Clinton Team Conference Call
- 05.07.2008 - 1:17 PMIn a media call today, Clinton advisors Howard Wolfson and Geoff Garin tried to make the case that it’s full steam ahead for HRC. Wolfson said bluntly: “No discussions about not going forward.” Garin’s spin about last night’s result? Hillary Clinton came from far behind in their internal polls (which had her down eight points in Indiana).
What about North Carolina? Their best argument was that she improved dramatically among white voters, going from a tie to a 24-point margin. What do they have to do going forward? They placed great emphasis on West Virginia, pledged to seat Michigan and Florida (if all are seated they claim they will pick up 58 votes, bringing them within 100 delegates), and promised to make the case to superdelegates that she matches up better against John McCain. Are they concerned about the pundits writing them off? “The punditocracy does not control this process.”
But perhaps the most telling exchange was a moment of hesitation when Garin was asked whether he saw any problem in the Democratic Party selecting someone who led in neither the popular or delegate vote. After a pause he said “Well. . . it will be close.” So for now Hillary is not giving up. Were the questioners skeptical, verging on incredulous? A bit. When asked whether the campaign was concerned about “burning the village [i.e. the Democratic party] to save it” Wolfson, in impassioned tones, explained that Hillary has devoted her entire adult life to the Democratic party, that it’s “what gets her up” in the morning. She’s just not ready to let go.
| »Back to Contentions | »Back to Commentary |
May 7th, 2008 at 1:40 PM
In the long run, this year’s presidential election will help race relations in this country. However, that is not the case in the short run! “Barry” Obama and his racist blacks and “elitist” white followers must be opposed by non-racist whites worried about their own self preservation. Race has subtly but most assuredly become the most important issue in 2008. The stuff is finally hitting the fan. Non-Ivy League whites must quickly learn that they will be victimized by an Obama presidency. The same people who bused their children around forty years ago and are responsible for the disastrous Griggs vs. Duke Power court decision will once again be in control.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:26 PM
I, for one, would appreciate it if you would stop referring to Obama as “Barry” all the time.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:41 PM
“I, for one, would appreciate it if you would stop referring to Obama as “Barry” all the time.”
Why should I care about what you appreciate? BO called himself Barry until his early adult years. It is my firm conviction that Obama abandoned the name when he sensed the rewards available if he became an “authentic” black man. Barack sounds so edgy and Third Worldish and almost certainly impressed the guilt tripped white “elites attending Harvard University.
May 7th, 2008 at 3:03 PM
Although later embraced by black politicians, affirmative action was first promulgated by Richard Nixon and highly touted by the Ford Foundation–in short, liberal whites.
I’m not certain what the effect of the campaign will be on race relations. The premiership of Léon Blum in France was followed a few years later by the deportation of most of the French Jews. Could make things better, could make them worse.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:31 PM
I think the one healthy thing that will come out of Obama’s travails in this campaign is that no other black politician who aspires to an office that requires votes outside the black ghetto will so cavalierly associate himself ever again to people like Wright and Farrakhan. However advantageous it may be to winning elections in the ghetto, it is poisonous to anyone’s ambitions beyond these urban precincts. I personally think it should disquality Obama from the presidency, and for that reason alone, (although there are plenty of other reasons) I hope McCain defeats him.
However, as we can see, our liberal elites do not think that supporting black hatred-mongering is such a bad thing, so it will require McCain to run a good campaign with substantive positions, as well as the usual patriotic and conservative symbols. Nothing will cause the left and the hate-mongers to shrivel up faster than a loss in November that should have been a victory.