Belling The Cat
Robert Novak wonders who will be able to get through to Hillary Clinton that her campaign is over. The band has packed up and left the building, but she keeps right on dancing - and there doesn't appear to be anyone in the Democratic party who is going to be able to explain that to her. Nobody is brave enough to bell this particular cat.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Even before Sen. Barack Obama won his ninth-straight contest against Sen. Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin last Tuesday, wise old heads in the Democratic Party were asking this question: Who will tell her that it's over, that she cannot win the presidential nomination and the sooner she leaves the race the more it will improve chances of defeating Sen. John McCain in November?
In an ideal though unattainable world, Clinton would have dropped out when it became clear even before Wisconsin that she could not be nominated. The nightmare scenario was that she would win in Wisconsin, claiming a "comeback" that would propel her to narrow victories in Texas and Ohio March 4. That still would not cut her a path to the nomination. Telling her then to end her candidacy and avoid a bloody battle stretching to the party's Denver national convention might not be achievable.
The Democratic dilemma recalls the Republican problem, in a much different context, 34 years ago, when GOP graybeards asked: "Who will bell the cat?" — go to Richard M. Nixon and inform him he had lost his support in the party and must resign the presidency. Sen. Barry Goldwater successfully performed that mission in 1974, but there is no Goldwater facsimile in today's Democratic Party (except for Sen. Ted Kennedy, who could not do it because he has endorsed Obama).
Novak reports that many Democratic operatives are secretly hoping that Clinton loses both Texas and Ohio by large enough margins that it will be unnecessary to bell her. At this point, it is very close to being mathematically impossible for her to win it unless Obama stumbles in a really big way.
Hoping for a miracle isn't a notably successful campaign strategy.
By Neo, Monday, 25 February , 2008 @ 9:33 am
The oddest thing about the Hiliary campaign, not receiving the traction it deserves, is that she has been a poor manager of money.Why else the $5 million loan to her campaign from her (and Bill’s) money.But actually, anybody who actually paid any attention to her two NY Senate campaigns could have predicted that a protracted campaign would run out of money sooner than later. Both Senate campaigns wasted vast amounts of money on two nearly "sure things".Currently, Hiliary is now wasting her (and Bill’s) good name in the Democratic Party.From the beginning, her campaign was destined to evoke memories of the "good times" of her husband’s administration, but also the the many "bad times", including her "crash-n-burn" with universal healthcare, the Travel Office stuff, the Lincoln bedroom stuff, the FBI files and Craig Livingstone stuff; all of which she had a direct hand (or was strongly rumoured to have a direct hand) in.Meanwhile, Bill, with his comments leading up to "Super Tuesday", has managed to reveal that he never was the "first Black President" by showing his "blackface".The campaign had been pathetic to be generous. Frankly, she has never really had "star power"; that was reserved for Bill. Now, with Obama sucking all the air out of the room, what little "star power" she had looks "thinner than p… on a rock."Presently, she has two options:1) go the distant (most likely resulting in a permanent crash-n-burn)2) pull out now (and spend some time in the Senate before retiring)Many Democrats, I’m sure are hoping for option #2, while the Republican are .. well it’s not option #2.
By sam, Monday, 25 February , 2008 @ 2:34 pm
The longer she sticks around beating on Obama, the better I like it. I’m in no hurry for her to stop.
By Mockinbird, Monday, 25 February , 2008 @ 3:18 pm
I know what Vladimir Putin would do!