Will she stay or will she go? - - Update
The television commentators, Tim Russert most notably, opine that the Hillary Clinton’s campaign is finished. Joe Scarbrough of “Morning Joe” says her slim win in Idiana is “too little too late.”
The round up in the papers this morning seems to suggest much of the same. Perry Bacon and Anne Kornblut of the Washington Post note, “Clinton officials were increasingly worried that superdelegates, absent some overwhelming new evidence to make the case for Clinton, would move toward Obama to put an end to a race that many are worried is harming their chances in the fall.” Patrick Healy of the New York Times writes, “is bracing for one of the most difficult days of her presidential race on Wednesday, anticipating new pressure to quit the race and facing a set of financial and logistical decisions that will determine just how robust a campaign she can continue to wage against Sen. Barack Obama, according to several advisers and political allies.”
Charles Hurt of the New York Post says, “stick a fork in her - she’s done.” However, Thomas DeFrank of the New York Daily News disagrees: “”At the end of the day,” a Hillary loyalist who talks regularly to campaign headquarters sighs, “I think he still wins the nomination.” But not without a bigger - and longer - fight than Obama, and many in the party, had hoped for.” David Brooks of the New York Times opines, “Barack Obama is going to almost certainly be the Democratic nominee. He’s withstood seven weeks of bad news and he still exceeded expectations.” John Dickerson of Slate notes that Obama “(nearly) clinches the nomination.”
Final Results:
INDIANA
Hillary Clinton - 51%
Barack Obama - 49%
Final Exit Polls
NORTH CAROLINA
Barack Obama - 56%
Hillary Clinton - 42%
Final Exit Polls
UPDATE: Sen. George McGovern was the first “name” to come out today and call on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race. Lawrence O’Donnell reports that a high ranking Clinton official said today that she would drop out by June 15th. Michael Tomasky of The Guardian speculates that Hillary might employ “the nuclear option” and go after all of the delegates in Florida and Michigan at the meeting of the Rules Committee on May 31st. Ross Douthat of The Atlantic writes that Clinton’s campaign is finally finished because overturning the will of the people, in this day and age, is simply unthinkable.
Over at the Arkansas Times, Max Brantley observes, “Finally, where does the press get off urging Clinton to quit? As the writer who I have linked notes, she’s not the first candidate to continue to run despite scant chance of winning. What’s unprecedented is the media’s active urging such a candidate to quit. Of course media antipathy toward this candidate — make that hatred in many quarters — is also unprecedented.”
This is the point Douthat addresses in his post. Douthat suggests that the times are very different today and that overturning the will of the people is unthinkable. For example, based on every statistical calculation, if Obama gives Clinton her delegates in Florida and agrees to a 50-50 split in Michigan, he still has more pledged delegates and more raw votes. So the only way for her to win is for the suerdelegates to give it to her. The question is - and I suppose it’s one that relies wholly on opinion - whether that’s a smart strategy for the Democratic Party?
Jake Tapper of ABC News has 11 things Hillary needs to do to get to that point. As you can see, many of these are far-fetched, which is why the media seems to be arguing that she should leave the race. Will it happen? Not before June 15th, O’Donnell notes, and that should be plenty of time for her to assess whether a prolongued fight to the convention is worth it. And Obama doesn’t seem to be pressuring her. I think she better raise some cash in the meantime.
