Posted on 02/21/2008 3:20:08 AM PST by kingattax
It's Hail Mary time.
Battered by 10 straight losses, Hillary Clinton launched a desperate drive to save her sinking candidacy Wednesday, pleading with wavering voters to stick with her and stop Barack Obama in the big primary states of Texas and Ohio on March 4.
"Please," she beseeched in one of many TV interviews yesterday. "Look at a candidate who is ready, willing and able to do it.
"Don't give up on this."
But never have the New York senator's odds of winning her once-indomitable White House bid looked so long. Her hard-stumping husband Wednesday acknowledged the grim reality: March 4 is her last chance.
"If she wins in Texas and Ohio, I think she'll be the nominee," Bill Clinton said at a rally in Beaumont, Tex., yesterday. "If you don't deliver for her, I don't think she can be."
Actually, even if Hillary Clinton wins March 4, she will remain the underdog. All that would do is keep her in the game.
She must stagger the seemingly unstoppable Obama at the Democratic debate tonight and set him up for a knockdown in the 11 days before the March 4 primaries.
Clinton enters the debate in Austin, Tex., intent on raising questions and sowing doubts about Obama that will linger, and will try to land the knockdown blow at Tuesday's debate in Cleveland.
Her two-round debate gambit will be buttressed by her campaign's aggressive attacks against the front-runner, bashing him in TV and radio ads, direct mail and leaked opposition research to the press, insiders explained.
Clinton will also get a boost from a nominally independent political group unbound by campaign finance limits, the American Leadership Project, which plans to launch an aggressive advertising campaign in the Lone Star and Buckeye states favorable to Clinton.
"If speeches could create jobs, we wouldn't be facing a recession," begins one ad, jabbing not so subtly at Obama. Most recent polls showed her clinging to leads in Texas and Ohio, but Obama still owns the momentum. Four more superdelegates jumped on his bandwagon, and the 1.4 million-member Teamsters union endorsed him. He even got cheered by a crowd of 17,000 in Dallas when he blew his nose.
It's a stunning spot for her to be in. When the former First Lady started her quest in January 2007, Obama looked like a flash in the pan and she sported one of the most fearsome political machines ever built, with the ultimate campaigner, Bill Clinton, as one of the architects.
But the man from Illinois has chipped away at her base, swaying independents, affluent Democrats and intellectuals with his message of change. His win in Iowa convinced black voters. Now, even Hillary Clinton's bedrock of female and poorer voters is starting to shift to Obama.
Hillary Clinton tried to play down her string of losses.
"A lot of those were predicted and we're going on," she told a TV station in Vermont, which, like Rhode Island, also votes with the mega-states March 4.
She cast Obama as strong on speeches but weak on follow-through. His programs on health care and the mortgage crisis are "short of solutions," she said. "I would call them half-hearted attempts."
Plaintively, she went on, "I know it's very attractive to have the fresh and new, but I think I'm tested and true, and I hope the people would consider that."
Obama pushed back in Dallas.
"It's not a choice between speeches and solutions," he said. "It's a choice between politics that offers more of the same divisions and distractions that didn't work in South Carolina and didn't work in Wisconsin and will not work in Texas."
Will Bill be saying that in WACO?
REMEMBER WACO, TEXANS!
That is about as likely to happen as the GOP convention pick someone other than McCain.
Tin foil beanie.
Well, yes, but it’s like when Hitler blamed the German people for not supporting him.
I'm waiting for someone with the onions to say, "We know you (and the Pastry Chef) can find a bathroom in the WH. What experience have you had running anything there except the Health Care debacle and crushing Bill's sexual victims? Did you play a part in the Waco operation? In the decision NOT to take Bin Ladin when he was offered to you on a platter before 9/11?"
Drive a wooden spear before the sun gos down.
If Hillary can pull this one out via gaming and super-delegates, it’ll be the end of the modern demokkkrat party, i.e. the ultimate happy ending.
Good point! He isn't there yet as his rallies are more like that Steve Martin movie about the fake healer preacher, but he has the backing of George Soros which means unlimited funds on anything Soros wants done.
As a teenager in Hungary Soros worked for the Arrow Cross (Hungarian Nazi Party) including inventorying confiscated Jewish property. So it wouldn't be too surprising if he hired a Hollywood savant to whip up a 2008 version of Leni Riefenstahl's opus.
So far Obama doesn't have the infrastructure that is required for what Hitler did. He's still Elmer Gantry, but the backing and organizational talent are there. Waiting and ready.
I agree with you. Getting the Grifters to go away and finally shut up is worth the risk that O’BAMA (Roll Tide) will be a tougher opponent in the general election.
But I don’t think that’s neccessarily the case.
Interestingly, that film's no longer available on Netflix. It WAS in my queue, but when I logged in to move it to the top after watching part of an Obama rally, it's been moved to "Saved," with no release date given. Apparently there's goiing to be a special restored edition. I'd be happy with the old one.
I am not deeply saddened.
We just hold our noses and vote for the Republican nominee. I can and will do that before these awful Dems get in.
They had no game plan and did no organizing in the follow on states. Hell, they just opened offices in vermont and rhode island this week.
In December 2007, the national polls had the bitch up 25-30% and she and her crew translated this fake poll into a runaway win on super Tuesday.
All polls are bullshit, but national polls really don't mean a thing during state by state primaries and cauci.
The bitch and her staff are incompetent. That was a preview of what a hildabeast President would have looked like.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I use Johnnie Walker Black, about two inches in a tumbler, no water, no ice.
Sip, don't swill.
Repeat until you reach the state where you can say, "I like John McCain", without puking, laughing or crying.
There is a fine line between this state and passing out into total darkness, so practice is essential.
Clinton enters the debate in Austin, Tex., intent on raising questions and sowing doubts about Obama that will linger, and will try to land the knockdown blow at Tuesday's debate in Cleveland.
There's TWO more debates between these two?!? Jeezus H, give it a rest already. What can be said has been said (or lied about). These things are going to sink to this..
That pretty much sums up where I'm at!
I think that's a good thing.
You make some great points. I just worry about large groups of stupid people being led by a charismatic charlatan — there’s no limit to the damage they can do. Especially with an evil puppetmaster like Soros calling the tune.
I’d like to see the restored edition! You should really try and see it; it’s probably one of the best propaganda movies ever. The movie she did about the Olympics (”Olympia”?) was pretty boring to me.
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