then than Hillary Clinton has now. I seriously doubt Hillary will give it up so easily, or, as you posted, not without a price.
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