Hillary Clinton’s refusal to recognize Barack Obama’s historic night as the Democratic Party’s nominee was more of the self-serving drama that we’ve come to expect from her.
“In Defeat, Clinton Graciously Pretends to Win,” is how Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank summed it up.
If you didn’t know that Barack Obama had won the nomination — and many of Clinton’s supporters in the media-proof Baruch College bunker apparently didn’t — then you’d think that Clinton’s speech was a victory celebration.
Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe introduced her as “the next president of the United States.”
“Denver! Denver!” her supporters chanted.
She announced that she was “making no decisions tonight.” (Thanks, but the decisions have been made for you — you lost.)
On CNN, pundit David Gergen wondered if Clinton thought she was forming a coalition government.
All in all, it reinforced Clinton’s image as a graceless loser. And she wants to be Obama’s vice president?
It’s a strange way to apply for the position, by disrespecting the party’s nominee and leader.
John McCain wasted no time trying to establish his message that he is the real reform candidate. In a speech Tuesday night, McCain argued that Barack Obama won’t be able to change the political culture in Washington. “For all his fine words and all his promise, he has never taken the hard-but-right course of risking his own interests for yours, of standing against the partisan rancor on his side to stand up for our country,” McCain said. He also tried to deflect efforts by the Obama campaign to link him to President Bush, but Obama kept it up during in his speech Tuesday night. “There are many words to describe John McCain’s attempt to pass off his embrace of George Bush’s policies as bipartisan and new,” Obama said. “But change is not one of them.”
So how did Barack Obama pull off his huge upset of Hillary Clinton? Besides his personality, oratory skills and message, Obama won because his campaign planned for the long haul, and Clinton did not, Associated Press reported. The Clinton campaign expected to seal the nomination by winning the big states on Super Tuesday. But Obama’s campaign analyzed primary rules and determined that he could get more delegates by winning big in smaller states and staying close in key larger ones. “In a stark example,†AP reported, “Obama’s victory in Kansas wiped out the gains made by Clinton for winning New Jersey, even though New Jersey had three times as many delegates at stake.â€
Signs that the Bush presidency is winding down: Talking Monday at the National Press Club about revelations that he’s distantly related to Barack Obama, Vice President Dick Cheney added that there are Cheneys on both sides of his family tree. “And we don’t even live in West Virginia,†Cheney joked. A spokeswoman later apologized for his “inappropriate attempt at humor,†which had caused bipartisan outrage in the state. West Virginia, by the way, went for Bush-Cheney in 2000 and 2004.
Another sign that the Clinton campaign is coming to an end: Former Gen. Wesley Clark, a Clinton loyalist, introduced Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius at an event Monday, reportedly saying, “The London oddsmakers say that Kathleen Sebelius is the odds-on favorite to be the next vice president. I can tell you, she’d make a great vice presidential choice.â€
Clark knows that Sebelius is being considered as Obama’s running mate, not Clinton’s. His remarks also seem to discount the possibility of an Obama-Clinton ticket.
Hillary Clinton’s refusal to recognize Barack Obama’s historic night as the Democratic Party’s nominee was more of the self-serving drama that we’ve come to expect from her.
