-
sponsorship
When the Clinton campaign sent up a trial balloon
arguing that Democrats pushing for the race to end were trying to
“disenfranchise” the remaining states, we figured they’d be laughed out
of the room. (Would that mean Hillary’s initial plan to wrap up the
nomination on Super Tuesday would have disenfranchised half the states
in the Union?) We were young and foolish then.
Instead of backing off this line of argument, the campaign manager has now fleshed out an entire memo on the subject. Having all the states vote is “the American way,” writes campaign manager Maggie Williams:
The last time that we were told we’d better cut the process short or the sky would fall was when the Supreme Court stopped the Florida
recount in 2000. But Chicken Little was wrong. What was true then is
true now: there is nothing to fear—and everything to gain—from hearing
from all of the voters.
Curious that Williams chose the Florida
recount as an analogy. It's frighteningly apt. In 2000, the
presidential race was too close to call and therefore had to be decided
by an imperfect, undemocratic process—a Supreme Court vote. Clinton,
like all Democrats, would no doubt argue that the whole mess was an
affront to democracy. Fast forward to 2008. Again, we again have an
election that’s “too close to call,” according to the Clinton memo. But, in fact, they’re the ones who need the imperfect, undemocratic system—the superdelegates—to bail them out. Unless superdelegates push Clinton up and over Obama’s inevitable pledged delegate lead, she can’t win. (Do the math yourself.) So really, if the 2008 Democratic primaries are the 2000 Florida debacle, then Clinton is Bush.
It’s tough to make the lofty case for democracy
when winning relies on an inherently undemocratic page in the party
rule book. I suppose it’s admirable that they try.
-
sponsorship
To commemorate April Fools' Day (and show off her “funny” side), Hillary Clinton today challenged Barack Obama to a “bowl off.” We’ll take you right to the painful wordplay:
“It’s time for [Obama’s] campaign to get out of the gutter and allow all of the pins to be counted. And I’m prepared to play this game all the way to the 10th frame. And when this game is over, the American people will know when that phone rings at 3 a.m. they’ll have a president who’s ready to bowl on day one. So let’s strike a deal and go bowling for delegates. We don’t have a moment to spare.”
With some digging, Trailhead managed to unearth some rejected lines from her speech:
“I was impressed by my opponent’s spin, but it’s time for him to split.”
“And anyway, I’m out of his league.”
“Sorry Barack, you’re over the line.”
“I didn’t major in math—I majored in bowling.”
"Hey Barack, lost your nerve? Maybe you need a ball return."
“Get off my lane.”
“Let’s roll.”
-
sponsorship
Hillary Clinton must read Slate in her downtime. A
few weeks ago, John Dickerson concluded
that if pundits are going to compare the primary fight to sports, then boxing
is the best way to do it. The basic metaphorical gist: Two opponents fight
through multiple rounds (primaries), and if there’s no knockout, the final
decision rests with ringside judges who have watched every jab and uppercut
(superdelegates). Flash forward to today’s event in Philadelphia,
when Clinton unveiled
a brand new theme song: “Gonna Fly Now,” the famous theme song from Rocky.
On the surface, this new theme makes plenty of political sense.
Rocky is the pride of Philadelphia and made the front steps of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art as iconic as the Liberty Bell. Plus, Sly Stallone’s
character is a symbol of the American spirit—he may have been an underdog but
he never gave up, and he proved something to himself and the country in the
process.
Probe deeper, though, and the Clinton-as-Balboa metaphor is deeply flawed.
Hillary started out as the favorite, only becoming the underdog when she
started losing primaries and caucuses. If anything, she’s more like Apollo Creed,
the undisputed champ who didn’t take an upstart opponent seriously. (Plus, few
of us think of Clinton
as the “Italian Stallion.”)
You
would think that Hillary might also take pause considering that—spoiler alert!—Rocky
loses. Balboa puts up a great fight, but neither fighter knocks the other out
after 15 rounds. Instead, the fight’s outcome hinges on the superdelegate-like judges,
who declare a split-decision: Apollo is the winner. But three years later in Rocky II the fighters meet again. This
time Rocky wins. The takeaway: If Clinton
can’t win this go-around, maybe she can get off the mat in time for 2012. (And
perhaps, many years later, she can convince the Soviet
Union that “everybody can change.” But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.)
There’s one Rocky
scene in particular that gives us a window into Hillary “Balboa” Clinton’s psyche. The night before the big fight,
Rocky sits on the edge of his bed and tells his girl Adrian that he can’t beat
Creed. He gets in the ring the next day with one goal: He wants to go the
distance, to trade jabs with the champ for 15 rounds. He doesn’t care if he
wins—he only wants to prove that he can survive the onslaught and do some
damage in the process. He keeps on fighting for himself, his fans, and his
country. Even his closest advisers couldn’t convince him to get out of the
ring. Sound familiar?
