2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumThis Is Why Hillary Clinton Can't Tell Bernie Sanders to Drop Out
Her choices in 2008 dictate what she can say now.
By Pema Levy
| Mon May 2, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-drop-out-election
Eight years ago this month, Clinton was trailing hopelessly behind then-Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. On May 1, 2008, Clinton loaned her bankrupt campaign $1 million (following at least $10 million in earlier loans). Before the end of that week, pundits were calling the contest for Obama, whose May 6 win in the North Carolina primary, by 14 points, had made his delegate lead essentially insurmountable. "We now know who the Democratic nominee will be," Tim Russert said on MSNBC after the results came in. Less than a week later, Obama surpassed Clinton in the super-delegate count, signaling that the party establishment was shifting behind the presumptive nominee.
But Clinton was determined to fight until the last votes had been cast. She would go on to win contests in West Virginia, Kentucky, and South Dakota before the primary ended on June 3, even though there was no way for her to make up her deficit in the delegate count.
Along the way, the Clinton campaign put forward every conceivable argument to justify staying in the race. It used wins in states like Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kentucky to claim that Obama was losing support among white working-class voters and that she would be the stronger general election candidate. On May 5, it began to argue about the delegate math, making the case that the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination was actually 2,209, not 2,025, the figure that had been cited up until thenand that if neither campaign reached that new number, Clinton was prepared for a floor fight at the party's convention. On May 23, Clinton justified her continued White House bid by noting that in 1968, Democratic presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June, after winning the California primary. And lurking in the background in these final weeks was the rumor that Republican operatives had gotten hold of a tape of Michelle Obama disparaging "whitey."
Eight years later, Clinton knows she cannot turn around and tell Sanders it's time to leave the race, even though her current lead over Sanders, at about 300 delegates, is larger than the nearly 160-delegate lead Obama had over her after the North Carolina primary in 2008. The Sanders campaign had $17 million on hand as of the latest public filings at the end of March, giving it far more fighting power than the broke Clinton effort had at the same point in 2008.
tonyt53
(5,737 posts)Plus suggesting that he stop providing ammo for Trump, and that is what Bernie has been lowered to.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Not unlikely. Impossible.
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Loved this article (linked below) merrily, and I bet you will too. Especially the "Things are going to become very interesting" points towards the end of the piece.
This is What Will Happen at the Democratic Convention
merrily
(45,251 posts)yodermon
(6,143 posts)"Shame on you Barack Obama!"
Oh, and telegraphing that his assassination would be a viable path for her nomination.
There really is no contest in the ugliness department.
djean111
(14,255 posts)Just like Hillary cannot order all of us to support her. I am now embarrassed that I supported her so strongly in 2008, truth be told. We may have dodged a bullet. Still trying to dodge, now.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)already pivoted to the general election.
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)He and his surrogates are being 100% dishonest now...
TheBlackAdder
(28,072 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)So finally somebody admits Hillary's authoritarian heart.
How sad that anybody would think that.
But it's her turn!!!!
Arkansas Granny
(31,483 posts)If so, I haven't heard.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)Response to Miles Archer (Original post)
onehandle This message was self-deleted by its author.
TheBlackAdder
(28,072 posts)onehandle
(51,122 posts)Hillary Conceded almost 3 months before the convention in 2008.
Which would be basically, this week for Senator Sanders.
And she was a Fuckload closer to Obama, than Bernie is to Hillary in delegates.
Sanders needs to concede. His delegates will Still be represented at the convention.
It. Is. Over.
TheBlackAdder
(28,072 posts).
Following the result, after rumors fueled by a misunderstanding of an Associated Press report, the campaign dismissed suggestions that Clinton was going to concede in the speech following the primaries.[394] In her speech after the closing of the Montana polls, Clinton said "I will be making no decisions tonight."[395] She invited Americans to write to her on her website to provide input into what her next steps should be.
Meanwhile, while not officially confirming interest in the vice presidential slot, Clinton hinted at the possibility earlier on June 3. When asked for clarification, her campaign released the statement "Today on a conference call with New York legislators, Sen. Clinton was asked whether she was open to the idea of running as vice president and repeated what she has said before: She would do whatever she could to ensure that Democrats take the White House back and defeat John McCain."[396] The vice presidential possibility had been raised by Bill Clinton in the previous month,[379] but this fueled speculation that Hillary Clinton was definitively interested in the possibility.[395]
The New York Times described the relationship between Obama and Clinton during the campaign as having "veered between strained and strange",[397] and suggested that the manner in which Obama reacted to Clinton and her supporters would be a major test of the post-primaries period.[397]
By June 4, several media networks and top Clinton aides confirmed that she had been planning to concede the race for the Democratic nomination and endorse Obama.[398][399] By June 5, the Clinton camp backed away from any suggestion about the vice presidential slot, with Clinton's spokesperson saying "[she] is not seeking the vice presidency, and no one speaks for her but her. The choice here is Senator Obama's and his alone."[400]
End of campaign[edit]On June 7, 2008, in a speech before her gathered supporters at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.,[401][402] Clinton officially announced that she was suspending her campaign and was fully endorsing Barack Obama.[402] Clinton said:
The way to continue our fight now to accomplish the goals for which we stand is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama the next President of the United States. Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on the victory he has won and the extraordinary race he has run. I endorse him, and throw my full support behind him. And I ask all of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me.[401]
Clinton also adopted Obama's signature slogan, "Yes We Can", in her concession speech.[401]
Obama responded to the speech in a number of venues. Shortly after she gave it, Obama stated that he was "thrilled and honored" to be supported by Clinton.[402] In North Carolina on June 9, 2008, Obama began his speech by praising Clinton. He stated:
Before we begin, I just want to take a minute to thank Senator Clinton for the kind and generous support she offered on Saturday [...] She ran an historic race, a historic campaign that shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere who know now that there are no limits to their dreams. What's more, she inspired millions of women and men with her strength, her courage, and her unyielding commitment to the causes that brought us here today the hopes and aspirations of working Americans. Our party and our country are stronger because of the work that Hillary Rodham Clinton has done throughout her life, and I look forward to working with her ... to make sure we lay out the case for change and set a new course for this country.[403]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton_presidential_primary_campaign,_2008#End_of_campaign
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onehandle
(51,122 posts)...but Hillary conceded 80 days before the DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION in 2008.
Hillary's concession June 7th
Democratic National Convention August 25th
The DNC was NOT on June 4th.
Math.