After Clinton was defeated in February, what has she gained by taking this all the way to June?

[berni_mccoy]

Like it or not, this race was over when Obama won 14 straight primary contests after Super Tuesday.

If any other person were running against Obama, they would have resigned or told to. Even Huckabee had the sense to resign when he new the math didn't add up. But after passing the Huckabee index, Clinton continued running. All the way to June. And after the false bravado to look good in front of the protesters by saying they reserve the right to take this to the convention, what does it gain her?

Really, what has been gained by playing out the failure of her campaign. The media has gained. John McCain has gained. Have the Democrats gained? I'd really like to think something positive came out of this unnecessary process, but I don't see it. You could say the people of Michigan and Florida were heard, but that would have been true either way. The state parties challenged the ruling, and they would have done so regardless. The only difference may have been the protesters and a higher level of dignity to carry out the necessary process of seating their delegates. But Clinton certainly didn't gain out of that. I'd say she's lost more than anything in this process.

Was she ill-advised? I'd certainly say so. With the likes of Lanny Davis, Harold Ickes and Mark Penn advising her, at this point, she was destined for failure. But it's even worse for her, as she faces not only resentment returning to the senate, but tens of millions in debt and a possible loss of her seat.

When she set out on this scorched-earth strategy, I'm afraid she was the only one to get burned.

[polichick]

1. She's only ruined her reputation and lost any chance she had to be veep.

[papau]

14. She retained the love and admiration of half the party - and exposed DNC deceit against women/Hill

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

17. Please describe this "deceit" she exposed.

[polichick]

18. LOL

[ClassWarrior]

31. Yes, a couple of bus-fulls equals "half the party."

:rofl:

NGU.

[Occam Bandage]

2. Each state the campaigns visited experienced a rash of Democratic registration,

and unprecedented turnout. That's a good thing.

If she had chosen to run a positive, honest campaign, this would have been an excellent thing for the Democratic party.

[berni_mccoy]

3. Unfortunately, much of those newly-registered are now hotly divided.

Obama has his work cut out for him to bring these people together. It may have been better to get them to register *after* the primary.

[Occam Bandage]

Agreed--and the ad money could have been spent against McCain. Just finding a silver lining.

[LowerManhattanite]

4. Several free beers and shots? n/t

[stray cat]

5. She thinks if she can make people believe she got the popular vote she can run in 2012

[TexasObserver]

6. She's earned the scorn of over half of all Democrats.

She's earned a place in history as blowing a quarter of a billion dollars and LOSING.

[grytpype]

7. She didn't have the brains, the guts, or the class to get behind Obama.

[sfam]

8. If Hillary had dropped out after Wisconsin, I think she'd be the odds on fav for VP...

The only good thing that's happened since then has been massive Dem voter registration. This isn't a bad thing, so I think we can agree that some good has come out of it. But yeah...lots of bitterness has come as well.

[JVS]

9. a whopping campaign debt

[BzaDem]

10. Um, Huckabee dropped out after McCain hit the magic number.

And HRC will do the same.

[sfam]

13. Be Honest - Huckabee was just along for the ride for a good stretch...

He stopped saying ANYTHING negative about McCain, and made it clear that he knew who would win.

[PBS Poll-435]

11. My Respect

And a boat-load of new Democratic voters.

People that, before, felt locked-out of the process.

[berni_mccoy]

21. Doesn't take much does it?

Obama is drawing the new voters, in case you haven't heard. He'd draw them with/without this extended primary.

[PBS Poll-435]

23. Be nice, now...

I look at places like KY/WV and even OH/PA. The participation by women and people that had long-ago given up on politics is really something special.

This year is historic.

[Lisa0825]

12. Well, despite the fact that I wanted it over sooner....

I do believe that her campaign made an excellent case for a revamping of the whole process. There should be a rotation in the calendar so all states get a chance to be heard early on. Personally, I don't care if NH and IA still get to be first, but the rest of the country should rotate.

I think we should keep caucuses, but since states which had low turnout to caucuses since they never counted before (like Texas) had many problems with the volume, now we know what doesn't work and can look ahead to what to do differently next time. It also really educated the public about the system. 4 years ago, no one I knew in Texas knew we had a 2 step process. This time, 180 people showed up to my little precinct and most stayed! The could bode very well for Texas races.

