Please see Update on Financial Times UK editorial: Clinton must step aside today..
In my opinion this priceless post by a commenter at The Plank, TNR, that Clinton remains undefeated in uncontested elections, mirrors the thinking in the Clinton camp.
“”Yeah, but this just goes to show that Obama only wins in states that hold contested elections. Sure, he wins big in caucus states, he wins big in primary states, he wins big when turnout is low, and he wins big with record-high turnout.
But what the Obama-worshipping media is overlooking is that in each of the 25 state contests Obama has won so far, his name appeared on the ballot. It’s time to stop giving Obama a pass on this critical issue.
Remember, if Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama’s name will not be on the ballot in November. And only Hillary Clinton has demonstrated that she can win when Obama’s name is not on the ballot. In fact, she’s undefeated in contests where Obama is not on the ballot, making her clearly the more electable general-election candidate.”” (H/T: The Daily Dish)
No doubt you’ve read that caucuses and red states don’t count and other remarkable silliness from Clinton’s chief strategist.
I’m just saying there’s now a mounting chorus for Hillary to call it quits. May I suggest she does so right after March 4. The Hillary campaign discovered only this month, that the Texas rules may dissolve their firewall.. They failed to do their homework.
Bill Clinton offered, we’ll make a last stand – It’s do or Die in Texas
There’s a Texas-sized stumbling block on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s comeback trail.
Even Clinton’s most devoted surrogate — her husband, Bill Clinton — acknowledged the do-or-die stakes on Wednesday in Beaumont, Texas, conceding that a loss in Texas or Ohio would likely doom her candidacy..
“If she wins Texas and Ohio I think she will be the nominee. If you don’t deliver for her, I don’t think she can be. It’s all on you,” the former president told the audience at the beginning of his speech.
Mayhill Flower, Huffpost, finds Clinton’s Texas Ground Game Plunges Into Chaos
Although the Clinton Campaign has been telling the press that they have the ground operations to pull off a win in Texas, those ground operations have not been in evidence when I’ve traveled to small towns to see how Bill Clinton is doing on the Texas stump.
Wednesday evening in Victoria, down in the southeastern part of the state, incipient chaos threatened to overwhelm the “Early Vote” Rally precisely because there was no ground operation.
The well-oiled, beautifully constructed state-level HRC campaign machine, focused and determined in Iowa, Nevada and California, is beginning to break down.
“It’s a clusterfuck! Just a clusterfuck!” the Corpus Christi producer for a local news affiliate shouts into his cell phone. He’s telling his boss that there will be no coverage of Bill Clinton’s visit to Victoria for the 6 o’clock news.
“Who’s running this campaign anyway?” the producer asks, of no one in particular. “And now five hundred people have stomped away mad.” He shakes his head.
At that moment, twenty well-dressed elderly and middle-aged dignitaries and politicians exit the back of the local arts center and walk slowly for the intersection of Goodwin and Main. Presumably, they are Hillary Clinton supporters; however, given their dazed faces, they look more like commissars who have been turned out by the NKVD and cannot believe how suddenly their fortunes have changed.
With his Secret Service agents at his side, Bill Clinton walks the short block without acknowledging the little group of eminent supporters. (They are never introduced or explained.)
Maybe it’s The money woes.
My approach is from an old adage. In business, always know when to cut your losses. Never throw good money after bad. The Clintons miscalculated, planned a budget on the premise the inevitable nomination would be sealed on February 5.
Obsidian and Politco crunch the numbers.
Hilzoy, Obsidian
“I was somewhat puzzled by Clinton’s statement, though. On the one hand, her campaign clearly took in considerably less than it paid out. About nine million dollars less. And that can hardly be good news.
Moreover, she has a mass of debt: $7,576,700.48 worth, to be precise (not including the loan she made to herself.) Moreover, while some of it is large sums (over $2million owed to Mark Penn, for instance), there are a lot of pretty small unpaid bills to places throughout Iowa and New Hampshire. (Honestly, why not pay the $500.12 they owe to Premier Pizza in Algonquin, Iowa? Or the $615.25 they owe Depot Deli of Shenandoah, Iowa? Your average pizzeria or deli is not made of money, after all.)”[.]
Vogel and Cummings at Politico takes a look at the two campaigns’ finances
January yields debt for HRC, cash for Obama
Hillary Clinton ended January with $7.6 million in debt – not including the $5 million personal loan she gave to her campaign in the run-up to the critical Super Tuesday elections, according to financial reports released Wednesday.
