Sanders’ Indiana victory won’t slow Clinton’s advance

[SecularMotion]

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders eked out a victory over front-runner Hillary Clinton in Indiana, but the outcome will not slow the former secretary of state’s march to the Democratic nomination. Sanders held a 52 percent to 48 percent lead with 98 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night, but heading into Tuesday’s voting, Clinton had 92 percent of the delegates she needs.

“I know that the Clinton campaign thinks this campaign is over. They’re wrong,” Sanders said defiantly in an interview Tuesday night. But Clinton already has turned her attention to the general election.

She and Trump now plunge into a six-month battle for the presidency, with the future of America’s immigration laws, health care system and military posture around the world at stake.

While Clinton heads into the general election with significant advantages with minority voters and women, Democrats have vowed to not underestimate Trump as his Republican rivals did for too long.

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/05/03/sanders-indiana-victory-wont-slow-clinton-advance/

[Armstead]

1. How is 52 to 48 "eking out" a victory?

If that were Clinton it would be called a resounding win.

[Hortensis]

3. No, because Bernie cannot win. 52-48 or 48-52 really

is of little interest because either way it makes no difference to the final outcome.

You should be grateful to that author for pointing out Bernie's "victory" at all, eked out or otherwise, given that he has already lost the nomination.

[Armstead]

5. Clinton stayed in and FOUGHT to the last primary in 2008

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511890934

-------------------------
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/the-end-of-hillary-clinto_b_9791460.html

Just before the Pennsylvania primary, from an article titled “Obama Sharpens His Tone; As Pa. Vote Nears, Clinton Criticizes Rival’s Negative Turn,” Clinton showed her displeasure at Obama’s attacks on her health care reform plan ....
Clinton, campaigning in Bethlehem, called her rival’s approach “so negative” and charged him with mimicking Republicans by attacking her plan for universal health care.
“He has sent out mailers, he has run ads, misrepresenting what I have proposed,” Clinton said. “I really regret that because the last thing we need is to have somebody spending as much money as he has downgrading universal health care.”

May 9 2008

She cited an Associated Press article “that found how Senator Obama’s support... among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again. I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on.”

May 20

the Clinton campaign sent out a tart memo yesterday under the name of communications director Howard Wolfson calling the Obama rally in Iowa “a slap in the face of millions of voters in the remaining primary states and to Senator Clinton’s 17 million supporters.” Then, in language tying the Obama campaign to the Bush White House, the memo continues: “Premature victory laps and false declarations of victory are unwarranted. Declaring mission accomplished does not make it so.”

May 23

Smart candidates don’t invoke the possibility of their opponents being killed. This seems so obvious it shouldn’t need to be said, but apparently, it needs to be said.
“We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California,” Hillary Clinton said yesterday, referencing the fact that past nomination contests have stretched into June to explain why she hasn’t heeded calls to exit the Democratic race. She was in an editorial board meeting with a South Dakota newspaper, and she didn’t even seem to notice she’d just uttered the unutterable.

-------------------------------------------
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24953561/ns/politics-decision_08/t/clinton-refuses-concede-nomination/#.Vyj1bfnR_IU
June 4

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton Tuesday refused to bow out of the Democratic race Tuesday, hoping to maintain leverage as Barack Obama clinched the delegates needed to secure the party's nomination.

Clinton told supporters in a rally at Baruch College that she would consult party leaders in coming days on how to move forward, but that, "I will be making no decisions tonight."
"A lot of people are asking, 'What does Hillary want?'" Clinton said. "I want what I have always fought for: I want the nearly 18 million people who voted for me to be respected and heard."

Note the shameless use of a dying voter....

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90425674
ELECTION 2008

Clinton Wins W.Va., Insists 'It's Not Over'

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

That's where Hillary Clinton won an easy victory. She beat her rival, Barack Obama, by more than two votes to one, and later she spoke with supporters in the state capital, Charleston. Her real audience, though, was undecided superdelegates, those lawmakers and party luminaries who are going to decide the nomination and who are Clinton's last hope of overtaking Obama and winning the nomination.

MONTAGNE: Clinton's campaign is fighting the perception that the race is over, a perception Barack Obama is happy to encourage. He sent his own message last night by speaking in Missouri, a state expected to be a battleground in the fall. We begin our coverage with NPR's David Greene, who's covering Hillary Clinton.

(Soundbite of clapping)

CROWD: It's not over.

DAVID GREENE: Hillary Clinton's supporters last night sounded like basketball fans. Their team's losing late but they're refusing to give up.

(Soundbite of clapping)

CROWD: It's not over.

GREENE: It's not over was also the message from Clinton herself.

Senator HILLARY CLINTON (Democrat, New York): We know from the bible that faith can move mountains.

(Soundbite of cheering)

Sen. CLINTON: And, my friends, the faith of the Mountain State has moved me.

(Soundbite of cheering)

Sen. CLINTON: I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign.

(Soundbite of cheering)

GREENE: Clinton beat Obama in West Virginia convincingly, by more than two to one as in other states older, rural, less educated and less affluent white voters turned out for her. Clinton said she had shown strength in a state Democrats need to win in the fall. And she said she hoped the party's undecided superdelegates were listening to her.


Sen. CLINTON: I can win this nomination if you decide I should, and I can lead this party to victory in the general election if you lead me to victory now.

GREENE: Clinton remained well behind Obama in both pledged delegates and those free agents known as superdelegates. Yet last night she said she's fighting on, in part because she doesn't want to turn her back on millions of people who voted for her.

