Hillary Clinton hosted a press conference in West Virginia this afternoon, and she certainly didn’t sound like a candidate on the verge of dropping out. TPM posted this video excerpt.
On her first point, Clinton said she’d remain in the presidential race “until there’s a nominee.” Like Greg Sargent, I found the phrase a little ambiguous. As a literal, technical matter, “there’s a nominee” once delegates pick one at the convention, in this case, at the end of August in Denver. Is Clinton planning to fight on until then?
It’s more likely, I suppose, that Clinton meant she’d stay in until a candidate passed the necessary threshold for delegates (in Dems’ case, 2,025), thus claiming the nomination. But that leads to her second point from this afternoon’s press conference: “Under the rules of the Democratic Party, the Rules and Bylaws Committee makes the first determination. And if people are not satisfied with that they go to the Credentials Committee. So we’ll see what the outcome is.”
Listening to pundits last night and this morning, there was a sense that top Clinton aides and allies would go to the senator, congratulate her on a job well done, and argue that it’s time to wrap things up and make a graceful exit. A Clinton strategist told the WaPo’s Chris Cillizza this afternoon, “I believe there is no path to victory. I also believe she wants to see a Democrat win in November and she will do the right thing.”
But what if she considers the “right thing” keeping this race going indefinitely?
Well, perhaps “indefinitely” is the wrong word here. The Huffington Post reported this afternoon that the Clinton campaign is planning to stick around at least another five or six weeks.
A senior campaign official and Clinton confidante has told me that there will be a Democratic nominee by June 15. He could not bring himself to say the words “Hillary will drop out by June 15,” but that is clearly what he meant. I kept saying, “So, Hillary will drop out by June 15,” and he kept saying, “We will have a nominee by June 15.” He stressed what a reasonable person Hillary is.
Everything about our conversation implied that he had already had this reality-based discussion with Hillary. He said the Clinton campaign plan is to collect as many votes and delegates as they can right through June 3, then take no more than a week or so to make their case to the superdelegates. Nothing he said indicated that he actually expected the superdelegates to move to Hillary in the week after the final election. The Clinton campaign has not lost its grip on reality. Yes, Clinton spokespersons publicly seem to be lost on gravity-free planet Clinton, but privately they know the end is near.
Perhaps, but June 15 is not exactly “near.” If the uncommitted superdelegates find the prospect of five or six weeks of additional campaigning unpleasant, this might be a good time to speak up.
And how has Barack Obama spent his day? The frontrunner was home in Chicago today, and the AP report said his “aides spread word that he would soon begin campaigning in states likely to be pivotal in the fall campaign.” Ben Smith had a similar report, noting that chief strategist David Axelrod told reporters on the campaign plane last night, “I don’t think we are doing to spend our time solely in primary states.”
Stay tuned.
