Is there one person who has the gravitas to talk Clinton into

[thoughtcrime1984]

ending an almost certain failed campaign without inflicting further damage on the Democratic Party? Maybe Sen. Byrd? I'd appreciate someone widely respected getting this vehicle in motion.

[Oleladylib]

1. Why?

[thoughtcrime1984]

4. .....failed campaign.......further damage

I spelled it out in the OP. I don't worry for one moment that she will win. She will not. It is time to for this to move on to GE mode.

[Hepburn]

49. Because her selfish, short-sighted conduct ...

... is most certainly leading to a victory for McCain this coming Novmeber. Now...if you like that idea, keep supporting Hillary and her nasty, racist conduct which is destroying our party. If you don't like that kind of sick crap...ask her to shut it down.

Seems simple enough...so what is your comprehension problem?

[MadBadger]

2. She is going to tear this party apart

While I think she has every right to stay in, I just dont see her winning. And the longer this race goes on, the more polarizing the party becomes. I hope we can come back together when its all over, but I'm just not sure.


As for who?...I'd say Chelsea.

[Seeker30]

9. Obama has already done that

When they accused Bill of race baiting.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

24. orange, lemon yellow, or lime?

just curious about the flavor of kool-aid that you snort when you wake up.

[BumRushDaShow]

53. What was Bill Clinton's point in explictly mentioning Jesse Jackson

and his wins in South Carolina (which shouldn't have been a surprise since he was born there) when Gore won SC in 2000 and Edwards won SC in 2004 (where SC was Edwards' home state)? Obama had no ties there and actually picked up a significant amount of the white vote when compared to Jackson.

(I expect to hear crickets)

[Justyce]

3. Why? All the states haven't even had a chance to vote yet. Why not let

the democratic process run its course.

[thoughtcrime1984]

5. Is it customary that every state votes in every primary?

It seems the longer a primary season goes for the Dems, the more likely it will end in a Republican victory. I'm sure that is a chance that certain supporters are willing to take.

[Justyce]

8. "Customary" or not, we are a democracy & this is the way

it's set up to happen, and every voter has the right to vote and have a say. I'm not for disenfranchising any voters. The length of our primary season will have little bearing on the actual GE. In the end, it's whoever we nominate against a republican and all they stand for, and that's a lot bigger than the length of a primary season.

[thoughtcrime1984]

12. What's best for our GE candidate is what I care about at the moment

Who can get her to back down? One vote for Byrd, one vote for Chelsea. There must be someone that would hold clout in getting this headed in the right direction.........

[40ozDonkey]

7. All aboard the Hilltrain!

toot toot!

[Justyce]

10. This site has gotten so childish. nt

[Tellurian]

16. Yes, it has..

99% of the Obama supporters think this is a popularity contest and equate a vote for a US President to a vote for Class President. It's not. We should be voting for a candidate best equipped to get the country back on track. Obama has about as much experience necessary for that caliber of employment as he does for a brain surgeon. Zero, nada, blank!

[cali]

27. and 99% of hill supporters pull "facts" out of their asses

99.5% of the time. Except for you. You do it 100% of the time. And of course, your ignorance is legendary here.

[Kokonoe]

hillary supporters used to talk about the popular vote.

[Tellurian]

47. Sorry, the last thing we need is a boutique candidate like Obama running for the presidency..

The SNL analogy of Obama as a neophyte not ready for the presidency was spot on!

[Hepburn]

50. If you believe Hillary is running in order to support the democratic process...

...then I have a bridge....

[harun]

60. The way they run primary's is not part of the Democratic process

Any political party can just say, here is our candidate. I see a lot of people confusing the Federally mandated right to vote with the primaries. Which no one has any right to anything in the Primary it just happens to be run similar to the way we do Federal elections. This is why I am confused by the argument Florida and Michigan voters are making. That ignoring them is somehow undemocratic. In most primaries at least 40 states aren't heard.

Anyway I digress. The primaries are the primary process, they are not the democratic process. The primary process works to get a lot of people committed to candidates early on and who will continue to work for their candidates until the real election. Now with Hillary not stepping aside the primary will not achieve its intended result. Which is to unite the party behind one candidate. So that is why it should never run out like this. It is why the Repub's leave it winner take all in their primaries. That hurts minority voices when they do that, but we know why they are not concerned about that.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Seeker30]

11. Samantha Powers is that you?

Just wondering.

[Perry Logan]

13. She knows that the Obama people can't take much pressure. She's going to shatter them like glass.

[janetblond]

21. Agree ...

It's over for Obama ...
John Kerry must be advising him ...
It's downhill from here ..

[ProgressiveEconomist]

14. IMO Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Sheila Jackson-Lee, and others who feel enraged and used by HRC

would have to quit and tell her off before Hillary would even begin to reconsider her Orwellian campaign turn since the end of February.

