Clinton to concede race tonight (sort of)

Hillary Clinton is poised to offer a speech, conceding the nomination to Obama, tonight. Stopping short, apparently, of formally ending her race, she will nevertheless acknowledge he has, for all intents and purposes, won.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24944453

On to the general.

 

Yeah I just saw that too. So she gave up now?

 

In effect, yes. Apparently she is conceding that Obama has secured the nomination, given he will have secured the delegates by day's end (apparently, her conclusion).

VERY strange this has been leaked (wink wink, nudge nudge), on the day of the final primary, before polls close. Unheralded, to be honest, in my memory.

The conspiracy theory camp must be wearing off - with whispers of a "huge upset possible" today, I can't help but wonder if this isn't some astronomical Hail Mary, designed to bring out her supporters in droves. She will still lose the nomination, but for quite some time now, I've concluded she knows this and what she is actually after is, from my armchair strategist's perspective, this:

She has sought to make Obama's vulnerabilities as acutely patent as possible, and poise him for attack in the general; so that he will lose, and the country will get McCain/Bush II. In such a scenario, she will come back in 2012 with an "I tole ya so."

Or

She is seeking to bolster her strength as much as possible, to better boost her bargaining position with Obama's camp - V.P., likely, as I don't see her accepting a cabinet level post.

Completely an armchair, from the hip and cursory analysis.

 

its about time. this has worked to the benefit of obama any way. now lets see if she is going to support obama

 

I'd agree, she has shown her toughness. In my mind, more to what she has shown is that all she cares about is winning, using whatever bad-faith means she could to do so. I've lost a lot of respect for her through this process.

She is an incredibly gifted person. The shame of it is her unshakable belief that she is right, and all others are wrong. Her arrogance drives away the very people who might come around to hearing an airing of good views she might bring forward.

 

big deal. she brings nothing to the table. she should not be VP. There are a lot better people for the job.I would like to push Bloomberg as a better candidate.

 

That's good, she should have given up earlier
Some people don't know when it's better to fight and when it's better to just give up.

 

About time she cuntcedes!

I don't care who wins but I really hate seeing her ugly-ass clown face on TV, newspapers and magazines all of the time

 

You probably aren't alone

 

LOL. I guess you and she aren't best of buddies.

Meanwhile this race has been unprecedented in regard to the closeness of the popular vote, closeness of the delegate count, length of the period during which the primary was contested, amount of money raised, amount of voters in the primary and huge increases in vote totals.

In certain regards I'm largely indifferent between the two of them in terms of policy. I suppose Hillary has the ultimately sneakier personality, being married to Bill and seeing him operate for so long.

 

It might not end tonight, Obama needs about 40 delegates I believe, 31 electeds are on the table. Assuming he mirrors his past rural western state victories with huge margin victories He'll get at tops 20 delegates tonight, meaning another 20 supers would have come out in support of him by days end.

 

Reports are that it has already ended, in terms of count, as supers have come out today in numbers adequate enough to do the deed, from what I recall seeing.

 

if she don't get out by the weekend they are going to push her out. i think by Monday he will get more than 50 supers.
also she says that she would consider VP but i wouldn't bet on it.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/03/ap-clinton-says-shes-open-to-being-obamas-vp-candidate/

 

Countdown to the Nomination
delegates Needed To Win
Obama: 27
Clinton: 200

Source: http://demconwatch.blogspot.com

Source: AP tally: Obama effectively clinches nomination

 

One hopes she fully concedes tonight in NYC and officially endorses Obama tomorrow (I've read reports Obama is coming to NYC tomorrow.)

 

As of 5:30PM

Obama leads today's superdelegate count with 17 endorsements (14 superdelegate votes)
Clinton has one endorsement from a Florida superdelegate for .5 superdelegate votes. She has also lost 2 endorsements for a total of -1.5 votes.

Countdown to the Nomination
delegates Needed To Win
Obama: 25
Clinton: 202

Source: http://demconwatch.blogspot.com

 

she better give up before losing all her super delegates.
she already lost 4 today

 

Its pretty normal for candidates to concede early in the primary process, I guess the big difference this time is that the vote was so close that she didn't see the need to quit yet already.

I'm not sure Hillary has or ever had a plan for what to do if she lost. This current run has been planned out since about 2000 when they left the White House, and honestly I'm not too sure if they want to put in the time, money, and effort required to try again. Considering the amount they spent, they might not even have enough time in four years to raise the money they'd need to equal this 2008 campaign.

And you mentioned somewhere else in the thread, people who once supported her are losing respect for her. They won't make the same kind of money on speaking engagements and consultations as they used to when the Clinton name was associated with Bill's smile rather than Hillary's scowl.

Bill has been hinting for a day or two that he's looking forward to his political retirement...Hillary might not agree but I think that the odds are against her making a come-back.