In contrast, Democratic rival Barack Obama’s campaign’s finances continued to be robust. He reported raising nearly $37 million and spending nearly $31 million. His cash balance was $25 million, of which roughly $20 million can be spent on the primary. He reported a comparatively small $1 million in debts, owed largely to just three vendors.[.]
But the Clinton report paints a picture of a one-time front-runner under enormous pressure after miscalculating that she would wrap up the nomination before or on Feb. 5. According to the reports, Clinton raised about $20 million in January, including her loan. She spent nearly $29 million during the month.
She reported a cash balance of $29 million. But more than $20 million of that is money dedicated to the general election. Her personal loan accounts for more than half of the remaining approximately $9 million, leaving just about $4 million in cash raised from donors.
But even that money is illusionary when measured against the reported $7.6 million in debts.
More than $2 million of the red ink is owed to chief consultant and adviser, Mark Penn. But the lengthy laundry list of IOUs also includes unpaid bills ranging from insurance coverage, phone banking, printing and catering at events in Iowa, New Hampshire and California.
The chink is Clinton’s financial armor actually predates the latest reports.
Clinton’s 2007 year-end report showed her owing more than $5 million to vendors ranging from phone bank firms and pollsters to charter airline operators and telephone companies.
Her campaign last month dismissed those debts as a matter of bookkeeping. “These are not true debts accruing by the campaign, but simply unpaid invoices,” said spokesman Blake Zeff.
[ED:] oh my, I’m looking at my unpaid bills and after reading Zeff’s statement do you think I should give a call to my creditors…let them know …
But I can’t see Hillary’s creditors being worried; not with Bill’s ability to bring home the bacon deals.
Hillary should write herself another loan to pay off the small creditors. Hey, they’re bragging on having raised $15 million in February.
But here’s the real reason it’s time to call it a day: when you’ve hit a brick wall and are in double bankruptcy – Not just the money woes but they’re facing a deficit of ideas.
Yes, it’s time to fold, when a campaign does this:
–From The Hill
Clinton camp looks to supporters for advice
(H/T: Drudge-The Hatman)
“Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign, reeling from 10 unanswered losses to rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), is giving supporters a chance to weigh in on the campaign with senior officials Thursday morning.
Supporters who phone in will be able to ask questions and offer advice to campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe, political director Guy Cecil and Roy Spence, a senior adviser, according to an e-mail obtained by The Hill.
In the e-mail, the Clinton campaign invites those on the list to join the call at 11:30 a.m. because “we want to hear your thoughts, advice and questions as we move forward to the March 4th primaries.
The e-mail could suggest that Clinton’s campaign has hit a wall after a string of decisive defeats and been confronted with a media environment that is increasingly skeptical about the New York senator’s ability to right her listing ship. The former first lady’s camp has also pursued an increasingly negative tone with regard to Obama, citing plagiarism charges and arguing that the Illinois senator offers only rhetoric.[.]
On the call, senior campaign advisers made it clear they plan to campaign hard through the end of the process. Harold Ickes, a senior adviser, said the campaign thinks it will be in a position to clinch the nomination about the time of the Puerto Rican caucuses on June 1.”
(emphasis added)
The HRC campaign staff and advisers have proven themselves woefully incompetent. They’re not in any shape to mount a national general election campaign for the presidency. Certainly Hillary’s, “35 years experience” has not served her well.
Wrong experience. She’s not ready to lead from day one.
Instead of moving the goal post from February 5 to March 4 and now June 1 -(aka Freidman units). It’s time to give the Party a break. Give us time to heal together, drive our focus on fund-raising and policy issues for that great day, 04 November, 2008.
Bill and Hillary, I hope you will read this editorial.
From The Financial Times, UK US Edition (reg. required)
Clinton must step aside today to win tomorrow
The time has come for Hillary Clinton to make a historic announcement, certain to dismay her friends and confound her enemies, demonstrating her undeniable strengths – intelligence, ambition and resolve.
Following on her massive Wisconsin primary defeat, she ought to surprise the nation and the world by announcing her decision not to contest Texas, Ohio or Pennsylvania, accepting Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee in opposition to John McCain.
Though she has been intermittently hostile in her comments on Mr Obama, it should be possible for her to say that she will do whatever she can to prevent a Republican victory in November.
She needs to represent her withdrawal not as a personal sacrifice, but as a refusal to play the Republican game that could lead to a McCain victory and the elevation of justices to the US Supreme Court hostile to her most cherished values.
The time has come to say that Republican rule, as exemplified by the Bush administration and McCain pledges, offer prospects too dangerous to contemplate.[.]
(emphasis added)
The time to go is today.