I believe Hillary is in the process of destroying her promising career with these desperate tactics, designed to appeal to the basest instincts of her downscale and Hallmark Channel demographic. Millions of people are not soon going to forget what she's done.

[thoughtcrime1984]

15. Is Tubbs-Jones angry with Hil?

I wasn't aware of that!

[ProgressiveEconomist]

23. Educated guess. I know she had to rationalize her support for HRC many times for her

Cleveland constituents, and complained about getting threatening phone calls from some of them.

Her rationalization was, "In politics, all you have is your word", which in her case was given to HRC many months ago.

She can't be very happy about HRC's inaction on Ferraro or about HRC's extolling the qualifications of McCain over Obama's. Her daily routine must have changed recently to minimize confrontations with what used to be her proud constitutency.

Sheila Jackson-Lee has been less vocal than Tubbs-Jones, but has expressed some of the same sentiments.

[kwassa]

56. Guess, indeed.

Tubb-Jones was quite happy with Hillary last week when she gave my wife a big hug at a Hillary rally.

Your guess is really just your personal projection.

[billbuckhead]

35. "Downscale", talk about an appeal to bigotry

[ProgressiveEconomist]

44. What "politically correct" word or phrase would you use? Your attack is a "stretch", IMO

[faithfulcitizen]

17. Riiiiiight....No. She's gonna scorch the earth 1st.

[earthlover]

18. I don't see much hope...

Doing what she has been doing. It has been one thing after another. Just when I think I have seen the worst, it keeps getting worser. I really hate to imagine what her campaign will pull out of its sewer next. However, the past few weeks/months have shown one thing is certain: the Hillary campaign will sink to new lows next week with something! Whodathunk Geraldine Ferrarro would say something like that (and not get fired for it)?

I don't know who Hillary will listen to. I don't think she is going to listen to anyone.

[UALRBSofL]

19. You want what's best for your candidate, it's pretty obvious

That said, we have 11 more states to go and that doesn't include Michigan or Florida(4th most delegates) which have to be decided on. So she has a chance, you just want her to drop out for your candidate.

[thoughtcrime1984]

20. Big surprise that you didn't answer the question

I want him to not be shredded before he gets to the GE, I know many could care less about the Party, Hilllary included.

[Justyce]

29. You're assuming it's going to be him in the GE. He hasn't been nominated yet &

everyone hasn't even finished voting. And not everyone who cares about the party supports Obama. Nationally, this has been a very close race. DU is not representative of the real world.


(edited for typo)

[UALRBSofL]

32. Dude where are you getting Obama will be shredded?

That's just paranoid thinking. I'm not worried about that. The campaign should run it's course. Once it's over, either candidate will focus on the GE. That being said, I have no doubt either candidate could defeat McCain. Take the time to look at his platform of issues. Once these issues are debated not one democrat will vote for him. Americans are ready to kick the repugs out. Look around, our country is near depression. What makes you think McCain has a chance?

[JVS]

39. I think McCain has a chance because of Hillary's glowing praise of him

[Birthmark]

22. Why are Obama supporters...

...constantly trying to crush opposition? Haven't we had enough of that in the last seven-plus years? Let the process play out.

[Spider Jerusalem]

25. It is played out.

She can't make up the delegate gap. She can't make up the popular vote gap. Not without victories on a scale she's only gotten in ONE state (Arkansas). It is, for all intents and purposes, OVER. The idea that the superdelegates are going to hand her the nomination, after the campaign she's run, when she'll have a delegate deficit and probably a popular vote deficit, is utterly MAD; it is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. And she isn't going to be VP, either (see Pelosi's comments on that yesterday).

I realise you're a bitter-ender, but you'll have to face the unpleasant reality soon enough.

[Birthmark]

28. She doesn't need to make up the gap.

All she needs to do is keep Obama from reaching the "magic number" and have it decided in the Convention. It's not a capital offense. Really. It's hard-nosed politics. Why anyone would expect anything less from the Clintons escapes me.

[Spider Jerusalem]

30. You have to be insane if you actually think that will happen, at this point.

She is NOT a viable general election candidate. And she won't get the nomination. Not trailing by 100-150 pledged delegates, which she WILL do going into the convention. Her campaign has turned into a bad joke. She has managed to seriously alienate a core Democratic constituency (African-Americans), who will NOT turn out at the polls for her in November if she is seen to have STOLEN the nomination from Obama. (And you can put whatever spin you want on it, but if he has more delegates and more votes and she takes it anyway, it WILL be seen as stealing.) They might not turn out for her anyway, given the perceptions of race-baiting by her campaign. She is a LIABILITY in a general election. You DO want to WIN in November, don't you?

[Birthmark]

34. Doesn't matter what *I* think

It's what she thinks. Of course, she can just as easily and just as factually claim the same sort of rhetoric towards Obama. (For instance, if Obama doesn't have the delegates required going into the Convention, then "stealing" is nothing more than hyperbole.)