Of course this will all be for naught if the division isn't healed in time to WIN in November.

[berni_mccoy]

15. I'll take that as a silver lining.

[AndyTiedye]

16. It is About 2012

If Obama wins and gets 2 terms, Hillary would be too old by 2016.

If she takes it to the convention, she ensures a McCain victory.

[mohc]

19. For the same reason she might continue on to Denver

Clinton has had no chance of overtaking Obama without him collapsing since the polls closed in Wisconsin. Many Obama supporters point out that if Clinton has suspended her campaign then and Obama collapsed, that Clinton would almost certainly have the nomination anyway, but that does not speak to how she would be able to do in the general election. Clinton has been trying to attain as much "legitimacy" as possible, so in the event of a collapse of Obama she would not only be handed the nomination but be able to wield an effective campaign against McCain. The problem as I see it is that along the way Clinton could not help but use tactics to bring about said collapse. If this continues past the final primaries, it is going to make the general election very messy.

[Hola]

20. Nothing

She didn't even cut Obamas lead. He was leading byt 120 delegates in Feb, now he's leading by 150 or so.

It's sad...

[RichGirl]

22. We all gained from her staying in.

For the first time that I can remember, even Puerto Rico had a say in the outcome of the primary. EVERY state participated.
Maybe everybody else is happy with a system where two states get to decide our nominee? I'm not.

She also has set an example of preserverance, which is badly needed in the democratic party. We had two elections stolen from us because our candidates, Gore and Kerry had to make nice and concede way too early instead of fighting for what was theirs. I have no doubt that Obama would do the same. But, we know that Hillary wouldn't. If she is on the ticket and we have the same situation, it would be good to know that we had someone on the ticket with some balls! And it wouldn't be Obama!!

[berni_mccoy]

27. Puerto Rico? That's what you are hanging it on? Because I hope you aren't hanging it on her

"preserverance". Might want to use the spell checker in the future.

[RichGirl]

34. Who needs spell check...

when you have annoying little...oh never mind.

As usual, Obama people put words in peoples mouths instead of actually reading/listening. Did I say I was hanging on to anything? No, I didn't. I merely pointed out that PR, along with every other of the 50 states will actually have a say, meaning a vote, in the primaries. They had the candidate/s in their states, they were recognized. That's how it should always be. Not, two states count and the rest just go through the motions.

And yes, determination (can you check the spelling for me please...thank you) is what we need and Hillary has it but I don't know about Obama.

[berni_mccoy]

35. Ah, it's determination then. Ok, question: when does determination become desperation?

When Hillary refuses to drop out in order to provide opportunities to damage her opponent.

[suston96]

24. What has she to gain? A very powerful second position as it all heads for Denver......nt

[watercolors]

25. It helped many people change their minds

about her! Count my husband and I, we began to see her in a completely different light, one we began to question. As much as I would love to see a woman as president it became evident to us she was not the one. Her bitchiness and shrewness began to iritate us greatly, I feel she lost many of us along the way! I also fault Bill as part of the problem, I feel they both have been decieving us.

[berni_mccoy]

28. I would not call that a gain for her. :-)

But yes, ok, the exposure of her true character. I will take that as a general gain.

[Eurobabe]

26. A huge tax write-off?

I give up. :shrug:

[Stephanie]

29. What has she gained? A bad reputation.

The eternal enmity of millions of Democrats. She must be very proud.

[RichGirl]

36. If you think that MILLIONS...

of democrats see Hillary through the same distortion that you do, then you need to get out of DU once in a while and get a look at the real world.

[snooper2]

30. millions in debt?

:evilgrin:






GOBAMA!

[K Gardner]

32. The country and our party, as a whole, have lost much due to her self-serving, egomaniacal,

divisive, race-baiting, gender-baiting, sexism-baiting, underhanded, narcisisstic and filthy campaign. I would never have dreamed in a million years the Democratic Party would not have the balls to stand up to the hate she has promoted. But there you have it. Our spineless leaders did nothing but sit back and watch the Clinton's scorch the earth of our party.. which is now a laughingstock. They did what the republicans have been trying to do for years.

[grantcart]

33. There has been a downside - on the other hand the Obama campaign

has full fledged operations in every state with volunteers and networks active and ready to go.

McCain doesn't.