Today's primaries in Montana and South Dakota mark the end of the primary season, which began on Jan. 3 with the Iowa caucuses.
Yes, that was five months ago.
Pressure's been mounting on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race in the face of Barack Obama's consistent -- if recently slower -- progression toward winning the number of delegates needed to secure the nomination. Senior adviser Harold Ickes' temper tantrum Saturday did nothing to tamp down rumors that Clinton may take the nomination fight to the convention in August, but conventional wisdom is that most of the 200 or so remaining undeclared superdelegates -- many of whom serve in Congress -- were, in deference to Clinton, waiting to make their preferences known until the primary season wrapped up. (Obama needs 40 delegates to secure the nomination.) Once they declare, Clinton would be left with little in the way of an argument to continue fighting.
So when the Associated Press broke a story this morning that Clinton intends to concede tonight in a speech from New York City that Obama has the delegates to win, the cable news networks went berserk.
"AP: Officials say Hillary Clinton will acknowledge tonight that Barack Obama has the delegates for the Democratic presidential nomination," CNN.com trumpeted in a banner graphic.
From FoxNews.com:
Hillary Clinton is at least prepared at the end of Tuesday evening’s last two Democratic primary contests to cede that Barack Obama has enough delegates to stake claim to the nomination.According to The Associated Press, citing two unnamed sources, Clinton will likely stop short of formally suspending or ending her quest for the White House ...
The AP says she will pledge to continue to speak out on issues like health care, although the sources told the AP they acknowledge the campaign is basically over.
But just as it was looking like the Clinton campaign was teetering on the edge of falling out of the clouds and returning to reality, campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe swooped down to rescue his colleagues and pull them back from the precipice into the Clinton Cave of Enduring Fantasy.
McAuliffe said Clinton is "absolutely not" planning to concede tonight.
"(Associated Press reports) are 100 percent reporting incorrectly," McAuliffe said. Asked what he would say if he was charged with writing the headline for the story this morning, McAuliffe said, "The race goes on."
"You've got two important states to vote today, and tomorrow we've gotta work the superdelegates," he said. "We think we can convince enough suerdelegates to support Hillary Clinton."
So CNN.com rewrote the banner graphic:
"Hillary Clinton not prepared to admit Barack Obama has beaten her in race for Democratic nomination, her campaign chairman told CNN."
From the story:
Obama "doesn't have the numbers today, and until someone has the numbers the race goes on," McAuliffe told CNN.
These are the times that try speechwriters' souls.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement