"...everyone is bored,and devotes himself to cultivating habits..these habits are not peculiar to our town.." Albert Camus "The Plague"

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Super Delegates Key: Brokered Convention?

Brokered Convention and Super Delegates: Hillary's Firewall?

Photobucket

Even though Clinton won ___ primaries on Tuesday, even though many of them concede there is probably no stopping Candidate ___ now, dozens of Democratic senators and representatives remain reluctant to endorse h__.

Senator R. scheduled a news conference for Friday to announce his backing. Senator D. told news organizations in his home state that the moment had come to rally around Clinton. But beyond that there was little movement.

Of 264 superdelegates in the House and Senate, 93, or 35 percent, have endorsed Clinton so far, according to a continuing survey by The New York Times.... and most made their statements some time ago. A much larger number remain officially uncommitted.

Clinton's press secretary, insisted that "people are starting to rally around the flag," and she mentioned Mr. R. as an example. She also said the Governor plans to meet with uncommitted superdelegates on Capitol Hill on April 29, the day after the Pennsylvania primary, when Congress will return from the Easter recess.

But Representative E.of Ohio, more willing perhaps to speak on the record than many of his colleagues because he has announced his retirement from the House, said that he and some of his colleagues had constituted an informal "Missouri caucus -- a show-me caucus" -- and would do nothing for now.

"The voters haven't embraced Clinton, so I don't see any reason why I should endorse h__," Mr. E. said. "Look at the exit polls. People have terrible doubts about this ___, and we're talking about Democrats."

In the State N. primary Tuesday, the turnout was exceptionally low, 29 percent of the electorate backed Candidate T.,.... two-thirds of the voters said they were dissatisfied with the choice presented to them, and 4 in 10 said they doubted Clinton had the integrity to be President.

.... the party chairman, has been phoning uncommitted delegates and others, "discussing the lay of the political territory," as he described it. He denied putting pressure on anybody, but others in the party said he was sending a subtle but clear message that it was time to halt the squabbling.

"There's a real tug-of-war up here," said one House member. "Especially on this side, there are a lot of people who are terrified that all the character questions, all the negatives about Clinton that showed up in N, make h__ so weak that a lot of people will lose their seats."

A prominent Senator, who also asked not to be identified, added, "lots of people are hearing from home, 'Keep it open, even if the odds make it look impossible,' because Candidate X may self-destruct before the convention."

... a leading Democratic money-raiser, has called together 65 big party contributors to discuss "how a brokered convention might work."

Ha Ha, sound familiar? See the original NY Times (April 10, 1992) article which we have reworked above.
h/t Free Republic for photo
Tags:campaign 08,hillary clinton,bill clinton,brokered convention,super delegates,democrat doubts,candidate self destructs,campaign '92,hillary firewall

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