The Sun Queen and a Very Real Contest
By Bud White on May 17, 2008 at 11:25 PM in ABC News, Advertising, Barack Obama, Clinton, Commander in Chief, Credentials Committee, Current Affairs, Daily Kos, Electability, Electoral College, George Stephanopoulos, Hillary Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Kentucky, MSNBC, Media Bias, Meet The Press, Pennsylvania, Popular Vote, Presidential Candidates, Superdelegates, West Virginia
According to Obama supporters and his allies in the media, Hillary is finished and the nomination is securely in Obama’s hands. David Broder laments that “If Clinton weren’t still challenging, [Obama] could easily devote a week to a swing through Hispanic enclaves from California to New York.” But Hillary is challenging and I take Hillary at her word that she believes she can win.
Hillary is telling her supporters that this race isn’t about the math, it’s about the map. She is well aware that she is much more likely to beat Mcain than Obama.
The endorsement of Obama by John Edwards dampened the hopes of many Hillary supporters. But Hillary is running hard and making some very interesting last-minute moves.
So, what is happening in Camp Hillary right now? Consider the picture prominently featured on Hillary’s Web site:
Hillary as Sun Queen — beautiful, strong, iconic — is a rather unusual move at the end of a campaign. She radiates power, empathy, and the vulnerability of John F. Kennedy and is strikingly similar to another woman of the people, Eva Peron:
Her conference call with bloggers on Friday was a move more normally associated with a campaign’s kick-off than the final few weeks. Also on Friday she began running an ad in Oregon which specifically targets Obama’s biggest supporters in the media:
What we’re seeing, I suspect, is another New Hampshire moment where there’s a disconnect between the media’s desire to quickly anoint Obama and the reality that this is a very tight campaign in which Hillary has a legitimate path to the nomination. I believe that Hillary remains in the race because she knows the state of the race better than the media or the neo-liberal bloggers. She knows what many super delegates are telling her in private; the fact that she will do very well in Kentucky and Puerto Rico; the potential for Obama to implode; and the imminent decision on how Michigan and Florida will be seated.
Although it’s a minority view, there are pundits out there who see a scenario where Hillary wins. Jay Cost of Real Clear Politics writes:
I will predict that West Virginia will be either her best or her second best finish, behind only Arkansas. Kentucky should come in right behind the two. This alone should be enough to induce some caution. I think it is too hasty to declare her finished just days before two of her three best states.
If, for a moment, we turn off the volume on Obama’s cheerleaders in the media and consider the results of Pennsylvania and West Virginia (41 point landslide!), it’s clear that Obama is the far weaker candidate to face McCain. The Clinton Team knows this to be true. They know Hillary will be ahead in the popular votes. And that without the DNC’s self-destructive but intentional games with Michigan and Florida, Hillary would have spent months with an “insurmountable” delegate lead and the nomination. Remember, Hillary was counted out before New Hampshire. Unless she says so, there is still a very real contest, and with Hillary we could win the White House this year.
As riverdaughter writes:
she’s not getting out of the race, not when she’s winning in the popular vote by more than 50,000 votes. There’s still Kentucky, Oregon, South Dakota, Montana and Puerto Rico and more voters to help her put some distance between herself and Obama. So, she’s in it to win it. And why shouldn’t she? She’s won more of the crucial states than he has.
























