Clinton says she's not ready for 'political obituary'

[DeepModem Mom]

CNN: Clinton says she's not ready for 'political obituary'
From Sasha Johnson

(CNN) -- Hillary Clinton said she will take the race for the Democratic presidential nomination "a day at a time" and is reviewing all options as she moves forward in her campaign. "People have been trying to get me out of this race since Iowa and my political obituary has yet to be written and we're going forward," she told reporters Sunday before leaving Puerto Rico, where she snared 68 percent of the vote to win the majority of the delegates in the Caribbean U.S. territory.

After Tuesday's primaries in Montana and South Dakota -- the party's last contests -- superdelegates will push either Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama to the 2,118 delegates needed to secure the party's nomination. Barack Obama leads among superdelegates -- 321 to 291, according to a CNN tally. But Clinton pointed out superdelegates are free to "change their minds" and she hopes they will evaluate her wins since February and the coalition of voters she's pulled together.

"This has been such an intense process, I don't think there has been a lot of time for reflection of the sort that I'm advocating, which is OK," she said aboard her campaign plane after leaving Puerto Rico. "We've had an extraordinary series of contests. I'm ahead in the popular vote; Senator Obama is ahead in the delegates. They've never been separated before." Obama leads Clinton in overall delegates 2,070 to 1,915, according to CNN calculations. "I think it's only now that we're finishing these contests that people are going to actually reflect. Who's our stronger candidate? And I believe I am and I'm going to make that case. And at some point it will either be accepted or it won't be, but I feel strongly about making it."...

In its popular vote tally, the Clinton campaign includes the Michigan contest but does not award any uncommitted votes to Obama whose name was not on the ballot. But the popular vote count is debatable. If all the primary results including Florida and Michigan are counted, but not the caucus votes, Clinton leads in the popular vote 17,461,845 to Obama's 17,244,762, according to CNN estimates. That number includes giving Obama all the "uncommitted" votes from Michigan. Florida and Michigan were stripped of their delegates for scheduling their primaries too early. Clinton won both states, but Obama's name was not on the ballot in Michigan....In a second scenario, which adds CNN's estimate of the caucus-goers, Obama leads Clinton 17,928,000 to 17,843,000. And in a third scenario, which includes all of the caucuses but does not give Obama the "uncommitted" vote in Michigan, Clinton leads 17,873,000 to 17,703,000.

Clinton reiterated she "reserves the right" to challenge the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee's allocation of Michigan delegates -- a decision she said was made in "violation of the rules."...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/02/democrats.race/index.html

[Lerkfish]

1. my understanding is that indeed, she doesn't have that right.

as per a thread I read this weekend, unless she is a michigan delegate herself, she cannot appeal the rules committee decision.

Perhaps Mark Penn can explain that to her and Ickes.

:)

[Gman]

3. Any committee decision can be appealed to the convention via a minority report

so long as the losing side in the committee vote gets (I believe) 35% of the committee vote. That does not mean she'll win. It just means she can appeal.

[ccharles000]

2. She is strong and will survive.

[Cheap_Trick]

4. too bad, because it's been ready for her for a LONG time now