Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Hillary knows she has lost, and now I have proof.

She lost a long time ago, really, when Obama started to pull ahead in delegates again and again. Yes, something unforeseen could have killed him, but those revelations (Wright, Ayers, Rezko, 57 states) didn't kill or even injure Obama - they just slowed him down and made him limp for a second.

Now Hillary Clinton has figured it out as well. I can prove this in a few easy steps:

1) She is not negatively attacking Obama anymore. This one was good for her even before she lost, since I don't consider the "he's inexperienced" jab a slimy assertion. Obama does not have experience at being President; no one does except incumbent Presidents. As for attacking Obama's character, that never served her well - it hurt Obama, but Clinton as well. By halting the negatives, she can not only go out well but also keep face by staying in the race until June/the convention.

2) Her base within the Democratic party - the people who gave her a MASSIVE victory in West Virginia - is about to have really good reasons to defect. Clinton won them by positioning herself as the 'average worker' candidate during the second half of primary season. During the first half, this was Edwards's thing. Now he's going to endorse Obama. More than that, there's some real chatter about Jim Webb for Obama's VP. Webb is a moderate Democrat, former Republican, won't stand for any hyper-liberal social agenda, from Virginia (a well-liked governor), experienced at something or other, and actually has cross-party appeal like Obama. If people wanted a reason to like Obama but stuck with Clinton because she was more 'down to earth,' then this group will soon begin to split for Obama after a possible Edwards/Webb double whammy.

3) This is most important: Hillary Clinton has begun the transition towards Obama. She's not stupid; she knows that if she dropped out suddenly right now, her partisans might not vote, or would vote McCain. She's going to ease out of it.

She said, just today:
Anybody who has ever voted for me or voted for Barack has much more in
common in terms of what we want to see happen in our country and in the
world with the other than they do with John McCain.
I'm going to work my heart out for whoever our nominee is. Obviously,
I'm still hoping to be that nominee, but I'm going to do everything I
can to make sure that anyone who supported me ... understands what a
grave error it would be not to vote for Sen. Obama.
Who knows? This actually sounds quite classy to me. Maybe Hillary will leave looking like a statesman after all. She probably can't run for President again, no matter what, but she could try governor or some cabinet position.

The reason the quotes are proof positive that she's done is that in the past she has done everything possible to highlight distinctions between herself and Obama. In fact, they're not so different policy-wise. She's easing her supporters into it before she ends it. This might even make her some new Democratic friends to replace the ones she lost over the campaign. Plus it's a smart move if she somehow pulls out a win, since her recent comments have skirted issues of race-based divisiveness.

I will say it now with confidence: even though she has lost the nomination, Hillary Clinton is still very smart and knows how to politic.

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