[Spider Jerusalem]

41. Except she doesn't have an argument if she is LOSING.

And perception creates reality; 'stealing' is not hyperbole if that's how it's perceived, and that's how it WILL be perceived, make no mistake.

[Birthmark]

43. Of course she'll have an argument.

What that argument is or how persuasive it is to the super-delegates is what matters. If they believe her, she wins. If they don't, she loses.

The same applies to Obama. If he wants the nomination, then he'd better win the delegates outright. Them Clintons can be pretty tricky.

[Spider Jerusalem]

46. The superdelegates aren't going to do that.

They will NOT select the LOSER in pledged delegates and risk alienating a large bloc of NEW DEMOCRATIC VOTERS. Does Hillary bring millions of energised and motivated and ORGANISED new voters into the Democratic tent? No.

You apparently don't want to win in November.

The superdelegates WILL want to win in November.

And they aren't stupid enough to accept any argument that places Hillary Rodham Clinton's ambitions over the chances of an election victory.

It is really that simple.

[Birthmark]

48. That's your viewpoint

And you're welcome to it. But it doesn't rise to the level of fact. Neither of us knows what those super-delegates will decide or the basis upon which they will make their decision. So you are merely guessing. You may well be correct. But you may well be wrong.

[Spider Jerusalem]

51. Do you HONESTLY think...

that the superdelegates will consider the situation, look at Obama, with a LEAD in pledged delegates and probably in popular vote, who brings with him MILLIONS of enthusiastic NEW DEMOCRATIC VOTERS, and look at Hillary, who will be behind by one hundred to one hundred and fifty pledged delegates, and whose nomination, after the campaign she's run, will serve to ALIENATE a core Democratic voting bloc (African-Americans) and who brings NO new and enthusiastic voters to the polls, and decide to go with Hillary? Do you REALLY think that's going to happen? Because if you DO, you're out of your fucking mind.

[Birthmark]

54. You aren't thinking clearly.

It doesn't matter if I think it *will* happen. What matters is that it *can* happen. Bush lost the popular vote in the 2000 election. Many believe he actually stole FL. No riots in the streets...even from Democrats.

I think that you are projecting your feelings to others when they may not apply. The job of super-delegate isn't to valid what either of us think or feel. They're job is to vote for the person that they think should be the nominee. Where the popular vote fits into that will vary by super-delegate.

[Spider Jerusalem]

55. Sure, it CAN happen.

But the odds that it will are about as high as they are of both candidates being eaten by rampaging weasels and John Edwards getting the nomination by default.

[Birthmark]

57. All that matters is that it can happen.

Your opinion of the likelihood is obviously at odds with Senator Clinton's opinion. Perhaps she is better informed. Perhaps she's doing exactly what some have accused her of doing --trying to destroy Obama. Whatever the reason, until Senator Obama reaches the number of delegates necessary to lock up the nomination, she has a mathematical chance...no matter how unlikely.

[UALRBSofL]

59. The fact is we have 11 states to go

Obama is ahead just over 100 delegates. In addition to the 11 states, they haven't decided MI and FL yet and thats a bunch of delegates as well as popular vote. So, no it isn't over yet.

[JVS]

26. Because praising McCain and sowing racial discord are bad for the party and America

Hillary's candidacy is washed up and doing more damage than any good it could possibly accomplish at this point.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JVS]

37. Ferraro is a racist and she is way to close to your candidate

[Birthmark]

40. So, Ferraro is close to...

...no one. That doesn't surprise me. I always took her for a disagreeable sort.

My candidate was Edwards. I find neither Obama nor Clinton acceptable. I'm hoping for an open convention and the emergence of a *real* Democrat rather than a Semicrat.

[JVS]

42. Edwards sucks

Couldn't win a damned state this primary, what a loser.

[Birthmark]

45. Doesn't matter, does it?

Whether he sucks or not has become immaterial. But I appreciate you discrediting yourself. That took a lot of guts. :)

[Hepburn]

52. Hint....

....the opposition is that azzhat McCain.

[Birthmark]

58. I expect he'll still be there after the Convention.

I doubt he'll get bored and leave.

[MagickMuffin]

33. I don't think she would listen to anyone at this point

I called Sheila Jackson Lee's office last Friday to talk about her support of Hillary and how I thought it was damaging the party, and they told me to take it up with the Clinton campaign. :shrug:

I tried calling the Clinton HQ's and the phone rang off the wall. I finally just hung up.

[depakid]

36. Clinton's not going to just "go away" because you wish she would

That's not how politics works- and, frankly there's still considerable time for Obama to do something stupid -or have something nasty turn up.

Candidates who have meteoric rises and rely on his style of rhetoric have also been known to flame out just as quickly. You never know what's going to happen....

[JVS]

38. Actually, that's for the super delegates to decide. They could send her home tomorrow.

[Mudoria]

61. Actually I wish someone with 'gravitas" would

convince Al Gore to step up and save the party from two bad candidates.