The Real Reason Hillary Clinton Won’t Quit Race

March 30, 2008

By Les Payne

Why won't Hillary leave the race? Does she know something we don't? The twin question was put directly to the candidate during a Wednesday conference call with a group of African-American newspaper columnists.

"I know it's very close," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. "It's very close in the popular vote. It's very close in the delegate count, and we have 10 more contests." Sen. Barack Obama leads Clinton by some 700,000 votes, and his margin in the delegate count, while not conclusive, is all but insurmountable.

"Neither one of us can get to the number of delegates needed unless something totally unforeseen happens between now and the convention," she told the Trotter Group members on the line. While hoping for the "unforeseen" to break her way, Clinton has been pressing for a revote in Michigan and Florida. She got tallies in both states that had been barred from the primary for violating agreed-upon Democratic Party rules. "I've not given up."

This public strategy also has Clinton banking on a Pennsylvania victory planned, from day one, as but another gem in the big-states crown designed to get her the nomination. En route to this presumed coronation, however, the Clinton campaign was caught totally by surprise. Obama's shock-and-awe victories in the smaller states' primaries and caucuses have demoralized Clinton's large standing army once so certain of victory by conventional means.

The tactics resorted to indirectly by Clinton are beginning to resemble the politics of the backroom and the dark alley.

Ignoring those key areas where she trails, surrogates point to the blue sky where Clinton is imagined to fare better, possibly. One supporter in the Senate, for example, suggested that instead of primary votes, states won and pledged delegates, the Democratic Party should base its selection on the number of electoral votes states would cast in the November election. Though designed to favor Clinton, even this desperate calculation might not throw it her way since polls in at least one big state, California, have re-tilted toward Obama.

Still, suggestions from the Clinton camp to override the rules in Florida and Michigan and the democratic process nationwide have some party loyalists worried. The boldest assault came last week from those who've contributed much and for whom much is expected.

Some 20 major Clinton campaign contributors took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Democratic leader has been pushing the notion that preselected superdelegates support the majority will of the voters represented by pledged delegates. The money bags blasted Pelosi's statement on ABC News that supers were "obligated to support the candidate who leads in the pledged delegates count as of June 3 whether that lead be by 500 or 2."

This projected, majority-vote scenario seems to favor Obama, and thus it earned the scorn of Clinton's contributors. "This is an untenable position," their letter to Pelosi stated, "that runs counter to the party's intent in establishing superdelegates in 1984." In this topsy-turvy Orwellian year, the party, according to these "major enthusiastic supporters," sought to achieve democratic ends by nondemocratic means.

While supporting the principle, Clinton has backed away from the threatening tone of her bankrollers. Besides wielding party etiquette, their letter swung the sickle of coercion. "We have been strong supporters of the , they warned darkly. "We therefore urge you to clarify your position on superdelegates."

Such bare knuckles give the lie to the usual claim lobbyists and fat-cat bankrollers expect nothing in return.

Such major contributors have given the lion's share to Clinton's $100-million-plus campaign chest. They clearly expect a return on their investment and seem not to be deterred by the majority of party voters. Should their candidate gain the White House, these heavy contributors would expect federal contracts, cabinet posts, ambassadorships, agency appointments, judgeships and access that would reap them billions in taxpayer dollars.

Should their candidate fail to win the top prize, they would insist upon negotiating for their spoils from the runner-up position.

Against Hillary Clinton Where the facts are - Hillary Clinton News

The Real Reason Hillary Clinton Won’t Quit Race

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