Yeah, that is something that just annoys me too. When you're trailing (and are not mathematically inclined to actually win) it is pretty arrogant to offer the 2nd place job to the leader. It'd be like the Patriots offering the Giants 2nd place in the Superbowl at half time.

It's the Clinton spin: poor me, underdog, victim. The defensive crouch they are always in. This way putting Obama on her ticket looks like a gracious act of compromise.

because HRC vs. McCain makes for better news, and the only scenario in which both HRC & BHO are on the same ticket is HRC at the top. BHO isn't dumb enough to run with a monster as VIP.

This drives me nutty, too. But I no longer trust myself to look at this situation rationally. I seethe with a white hot hatred for that woman, Mrs. Clinton, and the people she's surrounded herself with.

Her supporters are fine (hey Terry!), but sweet Jesus I don't know what I'll do if she's the nominee.

Don't write off my home state, though, Dan. Indiana could surprise us all!

As I commented on another post last week, if her name was Joe Biden or John Edwards, she would have dropped out of the race under pressure from the media and party officials by now. She's getting kid-glove treatment, though, because she's (a) a Clinton, and (b) a woman.

I don't necessarily think Obama will win Guam, Puerto Rico, or Kentucky; and Oregon and West Virginia may be close. But whatever--he'll still be ahead by >100 pledged delegates.

So why is the media taking Hillary—she who is behind in votes cast, states won, delegates sewn up—seriously when she floats the idea of Barack taking the #2 spot on her ticket?

It's just like what Dubya did in Florida in 2000: immediately declare victory so that the other guy looks like the sore loser whenever he opens his mouth.

"So why is the media taking Hillary—she who is behind in votes cast, states won, delegates sewn up—seriously when she floats the idea of Barack taking the #2 spot on her ticket?"

Two words for you, Dan: "for-profit corporation"

Well when the facts are as plain and open as they are, she looks like an arrogant idiot with no grasp of reality.

I'm souring more and more on Clinton every day she remains in this race. With the Clintons it seems like it's all smear (comparing Obama to Karl Rove), dirty tricks (scary non-sensical 3AM commercials), and cozying up to frenemies like Rush Limbaugh. This is clearly a person/couple hell bent for personal gain rather than serving the best interests of the country.

As a guy who grew up in Wyoming I knew that it was coming. I also knew that it would be considered insignificant in the eyes of the media. But the interesting thing is that Obama is going to get just about as many net-delegates out of WY as Hillary got in the TX primaries. So it appears that the nations smallest state will be just as important as the nations second largest state.

Actually, Jesse, TX is likely to end up either dead-even or a loss for Clinton in terms of delegates once the caucus delegates are allocated. She narrowly won the popular-vote primary, and lost the caucuses there badly.

The Clinton strategy at this point is not based on delegates. It's about destroying Obama's viability as a candidate. They can't win on pledged delegates, probably even if they somehow get the Florida/Michigan results counted. So they are trying to boost his negatives so high he becomes, in the eyes of party poobahs, "unelectable." Hillary can then swoop in to claim the nomination. Saying Obama can be her #2 is their way of continuing the marginalizaion trend while trying not to alienate all the new voters he has brought in. It says, "well, he's not ready to be president, but he can learn the ropes while Hillary keeps us all safe from the terrorists."

The strategy, if effective, will quite possibly--probably, even--result in a McCain presidency (since Obama almost certainly won't accept the #2 slot, and too many progressives will be disgusted with Clinton for stealing the nomination to show up at the polls). But the Clintons aren't thinking that far ahead. All they care about is getting the nomination. Period. Party unity? That's for losers. Why else would Hillary say McCain would be better suited for the "commander in chief" role than Obama, and that Obama hasn't passed the "threshold"? Sure, that kind of talk only pumps up McCain, but the Clintons will live with that. My enemy's enemy is my friend, and all that bullshit.

The Clintons have no shame.

MSM has not learned that this is a primary and not a general election. It is not about "winning" states, it is about winning delegates. As a result they look at each state through an electoral college lense which is not very accurate for a primary contest.

And I am irritated that they keep saying Obama has not delivered a knock out blow; My question is why hasn't Clinton delivered the knock out blow to Obama?

