For the most part, Clinton supporters appeared to be sticking with the New York senator.
Photo: AP
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s visit to Capitol Hill this week may have been more about weighing her support than it was about wooing superdelegates.
According to a senior Democratic aide, Clinton asked some uncommitted superdelegates if they could commit to her privately — without the political risks of a public endorsement — so that she could gauge whether she has the support she feels she needs to remain a viable candidate.
A Clinton staffer acknowledged Thursday that the campaign was in the process of “counting up” superdelegates because, “at the end of the day, we have to know where our numbers are.”
“We do have some private supporters,” the staffer said. “[But] for their own political purposes, they can’t be on record.”
The staffer conceded that lawmakers could, in theory, “privately back” Clinton then ultimately support Obama but said: “We need to track where we are, and there’s no other way.”
Clinton met with a smattering of superdelegates Wednesday; aides and lawmakers said she appeared at the offices of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and simply asked to meet with any uncommitted superdelegates who happened to be around.
One Clinton supporter familiar with the meetings described the senator’s “ask” as “vague.”
Obama, by contrast, took the Hill by storm Thursday. In the morning, he met with a large group of uncommitted Blue Dog Democrats at a townhouse owned by UPS. Then he walked over to the House and spent half an hour working the left side of the chamber, shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for pictures. In the afternoon, he spent nearly three hours at the Democratic National Committee, where he met with a number of superdelegates, including four North Carolina congressmen.
“We seem to be making progress,” Obama told reporters after his meetings ended on Thursday.
The Democratic front-runner said he wouldn’t “count any chickens before they’re hatched,” but he managed to pluck at least one from the nest: On Thursday afternoon, Obama picked up the endorsement of Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.).
The Clinton campaign had a harder time gaining traction. After a number of media outlets — including Politico — reported that Indiana Rep. Brad Ellsworth was backing Clinton, his spokeswoman put out the word that there was some “nuance” to the congressman’s position: Ellsworth is actually remaining neutral in the race but will cast his superdelegate vote for the candidate who carried his district (Clinton) if the nomination process goes all the way to convention, "unless,” of course, “there is a compelling reason to do otherwise."
And adding insult to injury, Clinton backer Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) eagerly approached Obama during his visit to the House on Thursday and asked him to autograph the cover of the day’s New York Daily News. The headline: “It’s His Party.”
Another Clinton supporter, Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, gave Obama a bear hug.
But for the most part, Clinton supporters appeared to be sticking with the New York senator, even as countless newspapers and television news pundits were writing her off.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that the prolonged Democratic presidential campaign was beginning to hurt the party. But after talking with Clinton on Thursday morning, Feinstein said her candidate is “persevering, very collected, very determined.”
“She’s going to make the decision if the time comes,” Feinstein said. “Her strategy is to win this, and she’s entitled to her opportunity to try. I’m sticking with her.”
Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), a Clinton supporter, crossed paths with Obama on Thursday during meetings at the DNC but told reporters he merely said hello. “I’m committed to Sen. Clinton until she becomes president,” Israel said.
Other superdelegates insisted that they were still undecided even after meeting with both candidates this week. Florida Rep. Tim Mahoney was courted by Clinton on Wednesday and Obama on Thursday, and said he was equally impressed by both.
“It’s a difficult decision,” he said. “They’re two great candidates.”
"For their own political purposes." In other words, we don't want our asses handed to us in the election by openly backing you, Hillary, even though our constituents voted overwhelmingly for Obama.
This is the exact type of thing that Obama has been railing against. Washington politics not working for the American public, but only for the politicians. Here's hoping she finally realizes it is truly over.....
You are not wanted, you are not electable, no one trusts you, and its all about your ego!
Please do the right thing and recognize the inevitable!
Its 3:00 am Do you know where the snipers are?. Its 4:00 am Why are the bill collectors calling me now? Its 5:00 am. where did Bill and that intern go?
Smoke-filled rooms .... not going to cut it.... BTW Hillary stop trying to divide us! We dont care that you get a small demographic of supporters that have yet to vote for Obama with majority. We are uniting.... and we are Uniting for the good of the country.Obama/Sebelius '08
Clinton should stay in the race as long as she will take on McCain instead of Obama; everyone should get a chance to vote in this historic primary. But I hope her supporters will also do what's best for the party. A vote cast for anyone other than our nominee is a vote for McCain. A McCain presidency would ensure the dismantling and erasure of all our rights women like Hillary worked so hard to achieve. That's a depressing thought.
What do you care anyway? If you are truly a McCain supporter wouldn't it make sence to you to have the process last longer. And if you ~really~ believe Hillary is the weaker candidate, again it seems to me that you should want her to be the nominee.
