My Way

31 March 2008 |permalink | email article

Hillary Clinton, cheered on by C42 who told California Democrats at a San Jose convention to “chill out,” vowed to fight all the way to Denver.

In a bad omen she asked Washington Post for an interview to address calls that she quit the race, explain how she can still win and, if necessary, take her fight to resolve the disqualified results in Florida and Michigan to the August convention.

Ignoring the question of early party unity, with John McCain already up with his first general-election television ad, Clinton dismissed concerns that the bitter campaign will impact the general election.

The Clintonian obsession for a third term is not only remarkable but, in many ways, delusional given the political math.

Rejecting the conventional wisdom of Nancy Pelosi and others that pledged delegates should decide the nomination, the Clintons argue she can overtake Barack Obama in the overall popular vote and woo superdelegates to decide the outcome.

But it’s clear that unpledged superdelegates are now gravitating more toward Obama. Reportedly the entire North Carolina Congressional delegation is set to commit.

Asked whether Obama could win in November, Clinton answered by saying she had a better chance and that no Democrat could win without a big women’s vote.

“What I believe is that women will turn out for me,” she said, as if gender alone might well decide the election.

Gallup Poll Daily tracking indicates Obama has clearly weathered the Rev. Wright controversy after falling behind over her over the past two weeks before the lead turned into a statistical dead heat.

On March 28, the poll had Obama moving ahead by eight percentage points. But on Saturday Obama suddenly extended his lead among Democrats to a significant ten-point advantage.

Clinton now faces a growing credibility problem over exaggerating her foreign policy experience and credentials.

Last week, after spinning a fairy tale for almost three months in her stump speech that she came under “sniper fire” in Bosnia, she had to admit, as three separate videos showed, that she “misspoke.”

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported in January that the story couldn’t be true because by the time of the first lady’s visit in March, 1996 “the war was over.”

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