Has Clinton Conceded

Hillary Clinton goes loudly as
Barack Obama seeks to woo her supporters
The Sunday Times, London, June 8, 2008
concerning Clinton's plans

... Meanwhile, plans were under way to keep a core team of advisers and fundraisers in place who would be loyal to her rather than Obama, ensuring that her status was duly respected.

Dick Morris, her husband’s former adviser, was unimpressed: “Why won’t Hillary just concede that she has lost and pull out of the race? Why does she persist in keeping her delegates in line for her and not releasing them to Obama? Why does she feign party unity while in fact undermining it?”

Her speech was expertly crafted with one eye on the immediate future – an audition for the vice-presidency – while aiming for a long-term place in the history books whether or not Obama offers to make her his running mate.

Clinton compared her spirit of optimism to his and, borrowing his slogan, said she was standing with him to say: “Yes we can!”

The Washington Post described her speech as a “full-throated endorsement” and so it was. It was also an attempt to put her on an equal footing with the victor – or as near it as possible.

Even as she was bidding farewell in Washington, another send-off was being prepared in New York, where she is senator. Every day last week brought a fresh event calculated to upstage Obama.

Sally Bedell Smith, author of For Love of Politics, a portrait of the Clintons, was struck by Clinton’s bizarre nonconcession speech last Tuesday, the night Obama obtained the 2,118 delegates needed to win the nomination. “When I saw Hillary trying to steal Obama’s thunder, it reminded me of the day she and Bill left the White House in 2001. They held a rally at Andrews air force base as President Bush was being sworn in. The television news had split screens. No outgoing president had ever done such a thing.”

At the time, Bill Clinton said, “I’m still here,” as the plane revved up. “We’re not going anywhere.” The same message was delivered yesterday to Obama, even as she gave him her ringing endorsement.

The Obama and Clinton camps are tentatively beginning to merge their fundraising apparatuses after Hillary told leading donors on a conference call: “He needs to know all of you. He really needs your help.”

She is planning to keep her core donor team in place, however, so she can control how to dispense the cash. Clinton’s finance chairman predicted that her supporters could bring in a further $200m but warned that the amount could depend on whether Obama picked her as a running mate.

Clinton has not fully accepted her vanquished status, despite her eloquent speech. The New York senator merely suspended her campaign last night, ostensibly so that she could raise money to pay off her $30m debts. A transition team has been appointed to negotiate the terms under which she will campaign for Obama – a somewhat bizarre case of the defeated usurping the role of victor, since losers rarely get to set the conditions.

Robert Barnett, a Washington lawyer who handled Tony Blair’s multimillion-dollar book deal, and Cheryl Mills, another lawyer and confidante, are expected to bargain hard for help with settling Clinton’s debts, including an $11m personal loan that she made to the campaign.

Clinton is believed to be haggling over the extent to which she will be Obama’s highest-profile campaigner against McCain, as well as over the guarantee of a star turn at the Democratic National Convention.

Bill Clinton’s role will also be up for discussion. Her campaign was “supposed to be about the restoration of the Clintons”, said Carl Bernstein, Hillary’s biographer. “One of the things she is looking for is a role for Bill Clinton in her campaign because he is looking for rehabilitation.”

The appointment of Barnett is a hopeful sign, Galston believes: “He never browbeats, he shoots straight and he hasn’t got an enemy in Washington.” But the message from Clinton was: make me vice-president or I just might upstage whoever it is.

Obama devoted much attention last week to soothing Clinton’s feelings instead of concentrating on taking the fight to McCain. He rushed to a “secret” meeting with her at the Washington home of Dianne Feinstein, the California senator, on Thursday, which was more about process than substance, according to an Obama aide. The question of a joint ticket was not raised.

Democrats fear there is plenty of time for more trouble on this issue before the party convention in late August. Lanny Davis, one of Clinton’s most vocal advocates, claims to have secured 25,000 signatures for his new online petition VoteBoth.com. “Obama needs her. It’s possible he can win without her, but he can’t lose with her,” Davis said.

The website Hillaryis44.com, which has often been described as a backdoor route into Clinton’s war room, was even more explicit. “Obama is unelectable and not qualified to be president,” it declared starkly.

Obama devoted much attention last week to soothing Clinton’s feelings instead of concentrating on taking the fight to McCain. He rushed to a “secret” meeting with her at the Washington home of Dianne Feinstein, the California senator, on Thursday, which was more about process than substance, according to an Obama aide. The question of a joint ticket was not raised.

Democrats fear there is plenty of time for more trouble on this issue before the party convention in late August. Lanny Davis, one of Clinton’s most vocal advocates, claims to have secured 25,000 signatures for his new online petition VoteBoth.com. “Obama needs her. It’s possible he can win without her, but he can’t lose with her,” Davis said.

The website Hillaryis44.com, which has often been described as a backdoor route into Clinton’s war room, was even more explicit. “Obama is unelectable and not qualified to be president,” it declared starkly.

http://zfacts.com/p/945.html | 01/18/12 07:19 GMT
Modified: Sun, 08 Jun 2008 00:58:41 GMT