Burying, Not Praising Hillary Clinton in the Indiana and North Carolina Primaries

By Heather Muse Wed., May 7 2008 at 9:34 AM

Categories: Tabloided

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Here come all the food and cooking clichés for Hillary Clinton's loss in the North Carolina and possibly Indiana primaries: "STICK A FORK IN HER -- SHE'S DONE" she's "TOAST!" The editors of the Post must have been dancing a jig last night as the numbers rolled in: Clinton lost North Carolina with 42 percent of the vote to Barack Obama's 56 percent. As the tabloids went to press, Indiana was still too close to call. (Clinton eventually eked out a 2-point win over Obama, CNN reports.) The votes from the heavily African-American Lake County had yet to be fully counted, and most experts said the county would go for Obama.

So now, we get the analysis of what went wrong with the Clinton campaign. The coverage is fairly similar to that of when Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid went south: the implications of hubris, the subtle way that pictures of the candidate are no longer prominent inside the pages of the paper. (In fact, the Daily News doesn't even bother to put a picture of Hillary on the front page. Uma Thurman is the woman on page one today.) We see smiling photos of Barack and Michelle Obama in the pages of the Post; they look like the photos of a nominee. The News does put two photos of Clinton inside, but one is a dorky, cheery photo of her at her "victory" speech in Indiana, and another is above a headline that vows to get to the "Ugly truth behind Hil's persistence."

Barring any sort of miracle, Clinton coverage should begin to wind down. The final push should be when (or if) she finally admits defeat and drops out of the race. We'll then get the hand-wringing about "what to do with the party" and the list of Hillary's greatest sins in the campaign. Look for comparisons with Giuliani on strategy: he put all his eggs in Florida's basket, while Hillary didn't expect this race to go on beyond Super Tuesday. And now Obama will be the main focus, as he dukes it out with McCain and Clinton looks like that out-of-touch old bat who thinks she's still in the race.

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Good and thoughtful comment Martian. Majority Leader would be a great position for Hillary! Regarding the comment from semidi about how Barack Obama outspent Hillary in Indiana and "still couldnt close the deal" -- I am so tired of hearing this when we all know that Hillary is drawing on the bank of familiarity and good will from 8 years as First Lady, her years in the Senate, plus having her husband, a widely respected former US President, campaigning for her everywhere and being super connected with the democratic political machine. That's a lot to have in the bank! With all that, why couldn't she seal the deal for the nomination? Clearly, the American people want a change of leadership!
Clinton (Hillary) should withdraw NOW and save face. Then the Dem Party should vote her the Majority Leader of the Senate next year. As a consolation prize, becoming the most powerful Congress leader would put her in the driver's seat for creating the legislation that President Obama will be working to pass. They could still develop into an unbeatable combination. But first, she's got to GET OUT NOW while she still has any saving reputation left.
Specious! ...yet Special. Nice job Vivian. What great parallels. Good of you to notice.
By refusing to go now, Hillary is pushing herself out. Very soon.
Why have we let our politics devolve into a dirty high school football game, where questionable tactics are winked at, and winning is "the only thing"? Obama has won by following the rules, rules which Clinton supporters helped shape, and which she pledged to follow. Please let us see grace and class and generosity of spirit defeat limitless spin, questionable morality, and ambition masquerading as determination. Please.
Muse, the only one who looks out of touch is YOU -- and notice that I didn't have to stoop to hurling sexist tripe at a female opponent. If only Obama and his supporters like you had the same class. Obama should have owned Indiana. He outspent Clinton 2-1 and 20% of the state's media market is right from neighboring Chicago, but he still couldn't close the deal. This just underscores the fact that he is not presidential material, and the rest of the country knows it. Hopefully, the superdelegates will save the party from itself and select Clinton as the nominee.
"Filly." It's "filly." Your whole comment is specious, but you could at least spell your central metaphor correctly.
As the nation watched the results of the IN and NC primaries between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, many dreams and expectations for what began as a promising season were finally dashed. The similarities between the end of this Democratic race and the recent Kentucky Derby race are stark in their realities. In the Kentucky Derby race, you had a field of powerful male stallions and one philly, all vying for the top office... top prize. Likewise in the Democratic Primaries in what began 15 months ago with a crowded field of male stallions and one lone philly... all vying for the top office: the Democratic Nomination. Without a doubt, during the Kentucky Derby the philly showed unusual strength and bested the bulk of the stallions in the pack. She demonstrated that she could run with the big boys and not miss her stride. Indeed in this Democratic race, in the last leg coming into the home stretch, the lone philly (Hillary) was able to intimidate --and yes almost overtake the stallion who eventually won: Big Brown (Obama). While all the world watched ... hoping she could prove that a female/philly had what it takes to challenge and beat the male/stallion, it was unfortunate that with all of the best effort she put forth, Eight Belle, like Hillary Clinton, was only able to come in a close 2nd. So now, as the nation watches tonites election results ---that Kentucky Derby race is being played out all over again in our subconscious and right before our eyes. And like the end results in the recent Derby, the voters... the grieving, hurting fans in the stands are begging the Super Delegates to bring this tragedy to an end by euthanizing the lone Philly. It was painful and an awful sight-- especially that the euthanization had to be done in front of all the world to see. But someone had to do it! The real irony to the story is that while Big Brown Obama did indeed win the prize... his victory lap was Bittersweet. Because just like the 2008 Kentucky Derby, how many will remember that Big Brown won.... but rather will remember and forever talk about the horror of the killing of the philly!