Obama On Brink; Clinton Defines Her Own Victory
As Barack Nabs Delegates,Hillary Claims Special Status Going Forward in Campaign
The line outside Baruch College for Hillary Clinton was like a cheerful catastrophe. People on cells, checking the latest; exchanging theories; the word “delegates” swept through the crowd. But it was no funeral.
The supporters waiting on a line that stretched from East 24th Street and Lexington Avenue up to East 25th Street (and around the corner), apart from the whole Cloverfield-9/11 echo, looked very much like an Obama crowd. Young and old and gay and brown and white: “I’m from Brooklyn and I’m a Hasidic Jew,” a Hasidic Jew told a Japanese reporter very slowly.
The entire block was encircled by TV vans and trucks belching heat.
Crowds gathered across the streets to watch the crowds. People chanted, “Denver! Denver! Denver!” They were referring to the convention. “Take it to Denver!” a woman shouted.
But what did they expect to hear from Senator Clinton inside? “I’m not sure!” said Kathy, an older woman who lives on Union Square. “I’m trying to figure out how we can keep McCain out of the White House without a merger.”
Mrs. Clinton’s bid for the Democratic nomination is effectively over, but her political career, even now, is still barreling onward. The immediate next steps will be to negotiate the terms of withdrawal and to sort out a general-election campaign role. (And then, no doubt, she’ll have a star-studded Democratic “unity event” of some sort at which she’ll be lauded as no runner-up has ever been lauded before.)
She could, if her supporters have their way, end up on an Obama-Clinton ticket. Failing that, she’ll be back in the Senate.
Even then, though, she would not return as just another senator.
While Mrs. Clinton’s primary bid is ending in defeat, the way she lost—with a lock on certain core demographic groups, with unwavering aggression and durability, with an expansive national network of voters and donors—seems only to have enhanced her celebrity brand.
“If anything, she’s gotten a lot of admiration for being tough, hanging in there, and for just going—she’s like a tank,” said Representative Peter King, a Republican from Long Island who knows the Clintons personally. “It’s not like the other people when they go to primaries—they lose and they’re gone. She is still a very, very powerful, powerful force in American politics.”
Nationally, her campaign has helped to develop a sense of political individuality, giving her an image apart from Bill Clinton’s.
“The most important thing that happened to Senator Clinton in the past year is that she is no longer in the shadow of her husband,” said Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic consultant who heads the New Democrat Network and who worked on Mr. Clinton’s presidential campaign. “She is a national leader in her own right, and I don’t think that was true before.”
If Mr. Obama were to lose (without her on the ticket), she’d be in prime position to contest for the nomination in 2012. If Mr. Obama wins, she could conceivably create her own power base in the Senate, growing, in the reckoning of her colleagues, to assume a Ted Kennedy-esque role among the Senate Democrats as an orchestrator of great compromises and landmark laws. Next Page >
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POOR HILLARY. SHE LIVES IN A WORLD OF SELF-DECEPTION. SHE THINKS HER "WHINING WHITE WOMEN" BRIGADE CAN KEEP HER CHANCES ALIVE. HILLARY IS HISTORY. HER SUPPORTERS WILL BE TOO OLD IN 2012. BILL CLINTON WILL HAVE BEEB SCANDALIZED AGAIN. FOR HILLARY IT IS OVER. SHE KNOWS IT AND IS SUCKING EVERY LAST DROP OUT OF THIS FINAL CURTAIN CALL.
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Hillary is a bigger scumbag than is Bill.
I watched Mrs. Clinton's speech following news that Barack Obama had indeed secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination. I hoped for a graceful, humble speech congratulating Mr. Obama on his victory. I should have known better. What I saw and heard left me in utter disbelief. Instead of taking the high road, bowing out with grace and dignity, acknowledging Obama's victory and inspiring her supporters to party unity behind the chosen candidate, we got a take-the-low-road, graceless, in denial, delusional woman who just can't admit that it's over. If she is indeed open to the idea of being offered the vp spot on the ticket (as reports have been circulating to that effect), she certainly didn't show it or win any converts to the idea tonight. Mrs. Clinton has become exactly what many despise in her husband, namely a gasbag with no class or decency, who sees conspiracy around every corner and behind every vote.
Hillary is low rent just like her "husband".
The notion that Hillary Clinton will be a power in the Senate is laughable beyond belief. She ranks 26th among Democrats in seniority, has no chairmanships, was not backed by the majority of her colleagues and SHE LOST. She has conclusively demonstated her lack of political skills. Yet she is going to doinate the most politicized body in America? Her career is TOAST!!
to all those writing nasty comments.... could you get almost 18m votes. the answer is no. so shuddup
Now I know what it means when you say: "YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW" Throughout her campaign, Hillary has sown that which is evil in 'thoughts, words, and deeds' Both her and her husband have many times used the 'race card'. The 'assassination in June' comment, which I believe was to encourage those of 'low minds' to solve her problems. I truly believe 'God' does not 'like ugly'. Even when you pray to 'God' if there is 'evil' in your 'thoughts, words and deeds' towards another, God will not answer your prayers. McCain is following in the 'failed' footsteps of Hillary Clinton. He too, will lose the Presidency.
NO!.. it does not take a Rocket Scientist to figure out the end results of this 16th month campaign, BUT it does take a strong, well heeled and very determinant person to get up every morning for the past 17 years, to charge though the verbal muckrakers of cable new and the sideshow gerrymandering that took place during the recent 16ths of what originally had Sen. Clinton as the front runner. So I am not offended by the fact that you waste so may word to form this remark that you think is part of the popular conscience. I think you are, and I must state for the record that I do not have esp or any other extra form of telepathic powers, but I think your opinion is a derivative of your own ill choices that has place you in this bitter and un flattering paragraph that has lead me to to meet you, and I can tel that I would never give you the time of day, because you're everything you just stated, you know that saying"it take one to know one, the problem now is you need to step away from the mirror and then choose your words. by the way afraid to use your own name??