The media sucks.

'cause she's a VooDoo woman who's bewitched them with her beguiling ways...

Why?

Because the MSM wants a race.

They don't want to admit reality, and they also don't want to tell you how abysmal are the chances for Red Bushies even in Red States - there are no more red states, only Purple States.

If Clinton does manage to steal the nomination, I sincerely hope that Dems show her the door by electing McCain, or giving their vote to Nader. Rewarding her for her atrocious behavior in this campaign would be a huge mistake.

Okay, am I missing something here? If I recall, Clinton didn't say I think Obama being my VP would be a good idea. She said, "[a joint ticket] may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket."

Obviously, she'd prefer it to be her (to say otherwise would imply she was giving up). But I definitely got the impression that she's not an idiot, she knows the facts about the delegate count, so either way would be a possibility. At least, that's the message she's sending (who knows whether she'd actually be his VP or just go back to the Senate).

She's a little bit like the Black Knight from Monty Python fame. Arms, legs hacked off, but still threatening to bite your kneecaps and bleed on you.

1. i believe hrc could get pr and w va, too.

2. a 7-5 delegate margin in wyoming resulting in a 2 delegate addition to bho is hardly significant.

3. hrc thru her arguments has been implicitly conceding that she may not win the pledged delegates race anyway. everyone knows this. so it's not hardly news that duh, if you look at all the upcoming states, she likely will not win the pledged delegate race.

4. i believe what she said was you might get to vote for both of us. not literally i will win, i offer bho vp. so.....seems kind of unity minded to me. obviously whoever is no. 2 should be considered for the no. 2 spot.
especially if one desires unity, or to win.
5. bho today still listing no. of states won as the top criteria. totally bogus and stupid, this euqates wyoming with ohio.

gee, guess he will latch onto any sound bite that sounds good to advance his cause. very old fash. politics.

6. don't know if this was covered already today but

latest polls show she beats mccain by slightly more than obama beats mccain.
she was up 2 pts over mccain i think while bho just 1 pt.

wow, just ten days agao obama was about 6 points better than hrc on that yardstick.

hmm. he's dropped 6 points against mccain in the head to head in a week or so, just because (a) the media starts to ask him questions and (b) hrc uses a few little patty cake attacks.

That does not bode well for the general election.

Why is he dropping??

Hold on there, AMB @ 18...under no, repeat, NO circumstances should anyone who has even a passing affinity for progressive values vote for McCain or Nader in the upcoming election. I think Clinton is ruthless and unprincipled. But McCain would be a fucking disaster.

OK, here's how the math works out: to win on the first ballot at the convention without the uncommitted superdelegates, Obama has to take 77% of the delegates in all the remaining primaries. That's never gonna happen. So it comes down to superdelegates, which were created purely for tge purpose of keeping the nomination from a flash-in-the-pan rock star (think George McGovern). And if that's not enough for you, after the first ballot, all the pledged delegates become unpledged. Hillary's no fool, and she obviously believes that, with all this room to maneuver, she can come out on top. And she may be right.

No way Clinton (Hillary) takes the VP slot. She's old than Obama & more experienced according to her. Besides, uh, Clinton (Bill) as spouse to the VP? I don't think so. He's been president, no way he's going to take that shit job.

UnPc

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/national.html

Polls, Polls, Polls.

@24 How can you say that? You know Bill would love to be in the same position with Tipper!

Giggidy-giggidy, giggidy-goo.

A month ago, I'd be satisfied with voting for Clinton, were she the nominee.

Now, if she's the nominee, I'd feel just as satisfied with staying home on election day.

Dan, Hillary will be heavily favored in WV, Kentucky, Guam & PR.

And Indiana.

Dan!!! Thanks SOOOOOOOO much for signing my books!!! I know this is a bit weird and im really sorry for interrupting you while you were posting for this blog but i just wanted to let you know i love everything you've wirtten. I'd love to meet up with you again and have a chat over some drinks.
Big Fan,
Alonso Maciel

5280 - you don't get it. The system is fine when tiny states won by a few thousand votes give almost as many delegate advantage as the biggest states won by hundreds of thousands but super shouldn't be allowed to vote their wisdom because that would give the people their say. No problem that a caucuser in WY has many times the power of a voter in Ohio.

