Last updated on July 1st, 2012 at 06:23 am
The race is over. Though it is not officially over, it is mathematically over. And for all intents and purposes, “mathematically over” is as good as “officially over.” After last night’s primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, Hillary Clinton’s campaign is done. Her chances for the nomination just ran from slim to none.
Hillary Clinton herself is not admitting defeat. Her website sent out a blog piece this morning saying, “Today, in every way that I know how, I am expressing my personal determination to keep forging forward in this campaign.”
She has also stated that she is “staying in this race until we have a nominee.” Of course, we already have a Democratic nominee…for all intents and purposes.
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As Hillary continues to put on a brave and cheerful face publicly, serious signs from her campaign team that she is considering withdrawal are leaking like water from a loosed fire hydrant.
Earlier today, CBS News reported “several top advisers are suggesting to Hillary Clinton that she stay in through West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon and then in two weeks, gracefully bow out.”
There are also some pretty concrete rumors that somebody from within the Hillary campaign has already had “the talk” with her, uttering the words, “Senator Clinton, you simply cannot win this nomination at this point.”
Mathematically, the above “rumored point” is absolutely true. An article posted on CBSNews.com written by Vaugh Ververs and Brian Montopoli commented that “here’s how it breaks down: Right now, Obama leads Clinton by nearly 700,000 votes, if you don’t count Michigan and Florida. Clinton was on the ballot in both states; Obama was not on the Michigan ballot, though many of his supporters voted “uncommitted.” If you count only the votes cast for the candidates in both states – and thus don’t count uncommitted for Obama – Obama would still have a national vote lead of more than 73,000 votes. If you give Michigan’s uncommitted vote to Obama, he would lead by over 310,000. And if only Florida were counted, Obama would lead by more than 400,000 votes. Under every scenario, Clinton does not claim the popular vote lead.”
And if all of the above weren’t enough, Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post, a political insider herself, revealed this morning that, “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. Everything about our conversation implied that he had already had this reality-based discussion with Hillary.”
And so it is. It does appear that the Democrats have gotten themselves a nominee. And Hillary Clinton is not it.