One last possible parallel carries some salience: Those who are calling for Clinton’s
withdrawal say she should bail because she’s going to hurt Obama. During
the climactic fight in Rocky, Balboa
does serious damage to Creed. He dodges a Creed jab and punches him twice in the torso, breaking his rib in the process.
-
sponsorship
When you've got a 1-in-10 shot of winning the Democratic nomination, a day
without any major screw-ups is a good one. After avoiding any major
pitfalls—but also failing to lure Obama into any traps—Clinton has buoyed her chances of winning the
nomination to 9.9 percent.
The good news first: Yesterday we
relayed that the Wall Street Journal was reporting that Obama was
going to snag seven North Carolina superdelegates in the
coming days. It turns out somebody jumped the gun. He'll get endorsements, but we don't know how many.
Meanwhile, in Mississippi, Obama picked up two unexpected delegates, which
tightens the vise on Clinton
yet again. …
Read more at the Hillary Clinton Deathwatch.
-
sponsorship
You know when you say something, and the moment you say it, you know it was a bad idea? Democrats are trying to make John McCain’s “Make it 100 years” quote sound like that kind of moment—a gaffe of enormous proportions that he will never live down.
Barack Obama pushed this argument during a press conference yesterday, jousting with a reporter who pointed out that Obama planned to keep troops in Iraq to protect the embassy. “That’s very different from saying that we’re gonna have a permanent occupation in Iraq,” Obama responded. “And it’s certainly different from saying that we would have a high level of combat troops inside Iraq for a decade or two decades or as John McCain said, perhaps 100 years.”
Obama didn’t dispute that McCain’s ”100 years” reference was analogous to a long-term presence in South Korea—a fact that has made news. But he still disagreed that the United States would want to keep that many troops in Iraq for that long. (The U.S. still has 25,000 troops stationed in South Korea.)
To clear things up, here's video of Obama's initial "100 years" quote. And here’s what McCain said on Face the Nation, in his big-budget sequel to the “100 years” quote:
The point is, it’s [about] American casualties. We got to get Americans off the front lines, have Iraqis as part of the strategy to take over more and more of the responsibilities, and then I don’t think Americans are concerned if we’re there for 100 years or 1,000 years or 10,000 years. What they care about is the sacrifice of our most precious treasure, and that’s American blood.
In context, McCain’s statements seem clear: He doesn’t want the war to continue for 100 years. But he’s willing to keep a few brigades there as long as they’re not getting killed. Granted, he won’t say under what circumstances he would be willing to pull out of Iraq—a major hole in his analysis. But for Obama and others to paint McCain’s stance as a war without end doesn’t quite hold up. Plus, it gives McCain yet another chance to paint Obama as a neophyte.
Still, the opportunity to fudge the ”100 years” quote is almost too good to pass up. It’s one of those statements the nuances of which ultimately don’t matter—like Al Gore saying he invented the Internet or John Kerry’s joke about failing students getting “stuck in Iraq.” Whether or not Obama decides to seize on it, other Democrats no doubt will.
-
sponsorship
Surrogates seem to think that telling something to a foreign news agency means that their words won’t get back to the United States. How else to explain Sam Powers’ “monster” comment to the Scotsman or a new statement on Canadian radio by Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Clinton superdelegate, that “Barack Obama is going to be the next president”?
To call Cleaver’s remarks off-message would be an understatement. Cleaver goes on to say with brutal, hilarious honesty that "[i]f I do the party line, I'm supposed to say—and maybe I'll say just so if anybody hears it they can say well, 'Cleaver did the party line before he told the truth,'—we believe that a contest going all the way to the convention is good for America," he said. But he calls that scenario a “tragedy of tragedies.” Cleaver then reveals that he knows he’s supporting the losing team: “Even though I don't expect the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Indianapolis Colts, I cheer for the Kansas City Chiefs.” (Listen here.)
It makes you wonder how many of Clinton’s superdelegates are thinking the same way—sticking with her out of personal loyalty but ready to bolt if they see an opening. That could take the form of an insurmountable delegate lead by Obama (which he, er, already has), a swing of superdelegates, or big victories in North Carolina or Indiana.
To be fair, Cleaver is a special case. His district went for Obama, and he has expressed ambivalence about standing in the way of the first black president. He’s not quite ready to sever ties like John Lewis.* Rather, he’s trying to have it both ways—sticking with Clinton so as not to tick her off, while publicly praising Obama so as not to alienate constituents. It’s a dance that, while perhaps not damaging to Clinton, certainly doesn’t inspire confidence.
*Not Anthony Lewis. Our b.