Hillary Clinton's advisers 'in a state of panic'

Hillary Clinton's most senior advisers are in a state of "panic" about her presidential prospects and are plotting to enlist Democrat leaders in Congress to thwart her rival Barack Obama's ambitions.

The Clinton camp is braced for Mr Obama to win a series of primary elections over the next three weeks, which they fear could hand the Illinois senator unstoppable momentum in the race for the White House.

Mr Obama has begun calling those "super delegates" - 795 congressmen and senior party officials who could break a dead heat - who are committed to Mrs Clinton, asking them to change their minds and help him wrap up the nomination.

As of tonight, the two candidates were neck and neck but Mr Obama appeared to be gaining momentum.

"He's saying: 'Hey, I won your state and I won your congressional district, why are you supporting her?'" a Democrat strategist revealed.

The Clinton camp hopes to stop the Obama bandwagon by winning Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4, after which Mrs Clinton is planning to call on party grandees including Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Harry Reid, the party's leader in the Senate, to persuade Mr Obama to stand down.

Clinton aides have privately admitted that Mr Obama would only consider such a move if offered the position of vice presidential running mate, something Mrs Clinton has always been reluctant to consider.

A senior Democrat who has discussed Clinton campaign thinking with a member of her inner circle said: "The Clintons are in a state of panic. She has to win both Texas and Ohio."

But he added that this might prove impossible if Mr Obama maintains his momentum and wins most, or all, of the nine contests which come before that.

Mr Obama was expected to do well in primary elections held in Washington state, Louisiana and Nebraska.

He is also favourite to sweep Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC, which all vote on Tuesday, as well as Wisconsin and Hawaii, where he once lived, on February 19.

Only in Maine is Mrs Clinton confident, though Virginia and Wisconsin may also go her way.

Asked about the upcoming states, Mr Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod told The Sunday Telegraph: "We feel comfortable with them. What was once inevitable is no longer inevitable. The momentum has switched in this race.

"We closed a 20 point gap in the national polls in the last two weeks. The more people are exposed to his message, the better he does."

But he added: "We are up against the Clinton machine. We are the perpetual underdog and will be throughout this process. We're ready to go all the way to the convention."

Clinton aides believe that if Mr Obama does not deliver a knock-out blow before March 4, the advantage will swing back to her and she will argue for a deal in which uncommitted super-delegates unite behind her, to preserve party unity.

But the prospect of a deal behind closed doors, that could brush aside the views of voters in the primaries, is already creating fury in the party.

Donna Brazile, an African American strategist, said last week: "If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party."

But the Clinton camp fears that a failure to engineer a deal could lead to bitter battles at the Democrat convention in Denver in late August, which could even end with Al Gore, the former vice president, emerging as a compromise candidate.

"There's a five per cent chance of that happening, but that's five percent too high," the Clinton source said.

She claimed that she received $7.5m in donations after admitting lending her campaign $5m last week.

But the source claimed that her campaign is actually in far worse financial trouble than they are letting on.

There will be no proof of how much she raised for three months, when the totals are formally declared to election watchdogs.

The one thing the Clinton and Obama camps can agree on is that John McCain, who is popular with independents and moderate Democrats, is their "worst nightmare".

They now fear that he could pick Colin Powell or former congressman JC Watts, both of whom are African American, as his running mate.

But Mr McCain still has to shore up his conservative base and is actively looking at the Governors of Minnesota, South Carolina, Indiana, Mississippi, Florida and Texas: Tim Pawlenty, Mark Sandford, Mitch Daniels, Haley Barbour, Charlie Crist and Rick Perry.

Allies of President Bush are making the case for Rob Portman, a former White House Budget office director and Ohio congressman.

Okay, but get a cup of coffee, and this is only a partial list:

In 2004 I was a delegate to the McLennan County Republican Convention. Understand, I've been involved in Republican politics for quite a few years; not as an insider, but as a delegate to the state convention and working on the platform, etc. A lot of my time has been spent trying to keep the Reagan coalition of moderates, libertarians, country club Republicans and social conservatives together. We'd done pretty well, too. Perry took 58% of the vote in his first run at governor.

At the opening of the convention, the county chair said that Perry had sent a spokesman with a special message for the convention. I was expecting the usual rah, rah, work together speech. This guy gets up and tells us that the Republican party is open to new ideas, and if we're single issue people who can't accept people who disagree with us being part of the party to get out. "The Republicans don't need or want you" were his exact words. I got up, waved at him and walked out. Lots of people were staring at me, but nobody else left.

Perry then started pushing the "Trans-Texas Corridor," a massive nearly one mile wide roadway from (you guessed it) Mexico through the US into Canada. Actual information about the corridor is scant, but propaganda is rampant. I do know that some contractors are being paid to submit losing bids (the main contract was won by a Spanish company.) Although it's supposed to be a private roadway, farms and other property will be taken by the state through imminent domain. Both the Republican and Democratic state platforms oppose the corridor, but Perry has been able to push it through so far without a legislative vote. Although it's supposedly private, the Texas Department of Transportation is spending millions to promote it.

The small farmers and ranchers hate the corridor. What should be solid Republican territory is plastered with signs that say, "No trespassing: Especially by Rick Perry." I didn't see a single sign for Perry in small towns during the last election.

Citizens of Houston hate Perry because all the Katrina refugees have come in and crime has gone through the roof. Perry invited them in, got the headlines, then walked away and left apartment owners with people they can't evict who aren't paying rent and are turning their properties into demilitarized zones.

After Merck donated $50,000 to a fundraiser Perry chaired, he attempted to mandate all 7th grade girls in Texas get a Gardasil vaccination (Merck exclusively manufactures the drug.)

I teach at a community college in Texas, and under the arrangements of the original community college plan in Texas, the communities built the college facilities, and the state was to fund instructor salaries. After the last legislative session, Perry pocket-vetoed the bill authorizing insurance for teachers. He claimed it was not part of the original pact, but he had signed similar legislation many previous years, and if he believed it was a problem he could have easily brought it up during the legislative session. He didn't. This caught both Republican and Democrat legislators flat-footed, as he didn't even consult his own party before doing it.

Perry has managed to turn one of the most conservative states in the country against him personally, and Republicans in general. He only took 38% in the last election, and won solely because the anti-Perry vote was split between Carol Strayhorn, Kinky Friedman, and the Democrat, whom nobody even knew.

Oh, and Perry is a classic Rino. He started out as a Democrat and became a Republican when Democrats became so unpopular they couldn't win an election in Texas. His politics haven't changed at at all. His reaction to dropping to 38% was, "I got 38% of the vote, but I've got all the power."

NEVER FORGET

While our American Hero Soldiers were busy spilling their precious blood on the fields of a then Free South Vietnam during the Vietnam War...

...the HILL & BILL Show was busy doing all it could to insure Communist North Vietnam’s terrrorist takeover of the South.

Bringing down on the once Free South Vietnamese people a most horrid...

..”JOURNEY from the FALL”..

http://www.JourneyFromTheFall.com

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1806248/posts

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts

What price for the still Free to pay now, I wonder..? (That’s us, btw)

NEVER FORGET

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