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The Huffington Post is reporting that Hillary Clinton may ”suspend” her campaign as soon as tomorrow night when she gives a speech in New York. I hope this is the case (and I hope “suspend” doesn’t mean that the campaign stays in limbo through the convention), and if it is the case, it sounds like Hillary Clinton may be taking steps to do this the right way, by quickly endorsing Obama and by “significantly” helping Obama. That would be great–we all know there is an enormous amount at stake in November. The thought of four more years in Iraq, of four more years of a failed economic approach, of four more years without addressing the health care crisis, of four more years of radical right wing Supreme Court nominees, is all far, far more than I can take. I am excited for the general election campaign to get started and look forward to seeing if people can really unite behind Obama and against John McCain’s disastrous prescription for America. I guess we have to wait until tomorrow, at least, before we know exactly what will happen, but this sounds promising.
All of the evidence is pointing in this direction. She believes and will claim that she has won the popular vote. Even if she has not actually won the popular vote, her message to the country and the democratic party will be that she can not let down all of the people that voted for her and made this primary process such a closely run event. Add to this logic Hillary’s knowledge that all politicians have a shelf life for presidential potential and that this may be her only real chance to run for the presidency and furthermore, that Hillary is likely to be feeling abandoned by her party and stabbed in the back by it’s super delegates who have once again run to the side of a flash in the pan who in her eyes and the eyes of her supporters doesn’t even have the experience to hold his current position as a senator.
This possibility has been in my mind for several weeks now but was solidified by Hillary’s agreement to allow Obama to receive delegates from a state where he was not even on the ballot. This suggests to me that Hillary, although resigned to her loss in the democratic primary, by remaining in the campaign after such an act, clearly she is in this fight for the duration and her only remaining alternative is to run as an independent.
Doing so allows Hillary to continue campaign against Obama, whom she honestly believes would be a detriment to the oval office and McCain who she is against for philosophical reasons. Running as an independent also allows Hillary to honor her supporters in the most politically expedient manner and would gain her a great deal of respect and potential support from independent voters and borderline republicans alike.
Finally it would feed into the angry, spiteful and vindictive nature that is so much a part of Hillary the person, allowing her to stick it to the party and those super delegates she sees as having ridden the coattails of the Clinton name for far too long to be cast aside by them at the last minute for somebody she considers to be yet another weak democratic presidential candidate that cannot possibly win in the general election.
What could the Democratic Party possibly offer her to appease her at this point? What could they possibly bring to the table that she could not attain on her own?
Hillary Clinton will not stop her campaign, she will run as an independent and destroy the democratic parties presidential hopes and possibly create another presidential run opportunity for herself in the process, even if she does not win, and she certainly could still pull off a win…
Everytime we underestimate a Clinton, they seem to come out swinging and surprise us all!
I can’t say I know anything for sure, but I will be absolutely shocked if Clinton runs as an independent…I just read a report that she will concede tonight, though will keep her campaign active, possibly to use that as leverage to either ask Obama for the VP slot (don’t see that happening) or to press him to focus on issues she is most concerned about (e.g. health care)
I’m shocked I was so wrong!!! I still can’t believe that Clinton has conceded defeat, closed down her campaign and doesn’t appear to have any other plans except to hope that Obama will take her on as a running mate. I don’t see that happening either, but then he runs the risk of losing a large percentage of democrats to McCain… I still don’t believe that Clinton is just done, it doesn’t make sense!!!