Obama's already won; why isn't it over

Again the problem isn't that Hillary stays in the race, the problem is that Hillary's campaign is trying to drag this down in the mud.

On the good side it has provided excellent proof of the way that Obama will bring about change to politics. Heck he already has and the primary season isn't over yet.

Hillary and Bill and their toadies such as Ferraro have tried to drag race into the contest in a less than favorable or honest way. It would be easy for Obama to respond in kind, but he hasn't. Instead he gave one of the most thoughtful speech on race relations in the past few decades, and rather than lower the level of discourse, he raised it.

Obama has raised people's expectations of what they want in a campaign, and people are sick of the old ways. There was the debate when Hillary tried to attack Obama for "Just Words" speech, and she was actually booed during the debate by the audience. Previously such attacks were the ordinary way of debates and there weren't the boos we heard that night. The change in tone is due in no small part to Obama showing people that we should expect better. The same debate Hillary got a standing O when she praised Obama and said no matter who the nominee was she could work with Obama to defeat the Republicans. That kind of unity was her biggest cheer that night.

Again in PA when she tried to go on the attack again and brought up the ridiculous bitter argument she was actually shouted down by members of the audience, and every time she pursued that line of attack she was shouted down or met with deafening silence.

The typical old style of politics that Hillary has been using is now being rejected. It is giving Obama a chance to show how he will effect change, and bring about a different tone to politics. It seems like every time people try and bring it down to a base level of mud slinging Obama hasn't taken the bait and has in fact raised the level of discourse.

I don't see how there can be much more doubt about how effective he will be at bringing about change, since he's already started changing people's expectations, and he isn't even the nominee yet, much less the President.

 

Huckabee did drop out, and released his delegates. Romney did your strategy at first, but he has released his delegates as well. The only Republican candidate with bound delegates other than McCain is Paul.

 

Clinton knows its over.

Clinton staying in the race is doing Obama and The Party a favor.

As long as HRC is still actively running, the race will continue to get news cycles. In contrast, McCain hardly make the news cycle, since there is no story except VP choice until the convention.

Whenever HRC throws in the towel, Obama will get a huge bump in the national polls versus McCain. Waiting until the bitter end, means Obama get his bump closer to the conventions.

 

Huckabee dropped out after it was a mathematical impossibility. He stayed in longer than Romney. But Huckabee stayed in even thought it was a long shot he would win. He also didn't start singing the praises of Democratic rivals over those of McCain.

 

Oh. I missed your point. Sorry.

 

If this were true, she wouldn't be running a "kitchen-sink" type campaign. She'd be trying to prop herself up or do something less destructive. She wouldn't be running a campaign that polarizes her voters against him. She wouldn't be telling her supporters - people who are going to value her opinion - that he's not qualified to be President.

The bump is nice, but it's going to happen regardless - is it worth costing the party 2 months of a general election campaign while McCain has free reign, and also forcing him to spend tens of millions more in the primaries.

 

Agree

Any publicity is good publicity. And as agressive as the Clinton campaign is appearing it's nothing compared to what The Swifites will trot out. The gradual desensitizing of the public to Obama's dirty laundry might actually be useful if he can continue to look presidential and above the fray.

Don't the people that watch Fox News ever get tired of pettiness and negativity?

I guess the people that watch Lou Dobbs never get tired of rightous indignation.

 

Maybe that was true a month ago, but not anymore. I think the public is gonna get sick and tired real quick of both Obama and Clinton. The rising poll numbers for McCain seem to reflect this.

The only good thing that will come out of this for Obama is it will make him a better candidate. Which he desperately needs cuz when he ain't reading from a teleprompter, he's borderline incoherent at times(unless you like hearing "uh" as every other word).

 

You can't compare Clinton to Huckabee because she's had so much more support and the race is much closer.

I agree with the math, and that the Super's will go with Obama. But you shouldn't expect her to drop out without a trigger point. She's headed for a big win in PA and to drop out before then would not be fair to all those who worked on her campaign. She hasn't really had any significant setbacks that would warrant forfeiting. I fully expect her to drop out well before the convention -- but you Obama boys gotta have a little patience -- let the system work its way through. She owes it to the people working on her campaign in states that have not voted yet to continue on as long as it remains this close -- even though the odds are ridiculously long. If her campaign suffers some major setback or when the Supers commit, expect her to drop out. If not -- I think she'll concede when the last state has voted. But not before then. And she shouldn't. No candidate with as much support as she has should.

