Is Hillary Clinton’s Candicacy Dead?
John McCain thinks so, but then John McCain has some distractions right now. Even Bill Clinton concedes that it’s in its death throes, calling upon the states of Texas and Ohio to be the Lazarus factors that resurrect her candidacy in time to restore the Michigan and Florida delegates to the convention floor, co-opt some superdelegates, and overtake Barack Obama.
“If she wins Texas and Ohio I think she will be the nominee. If you don’t deliver for her, I don’t think she can be. It’s all on you,”
Hillary, undaunted, has recruited friends to form a 527 group in Ohio to start an Ohio SwiftBoat advertising campaign to counter Obama’s formidable fundraising, phonebanking and advertising machine.
The only person who doesn’t understand that the Hillary Clinton campaign is dead is Hillary. Let’s hope she doesn’t take the rest of the Democratic party to the grave with her, because Mark Wolfson and Mark Penn intend to employ scorched-earth tactics like they’re life support. Case in point: Before Hillary Clinton’s speech last night in Ohio, Tom Buffenbarger (president of the machinists’ union) let fly a spew of vitriol against Obama:
Buffenbarger called Obama a “thespian,” and he sarcastically referred to the junior senator from Illinois as a “wunderkind.” He compared Obama to “Janus, the two-faced Roman god of ancient times.” And he pleaded with the crowd to boo Obama’s labor record.
Early in his speech, Buffenbarger asked, “So now we have a decision to make. Will we rely on the Harvard Law Review editor? The silver-tongued orator from Kansas, Hawaii and Illinois? The man in love with the microphone?” — MSNBC
He went on to pillory Obama’s supporters, calling them “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, trust fund babies crowding in to hear [Obama] speak…”
If you want to see how they will beat the dead horse all the way to Denver, read this summary of yesterday’ morning’s conference call. I especially liked the spin on the 17-point loss in Wisconsin, where they said it could have been a 20+ point loss, but for the blanketing of ads and “negative messaging”. That should give a clue as to how they expect the next two weeks to go.
Never one to sit silently by, I put on my amateur pundit hat again today and joined the NewsGang for the show, where we went to Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba, Ohio, Texas and the Democratic convention all in an hour, while Steve Gillmor searched earnestly for his next target candidate to support. It’s the Kool-Aid. Seriously.
NewsGang Live 2-20-2008
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