Bill Clinton Defends Hillary's Continuation

I really, really think they just might be in til the convention. Remember the calculus, assuming Obama gets the nomination, if he becomes president this was probably her last best shot at the White House. But if he loses in November, Hillary is all set up to say, "I told you so" and she will be the top prospect in 2012 versus a John McCain.

By that time I speculate that McCain will have angered everyone on both sides of the aisle and will likely be ripe for defeat. But in either scenario it makes sense for her to stay in. She really has nothing to lose and as Republicans have known for years and the Democrats are, oh so slowly! beginning to realize, the Clintons are in it for themselves, not the party.

To which I present Bill Clinton's big speech today:

Clinton spent more than six minutes calmly discussing what he called a "frantic effort to push her out" of this race, saying that no one asked Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson or Gary Hart to end their presidential campaigns early.

Clinton also spoke against bullying superdelegates to make up their minds, saying, "I cant believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out. 'Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up.'"

...

"If you notice, there hasn't been a lot of publicity on these polls I just told you about," Clinton said. "It is the first time you've heard it? Why do you think that is? Why do you think? Don't you think if the polls were the reverse and he was winning the electoral college against Sen. McCain and Hillary was losing it, it would be blasted on every television station? You would know it wouldn't you? It wouldn't be a little secret. And there is another Electoral College poll that I saw yesterday had her over 300 electoral votes, yeah. She will win the general election is you nominate her. They're just trying to make sure you don't."

Nice. It's fun to see that Bill Clinton is complaining of unfair press coverage. Considering his anointed run in 1992, it's a little hard to take, but his annoyance at the current turn of events helps. A lot.

Now, Wake up America has a long involved post where he deconstructs Clinton's argument and critiques it nicely. And also completely misses the point.

Bill Clinton is not trying to be logical. Bill Clinton's only purpose is to provide some rhetorical cover for his wife's continuation. This cover, does not, repeat, does not have to make sense or be factually accurate.

The Clintons can read the writing on the wall. At this point, they are fairly certain they can't win. They also understand that they are angering the Democratic party by continuing. So the continuation of the race must be explained somehow. The real answer is that they are waiting for an Obama implosion (or an RFK style assassination apparently and classlessly), they are setting themselves up for 2012, or they have nothing to lose so what the heck!?

And since none of those real reasons can be fed to the party or press they need some cover. One such is hand waving about popular votes or moving the goal posts. they could also demand Florida and Michigan seating at new levels of brazenness, even for them. Or they could point to whatever evidence there is for Hillary's electability, and there is some of that too.

Or you could do what the Clintons are doing and throw it all up against the wall and see what sticks. One thing it all adds up to is that they intend on going to the convention still in the race.