Sen. CLINTON: Tonight I'm thinking about Florence Steen, from South Dakota. Eighty-eight years old and in failing health, when she asked that her daughter bring an absentee ballot to her hospice bedside.

GREENE: Clinton said Steen was born before women had the right to vote and was determined to cast a ballot for Clinton.

Sen. CLINTON: Florence passed on a few days ago, but I am eternally grateful to her and her family for making this such an important and incredible milestone in her life. It means so much to me.


But meanwhile Clinton supporters have been blaming the media for counting her out. At a fundraiser in New York last weekend, Congressman Charlie Rangel said he's been chatting with a lot of reporters.

Representative CHARLIE RANGEL (Democrat, New York): And they keep asking me the same basic questions as though they went to a school to say how do we embarrass Hillary Clinton?

(Soundbite of applause)

Rep. RANGEL: And they come out with the latest one, is when is she going to quit?

[Hortensis]

6. She conceded when it was clear that she could not win.

Bernie is past that point.

[Armstead]

7. Same things were being said in May and June 2008 about her

Calls by the media and "party leaders" for her to leave because of the "math" and need to come together. "She can't win so she should leave."

But she pressed on and made the case that she could appeal to "white working people" where Obama could not.

But he's a self centered bastard, but she was just making sure her voters were being represented?

[Hortensis]

9. Not the same. You should recall that "media and

party leaders" were calling for Bernie to drop out months ago. Not all of them, of course, but that is the point. When Hillary had Bernie's numbers, she conceded graciously and began backing Obama 100%.

Fwiw, I've never considered Sanders self-centered. The estimation I've arrived at is of an issues-focused extremist ideologue who actually truly believes all the nasty things he has ever said about Democrats -- kind of the way most Americans feel about Trump. Sanders thus feels justified in doing whatever it takes to save America from us.

The "principles as an excuse for seeming abandonment of principles" is the kindest explanation I can come up with for his facile abandonment of any principle that gets in his way, like trying to use party elites to overset the will of Democrat voters.

What is your excuse for excusing this behavior?

[Armstead]

10. She did not concede until June. It was the same situation with variations.

And from the beginning "media and party leaders" laughed at Bernie and dismissed him as a fringe candidate who might get 8 percent of the primary vote and win one or two states, including Vermont.

As far as being an extremist ideologue -- naw. he's basically a progressive liberal....Unless you consider things like universal access to public secondary education (which we used to have) or a healthcare system that expands access to Medicare to everyone to be radical.

And there are a lot of people -- including moderates -- who have grown increasingly frustrated angry and, yes disgusted at the empty partisan games, lack of substance and the perpetual gridlock of a corrupt top heavy political system.

As for "using party elites...etc." he is not saying that. First of all, it is difficult to accurately compare vote totals because of the wide variations among states. Sanders won Washington state handily, for example in a caucus. Would he have chalked up similarly larger voters if it were a primary? How would that have changed the overall vote totals?

He said that super delegates who represent states where he or Clinton won by significant margins should adhere to the results of the primaries. In those state where the votes were close, the representatives should consider the overall situation at the time of the primary...As for those who are not current elected officials, he also wants them to at least take another look.

Clinton was making the same arguments in 2008 -- and once again -- she DID NOT BOW OUT GRACEFULLYbefore June, and talked about superdeglegates and a contested convention until the last minute, despite similar calls for her to drop out sooner.

[frylock]

15. Media and party leaders were calling for him to drop out..

the moment he entered the race!

[Demsrule86]

8. It was much closer

Also, consider delegates in Florida and Michigan were not seated as they broke party rules. Imagine if that was the case with Bernie Sanders. I can not fathom the whining that would ensue. They said she had no shot after she won Indiana...she stayed in ,but they were right. She had no chance and neither does Bernie. In June when it was obvious the Supers were not going to support her, she conceded and worked her ass off to elect Pres. Obama- no theatrics or demands and no whining. Our situation is much worse this year with a dangerously unqualified candidate running as the GOP nominee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/us/politics/07cnd-pundits.html

"Very early this morning, after many voters had already gone to sleep, the conventional wisdom of the elite political pundit class that resides on television shifted hard, and possibly irretrievably, against Senator Hillary Clinton’s continued viability as a presidential candidate.

"The moment came shortly after midnight Eastern time, captured in a devastatingly declarative statement from Tim Russert of NBC News: “We now know who the Democratic nominee’s going to be, and no one’s going to dispute it,” he said on MSNBC. “Those closest to her will give her a hard-headed analysis, and if they lay it all out, they’ll say: ‘What is the rationale?...

The thought echoed throughout the world of instant political analysis, steamrolling the Clinton campaign’s attempts to promote the idea that her victory in Indiana was nonetheless an upset in the face of Mr. Obama’s heavy spending and his campaign’s predictions that he would win there, or that she could still come back if delegates in Florida and Michigan are seated".

[Lizzie Poppet]

13. Propagandist writer trying to be "subtle," one supposes.

[Hortensis]

2. Yes. On to the GE. We have a war to win.

[enid602]

4. back berner

Time to put the bern on the 'back berner,' so to speak.

[Gothmog]

11. Clinton will be the nominee without a floor fight

[NWCorona]

12. It already has IMHO. nt

[frylock]

14. The sooner that Bernie drops out, the sooner he stops racking up wins.

You can frame this any way you like, but her losing states going into the convention makes for some poor optics and highlights just how weak of a candidate that she is.