You also shouldn't expect her to just coast through without continuing to campaign. And while I don't like much of her campaign (3 am pillow talk with Hillary is just disturbing on many levels) if you're looking for GOP talking points, look at the Obama's portrayal of Hillary throughout the campaign. Basically lifted from Rush and Co and has been very effective. (of course, if you think she's inherently evil, then I suppose it's all fair game and just facts ). So Obama will be fine. The veiled racial stuff would have come out in the general, just as McCains age will be bandied about in various forms. Possibly we'll be tired of this by then. Certainly it will have been called out by then. We'll all be bored of Wright, Rezco and the others. Yada yada yada. We're running out of skeletons for Obama. Expect Hillary to offer her full support to Obama. I'll very surprised, and disappointed (read -- outraged) if she doesn't. But in time.

In the meantime....quit whining 'are we there yet.' "how come it's taking so long.' Nope....we know where we're going...but we're still not there. You're starting to sound like a four year old in the back of the family wagon.

An Obama win/loss in November will be his own doing. There is no scorched earth. Hillary's backhanded endorsement of certain McCain attributes will matter less to the electorate then to the bloggers -- if they care at all. It’s his to win

 

Which of:

Major: At this point, it doesn't make sense to drop out - she's come this far.

Batman: I'm not advocating for her to drop out anymore either; I'm only saying it's over.

FranchiseBlade: Again the problem isn't that Hillary stays in the race

was unclear?

 

How about:

"Obama's won. Why isn't it over"

 

Gotcha. I assumed when you said "in the meantime, quit whining", you were addressing the people that might read your post, instead of a blog author that's not on this board.

 

Plus each of the above was framed in the context of it being OK if she stays in the race as long as she doesn't say or do anything that might be percieved as being bad for Obama.

So she can stay on....but as a spectator. As a formality. THanks.

I just saying -- there's no story here. There's been no good point at which she could have reasonably dropped out without appearing to abandon her campaign. So far.

 

I agree Hillary should stay in the race, but I'm puzzeled by what you call Obama's portrait of Hillary.

He hasn't really made much of a portrait of her at all. The one exception was his comment about her Walmart position. It was around that time that he admitted not being perfect and saying some things that were mistakes.

Even when he's defended himself against her attacks, he didn't do so by attacking her back in the same manner, he usually actually used it as an opportunity to elevate the conversation, or to use humor (i.e. when Hillary was trying to make fun of Obama talking about hope, and he said that he thought she should get good points for having good delivery and that her immitation of his hope speeches sounded good to him.) When Bill made the Jesse JAckson comparison, when Hillary stood by the Ken Star comparison, when Ferraro went insane with the racial stuff, and Hillary never really made any strong statement against that, Obama never responded in kind, and didn't use it to paint any kind of picture of Hillary other than to point out that those attacks were politics as usual.

So I'm not sure what portrait you believe Obama has been trying to paint of Hillary, when mostly he talks about issues, or his ideas of change.

 

There are two ways to win: get voters to like you more or get voters to like your opponent less. If you really care about your party and recognize there's no possible way for you to win, then if you want to continue campaigning, you'd focus on the first. Hillary, on the other hand, is focusing on the second. Her advertising in PA is now almost exclusively negative, and anything you hear from her campaign is simply criticizing her opponent. She has completely abandoned the "make voters like her more" option.

Tonight's debate should be interesting.

 

the democratic party is as self-destructive as the repubs. different sides of the same coin. when is the penn primary? who organized this stupid chaos? i am as angry at the party itself as i am with that **** blocker hillary. this is why i could never calll myself a democratic, because they are idiots.

edit:
and about tonight's "debate". oh, i think i'll watch bball, thanks.

 

It bugs me how you hold back, thegary. You never just unload on an issue. Get a grip! Tell us how you feel!







Trim Bush.

 

My understanding of Republican rules is that their race is over since the McCain has exceeded the threshold of pledged delegates and they don't have superdelegates. I will concede though I don't know how Republican pledged delegates are tied down and if they can switch.

The difference between the Republican race and the Democratic race is that McCain has surpassed the threshold required to win. Obama has not and given the super delegates nothing is certain. Clinton's chances are much much different than Huckabees.

Its understandable that an Obama supporter would think this way but I don't buy this and I think the Dem race dragging on actually helps Obama and will help the Democrats. It should be obvious that Obama hasn't been fully vetted and statements like his "bitter" comments aren't going to help him in the general election. IMO its far better for things like that to come out now in the primary when there is more time to address such things than later. It also guarentees that most of the media attention will be focussed on the Democrats and give a greater boost in terms of awareness of the candidate when the nomination is finally won.

 

I just hope these two duel to a draw and the dems cut them both loose and nominate Gore [i'd be cool with Obama as his VP].