Neither will have enough pledged delegates in the first round. No supers should vote in the first round.

Let's see how the news plays out in the next 3 months.

1. i believe hrc could get pr and w va, too.

Ok, and your point is what?

2. a 7-5 delegate margin in wyoming resulting in a 2 delegate addition to bho is hardly significant.

Why not? If he wins Mississippi too will that be insignifigant as well because it's a Red State or a Southern State, or it has too many African-American voters? How many more excuses will HRC make for loosing?

if you look at all the upcoming states, she likely will not win the pledged delegate race

So you admit she's lost, why won't she drop out instead of helping out John McCain?

hmm. he's dropped 6 points against mccain in the head to head in a week

Yeah, this is a poll in March...hate to tell you there are 8 months left in which BHO can make his case to the American people. This year the Dem's have a chance to take back the Presidency for 4 to 8 years, and HRC is now saying it's her or McCain. Give me a break.

good post, i agree with most of it, but obama is not taking puerto rico or west virginia.

he might do well in san juan, but will lose closely in puerto rico; and west virginia is basically an extension of pennsylvania's mining towns, i think HRC will take those 2.

i do wish that hrc would drop out, but thats just not gonna happen.

thanks for the sanity, 5280. People are spouting off like Hillary has no chance of winning and at the same time is somehow popular enough that she poses a huge threat to the 'unity' of the Democratic party. No one cared that Huckabee stayed in because he CLEARLY wasn't competing on the same level; that isn't true here.

What democratic party members have here is a once in a lifetime chance to provide input on where we want the party to go - it's a close race and competition's heavy.

So instead of spouting off unhelpful bile like 'I...hope that Dems show her the door by electing McCain' and 'she looks like an arrogant idiot,' which really isn't doing much for the vaunted unity that everyone's ready to bite off HRC's head about, try to convince your friends and hell, even strangers, in the remaining primary states to elect Obama for HIS positive attributes

I am getting pissed as hell at the media and Clinton. BBC, fricking BBC!!!, has a story this morning talking about Clinton actually winning it because she has more of the "popular vote". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7287595.stm
The article makes no sense and talks about Democratic leaders being hesitant to go against the voters ever since Gore in 2000...therefore the superdelegates will side with Hillary. WHAT IS THIS CRAP? Why is anyone even considering that Hillary has a chance in hell. She is behind, she cannot catch up, and the only way she can win is to get the super delegates to go her way, but they are scared of going against the people's vote...which is for Obama.

I wonder if the "liberal" media is just doing this to prolong the primary, which of course will "accidentally" help McCain.

HRC's offering the no. 2 spot to BHO obviously invites him to reciprocate, which no way in hell should he do but might make him look ungracious. BHO will win Indiana BTW, based on its similarity to IL and WI, but might lose KY, based on its similarity to TN. PR's Hispanics include blacks, so it's different from other Hispanic-heavy states and might go for BHO.

um @35, the headline is a dubious sounding 'Can Hillary Clinton still win?', and in the second section, it notes that 'Mrs Clinton's victories...have kept her within striking distance of taking the popular vote from Obama'

Hell, the final sentence, in reference to her options, states that 'there is little room for error and almost no room for losses.' Did you read the article?

I suggest that, in future election cycles, the Dems only participate in traditionally blue & swing states. The red states will stay red in the general election. If that's the way we're going to define it, stop wasting money in the red states.

If you don't want crack to be dealt out of the "White" house, then you can't vote for Barak.

VOTE HILLARY!!!

I hope @39 gets deleted.

I hope YOU get deleted "will".

You know it is true. We cannot have a drug addicted black muslim as a president.

Sorry that you disagree.

Vote Hillary.

Also annoying: Every article in the mainstream press I've read recently says, "A bruising race since Clinton revived her campaign in Texas and Ohio" or "This back and forth race." Clinton picked up few to none delegates last Tuesday. Barack Obama has, in fact, an insurmountable delegate lead (go to Slate's delegate calculator if you don't believe me). She's going to tear the democratic party down to steal the primary so she can get annihilated by McCain in the general, just about the only way the Dems could lose this election. Let the Pyhrric victory watch begin.