In Defeat, Clinton Graciously Pretends to Win

[Stylerod]

Ok. This is just a funny story.

In Defeat, Clinton Graciously Pretends to Win

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, June 4, 2008; A03



NEW YORK "What does Hillary want?"

Hillary Clinton put the question to her supporters here Tuesday night, moments after her opponent, Barack Obama, clinched the Democratic presidential nomination.

What Hillary did not want to do was to concede defeat. "I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard," she told her fans, who answered with cheers of "Denver! Denver!" and "Yes she will!"

The campaign was over, and Obama had locked up the nomination after a flood of more than 40 superdelegates announced their support for him throughout the day. But in the Baruch College gymnasium here (the "Bearcat Den"), Clinton spoke as if she were the victor.

She and her husband and daughter took the stage, smiling, clapping and bopping to the beat. She said nothing about losing the nomination, instead thanking South Dakota for giving her a victory in Tuesday's balloting: "You had the last word in this primary season!" This, she said, confirmed that she had won "more votes than any primary candidate in history."
Clinton congratulated Obama -- not for winning the nomination, but for running an "extraordinary race." She recognized Obama and his supporters "for all they accomplished."

It was an extraordinary performance by a woman who had been counted out of the race even when she still had a legitimate chance. Now she had been mathematically eliminated -- and she spoke as if she had won.

Though some might think her remarks self-delusional, Clinton wasn't kidding herself; earlier in the day, Clinton had told lawmakers privately that the race was over and she would consider being Obama's vice president. Her public defiance reflected a shift in the balance of power that came with Obama's victory. Now that he had won the race, he would need to woo Clinton if he wanted to prevail in November.

"Obama has work to do," the outspoken Clinton adviser Lanny Davis told reporters in the hallway outside the gymnasium here. "Senator Clinton can't do it for him."

Obama's aides had done their best throughout the day to build excitement for his clinching of the nomination. "Obama needs 41 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination," Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer announced in an e-mail he sent out at 6:56 a.m.

It was the beginning of a day-long water torture for Clinton, as Obama aimed, by day's end, to reach the 2,118 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

For Obama, however, it wasn't a pretty way to clinch. He had won only six of the last 14 contests, and Tuesday night he lost South Dakota, too, where he had been heavily favored. Now that the party had partially accepted results from the Florida and Michigan primaries, Clinton could claim with some justification that she had received more votes than Obama.

And so the limping nominee needed to be carried across the finish line by the superdelegates whose support Pfeiffer announced throughout the day: a Michigan congresswoman, a Massachusetts superdelegate, one from Mississippi, two from Michigan, one from the District of Columbia, two from California, one from Florida, three from Delaware. "Twelve delegates from the nomination," Pfeiffer announced. Then 11, then 10.

The rush of the opportunistic superdelegates toward the inevitable nominee only worsened what was certain to be an unhappy day for the Clintons, who had arrived at their Westchester home at about 3 a.m. after an awkward last day of campaigning in South Dakota. Bill Clinton had flown into a rage and called a reporter a "scumbag." At her last event in South Dakota, Hillary had lost her voice in a coughing fit. Somebody had seen fit to play an inappropriate John Fogerty tune before she took the stage: "It ain't me, it ain't me. I ain't no fortunate one."

On Tuesday evening, the crowd began to assemble at Baruch College in Manhattan for Clinton's non-concession speech. The scene was made to look festive: The Clinton campaign ordered 70 boxes of Domino's pizza for the press corps, and set up a cash bar for its fundraisers, or "honored guests." The honored guests were not in a partying mood, however. One older woman pointed at a reporter accusingly and said: "He is the one who destroyed our heroine!"

A crew from "The Daily Show" joined the party, and, hoping to keep Clinton in the race, struck up a cheer of "Four more months!"

Such an outlandish thing seemed almost plausible among the Clinton backers in the hermetically sealed Baruch gym. Below ground level, there was no cellphone or BlackBerry reception, and there was no television playing in the room. That meant that they could not see the network projections showing that, while Clinton had won South Dakota, Obama had won enough delegates to clinch the nomination. Instead, they listened to Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down."

