Big Rewards Await Clinton If She Ends Campaign Now

Big Rewards Await Clinton If She Ends Campaign Now

www.huffingtonpost.com

She has ruled it out, but a prompt withdrawal from the contest for the Democratic nomination offers Sen. Hillary Clinton the prospect of major rewards.

One of the most inviting is the near certainty that the Obama campaign would agree to pay back the $11.4 million she has loaned her own bid, along with an estimated $10 million to $15 million in unpaid campaign expenses.

In addition, Democrats, both those who are loyal and those who are opposed to her campaign, say the odds of her winning a top leadership spot in the Senate would improve dramatically if she gracefully conceded now. The icing on the cake includes an improved political climate, giving Hillary and Bill Clinton the opportunity to heal the rift with the black political community.

"If she leaves the stage gracefully, as Gore did in 2000, she will be able to rebuild her political capital within the party fairly quickly, and over time most of her perceived and real sins will be long forgiven and/or forgotten," said Dan Gerstein, a Democratic consultant and Obama supporter.

While Clinton currently has her eye focused on only one thing, the presidential nomination, if she loses -- as appears increasingly likely -- her stature in the Senate will depend, in part, on whether she is ultimately seen as helping or hurting Obama's chances in November.

(visit the link for the full news article)

While it would be the prudent thing to do, I fear that that will not be the case. She is driven by blind ambition and the key word here is blind.

A related article states:

A senior campaign official and Clinton confidante has told me that there will be a Democratic nominee by June 15. He could not bring himself to say the words "Hillary will drop out by June 15," but that is clearly what he meant. I kept saying, "So, Hillary will drop out by June 15," and he kept saying, "We will have a nominee by June 15." He stressed what a reasonable person Hillary is.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

My question is: Why wait so long if the outcome is so obvious?

www.huffingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I did some quick calculations yesterday when the new primary results were announced and Clinton has no possibility of winning the nomination. If she got 100% of the delegates that are still available she would still be around 200 delegates short of the minimum required. Nobody seems to be discussing that though.

What she can do however, is stay in the race and deny Obama the delegates he needs to win the nomination (he would need to collect 86% of the available delegates to reach the minimum). At that point, no candidate can claim the nomination and the Democrats will be forced to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates to reach the magic number. Hillary will win in that situation I believe and it's the reason she refuses to quit. She may just destroy the Democratic party by doing it though.

reply to post by mythatsabigprobe


And tear the party apart and throw the election to McCain.

If that happens, her forcing the nomination her way, I plan on either sitting this election out for the first time in my political life, or vote 3rd party.

Originally posted by grover

www.huffingtonpost.com

One of the most inviting is the near certainty that the Obama campaign would agree to pay back the $11.4 million she has loaned her own bid, along with an estimated $10 million to $15 million in unpaid campaign expenses.

well.... that may be some reason/rationale for Hillary 'lending' her campaign another $6 Million just this morning on the news.
Perhaps her or Bill decided to 'pad' the campaign debt balance...
just in case of such a buy-out by the Obama campaign machine.

[edit on 8-5-2008 by St Udio]

No offense to the all the Democrats here but your party officials are solely to blame for the mess you find yourself in. The Superdelgates and the way the primaries were structured via delegate distribution and the exlcusion of Florida and Michigan were created by the great leadership of the DNC.

I don't feel sorry for your self imposed mess. Don't you find it strange that in a heads up matchup vs McCain, Clinton does better than Obama yet Obama will get the nomination?

As horrible as McCain would be as president, I see it likely that they ARE trying to hand the presidential to him. Just something along the lines of "TPTB" wanting only the worst person in power.

The Demoncrats being un-electable, in my opinion, could be the only way he can win and continue out the legacy for Bush, and even much worse things to come for us.

I found this hilarious...

"If she leaves the stage gracefully, as Gore did in 2000, she will be able to rebuild her political capital within the party fairly quickly, and over time most of her perceived and real sins will be long forgiven and/or forgotten," said Dan Gerstein, a Democratic consultant and Obama supporter.

Would someone please let us all know when Al Gore has, in fact, finally left gracefully? He tried to litigate a presidency for himself after losing the election, cried, whined, and probably soiled himself when the system finally said "Uh, it's over. You lost and you're wasting precious tax payer money and time by continuing to try and finagle yourself into the White House.", and then spent the last 8 years acting bitter and saying "Well, I'm the actual president anyway. blah, blah, blah." everytime an MTV camera was on him. Oh yes, and the man developed an eating disorder and watched his waistband expand on a parllel course to the national debt. How does any of that qualify as a "gracefull" exit?

Originally posted by mythatsabigprobe

What she can do however, is stay in the race and deny Obama the delegates he needs to win the nomination (he would need to collect 86% of the available delegates to reach the minimum). At that point, no candidate can claim the nomination and the Democrats will be forced to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates to reach the magic number.

Don't know if you took into account that they lowered the number of delegates it would take to win the primary.

On this website 2008 Democratic Convention Watch, it shows a bunch of different ways that the democrats MIGHT handle the Florida/Michigan problem.

But without Florida and Michigan delegates counting, the required number of delegates to win is 2024.5.

That is, if I'm reading this right.

As it stands right now according to this website, , Obama is ahead 1850 to Hillary's 1696 delegates.

[edit on 5/8/2008 by Keyhole]

Originally posted by grover
reply to post by mythatsabigprobe

 

And tear the party apart and throw the election to McCain.

If that happens, her forcing the nomination her way, I plan on either sitting this election out for the first time in my political life, or vote 3rd party.

THE ONLY RATIONAL CHOICE IS TO VOTE FOR A THIRD PARTY. If you vote Demistooge, or Republistooge, you are just voting for more corruption and erosion of Constitutional Rights. I find it insane that people cannot wake up and see how badly America has done under the stewardship of these two CRIMINAL GANGS who conspire to steal the livelihood of the American people and send all their jobs overseas. All while allowing foreigners to come here at will and destroy America with crime. They pass laws that protect themselves from future crimes that they plan to commit. How can people allow themselves to be such patsies?

I think the original article has it wrong. The later timing is necessary for her to deny Obama a delegate win.

I also think that later she will concede, which will in fact strengthen the general perception that she has done so in the face of no technical winner.

I also think it's pretty clear she has already moved in the direction of playing second seat to Obama-- whether on the ticket or later in Congress.

She's playing this one smart, imo.