Please go away!!! Enough with the backroom deals and arm twisting. You've been exposed as a racist and psycho. You're making all women look bad and are ruining it for the next woman who may run for President.
Read: "We still have some finger in the wind" wafflers. I don't blame them though. Imagine coming down on the "wrong" side of this one. If your constituents don't get you you could be put on the Clinton "black list".
Seriously, could you please list all of the work Hillary did to achieve rights for women?
Did it include ignoring a serial cheating husband, who she should have thrown out onto Pennsylvania Avenue? Or did the hope of a political payoff make it worth putting up with the public ridicule?
I am all for womens rights, but can't buy into Hillary or her all consuming ego!
Its 3:00 am Do you know where the snipers are?. Its 4:00 am Why are the bill collectors calling me now? Its 5:00 am. where did Bill and that intern go?
This is starting to not be funny anymore. Asking supers to commit in private? What is being promised in private? What is being threatened in private? I want to know at least with whom she is meeting privately, but of course no one will report on that. She's running around like a lunatic now, demanding things, making all sorts of bizarre claims, backtracking on previous statements, and generally being a huge pain in the ass. I felt bad for her earlier, because clearly she has worked hard and lost. No longer. She is like a snake in the grass and needs to go. Now.
This is starting to not be funny anymore. Asking supers to commit in private? What is being promised in private? What is being threatened in private? I want to know at least with whom she is meeting privately, but of course no one will report on that. She's running around like a lunatic now, demanding things, making all sorts of bizarre claims, backtracking on previous statements, and generally being a huge pain in the ass. I felt bad for her earlier, because clearly she has worked hard and lost. No longer. She is like a snake in the grass and needs to go. Now.
Wow, this hit RealClearPolitics today about HRC. Granted, it's a piece by the Washington Times, but it's still pretty shocking. Who's the candidate that's been completely vetted again? I would think she's out and severely damaged politically if the mainstream media picks this up.
Here's the intro and a link:
Once-secret memos question Clinton's honesty A decade before Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton admitted fudging the truth during the presidential campaign, federal prosecutors quietly assembled hundreds of pages of evidence suggesting she concealed information and misled a federal grand jury about her work for a failing Arkansas savings and loan at the heart of the Whitewater probe, according to once-secret documents that detail the internal debates over whether she should have faced criminal charges.
Ordinarily, such files containing grand jury evidence and prosecutors' deliberations are never made public. But the estate of Sam Dash, a lifelong Democrat who served as the ethics adviser to Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr, donated his documents from the infamous 1990s investigation to the Library of Congress after his 2004 death, unwittingly injecting into the public domain much of the testimony and evidence gathered against Mrs. Clinton from former law partners, White House aides and other witnesses...
There is no rule in the politics of Democratic Party conventions that says that the contender with the largest number of pledged delegates short of the total required for nomination should automatically, by that achievement, be handed the party's designation. And the number required for the nomination should include the FL and MI dilegates which would be 2209.
In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt arrived at the Democratic Convention with the most delegates -- having won them through some primaries and some Democratic state organizations -- but still short of the requisite two-thirds majority. Despite this lead, the party did not hand him the nomination. He had to proceed through four ballots to achieve it.
In the 1952 Democratic race, Senator Estes Kefauver went through the primary process, beat President Truman in New Hampshire, won Wisconsin, Nebraska, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maryland and entered the Chicago convention with a lead of 257 votes, with four other contenders trailing behind, including Adlai Stevenson. On the first actual ballot, Kefauver held the lead but by now Stevenson had crept up to second place. Then ultimately Stevenson grabbed the designation from Kefauver on the third ballot -- all of this, despite his failure to contest a single primary, with no accumulated Democratic votes compared to those of Kefauver's, and in spite of his late entry into the race. But the party thought he would be the better nominee.
Now today the Obama campaign ,the media, pundits, are dismissing the importance of Hillary Clinton's victories in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island, et al., the states the Democrats must carry to win in November, as unimportant. They argue that, by any careful analysis of the delegate selection process under the present Democratic Party proportional representation system, whatever delegate totals Senator Clinton wins through the end of this year's primary season, will not be able to overcome Senator Obama's current unsurpassable lead over Senator Clinton and therefore Obama will deserve the support of the so-called "super delegates" and should gain the nomination. But that is not how it works as we have seen in past Democratic conventions.
A lead in pledged delegates is not enough. You still have to convince your party that you are the best nominee.
Obama is too eager to be beaten by John McCain because that is most definitely what will happen if he is the nominee.
Hillary Clinton is the best nominee. She can win for the Democratic party in November. So take it all the way to the convention Hillary, we're with you!
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