Just before Obama officially clinched, the Clinton campaign issued a press release as if it were still in the middle of a nominating battle. "Wyoming Automatic Delegate Backs Hillary," the e-mail said. It didn't include the name of the brave superdelegate.

Terry McAuliffe, the campaign chairman, took the stage and read the full list of Clinton's victories, from American Samoa to Massachusetts. Introducing Clinton, he asked: "Are you ready for the next president of the United States?"

This brought laughter from the reporters in the back of the room, but Clinton induced the crowd to boo the "pundits and naysayers" who would have run her from the race. "I am so proud we stayed the course together," she told her backers, who interjected cries of "We believe in you!" and "Yes, we will!"

Only obliquely did Clinton refer to the fact that she had, in fact, lost the nomination. "The question is: Where do we go from here?" she said. She would figure that out "in the coming days," she said, but "I will be making no decisions tonight." The crowd in the Bearcat Den erupted in a sustained cheer. She referred her supporters to her Web site, as she had after many a primary night victory.

For a candidate who had just lost the nomination, she seemed very much in charge.

That must be what Hillary wants.

In Defeat, Clinton Graciously Pretends to Win

I think the important part of this story now is that Hillary thinks she has a lot of power because of the votes she got and is going to try to use that power to make Obama do what she wants. It will be interesting to see what that is.

[JaJae]

This is why her supporters are so against Obama. They're wrapped up in her ideology that she somehow won or that she's somehow entitled.

[thewise1]

If I were a democrat, I'd hate the woman. She's going to lose the election for them, and she won't even be the candidate.

[kinggovernor]

I think its kinda of ironic that thought a few months ago was that Hillary was going to use the party rules and superdelegates to take the nomination and "steal" it from Obama. My my my, how the tables have turned

[six6ftr]

I am seeing it a little different. I think she is going to let those voters that log on to her webpage with suggestions push Obama for her. That way she can say that it was the will of the people.

[WickedLou9]

Originally Posted by JaJae

This is why her supporters are so against Obama. They're wrapped up in her ideology that she somehow won or that she's somehow entitled.

I honestly don't understand what they are on about. She lost the election. fair and square She tried to win by cheating but it didn't work. I consider what she did to get Florida and Michigan votes cheating. But that's just my own personal opinion. She had no problem stripping those states of thier delegates when she was the "inevitable" candidate. When everyone thought she was a sure thing, she said, Yeah sure they shouldn't have a vote, they broke the rules. Then when suddenly she could use the votes, she starts going on about civil rights and comparing it to situations of rigged elections around the world. I mean get real. So when she actually managed to convince party leadership to give her a few of the votes from those states, she still wasn't happy and talked about the party hijacking her votes.
Obama played by the rules, he played the game better, he got more votes, he raised more money, he is the nominee. end of story. I Swear if I hear some moron bitching about her candidacy being stolen I am going to punch them dead in the mouth.

[Phantom]

You forgot to bold the part about the John Fogerty tune

[Stylerod]

Originally Posted by WickedLou9

Obama played by the rules, he played the game better, he got more votes, he raised more money, he is the nominee. end of story. I Swear if I hear some moron bitching about her candidacy being stolen I am going to punch them dead in the mouth.

It seems when there is a close election Democrats like to throw out the "election was stolen" mantra. They didn't lose, it was stolen. See FL and OH in the last two elections as examples.

[Rouger2]

She had to stay in especially for the radical feminists. Gave them a stage for their movement kept their candidate on the big stage longer. She'll will push it to the convention to get as much exposure as she can.

[JaJae]

This sums her up pretty well.

YouTube Video

[kinggovernor]

that is great

[Dispatcher]

Denial...I thought Bush has that market cornered, but I was wrong.
And Obama + Clinton = oil + water. I may be very wrong, but I think that I have a better chance of becoming VP than she does.