Hillary Clinton will be offered a dignified exit from the presidential race and the prospect of a place in Barack Obama's cabinet under plans for a "negotiated surrender" of her White House ambitions being drawn up by Senator Obama's aides
The former First Lady would get the chance to pilot Mr Obama’s reforms of the American healthcare system if she agrees to clear the path to his nomination as Democratic presidential candidate.
Senior figures in the Obama camp have told Democrat colleagues that the offer to Mrs Clinton of a cabinet post as health secretary or to steer new legislation through the Senate will be a central element of their peace overtures to the New York senator.
Mr Obama said on Thursday that he believed he would have secured the support of enough delegates to make him the standard bearer of his party in November’s presidential election by the end of this week
After today’s primary election in Puerto Rico and Tuesday’s final contests in Montana and South Dakota, the remaining super-delegates will come under huge pressure from fellow party grandees to declare their hands.
The Obama camp, however, remains nervous about Mrs Clinton’s intentions and ambitions, and is preparing a face-saving package that will allow her to continue to play a role in health care reform, which has been her signature issue for more than a decade. Despite pressure from some Clinton allies, Mr Obama and his advisers do not wish to ask her to be his vice-presidential running mate. “They will talk to her,” one Democrat strategist close to senior figures in the Obama camp told The Sunday Telegraph. “They will give her the respect she deserves. She will get something to do with health care, a cabinet post or the chance to lead the legislation through the Senate.”
Another Democrat who has discussed strategy with friends in the Obama inner circle said that Mr Obama was openly considering asking Mrs Clinton to join his cabinet, alongside two other former presidential rivals: John Edwards, who is seen as a likely attorney general; and Joe Biden, who is a leading contender to become Secretary of State.
Mr Obama hinted at the plan last week. “One of my heroes is Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his cabinet because whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was 'how can we get this country through this time of crisis?’ And I think that has to be the approach that one takes.”
Informal talks have already begun between Obama and Clinton fundraisers to discuss a merger, enabling Mr Obama to pay off Mrs Clinton’s campaign debts of $11 million (£5.6 million). The third element of a peace deal was being worked out last night as Mr Obama’s allies tried to arrange a compromise over the delegates from Florida and Michigan — states which Mrs Clinton won but which were stripped of their voting rights after moving election dates in breach of party rules.
Hundreds of Clinton supporters, mostly women, gathered in Washington yesterday to protest at what they saw as an injustice, as the Democratic Party’s “rules and bylaws committee” worked on a way of ending the controversy.
Delegates are likely to be awarded in proportion with the votes cast, but in only half the numbers originally intended, a move that would help Mrs Clinton save face but would not challenge Mr Obama’s delegate lead. “Hillary will get a win, but a small win,” said the first Democrat strategist.
Tentative contacts have already taken place between Obama and Clinton aides over the endgame, but there have been no formal talks. Mrs Clinton’s aides, while acknowledging that she will have to abandon her White House dream, do not feel they are in a position to negotiate on her behalf. “She has not surrendered in her own mind yet and until she does it’s very difficult to have these conversations,” the second strategist said.
Dee Dee Myers, the former press secretary to President Clinton, said: “It seems clear to me from watching her, and talking to people, that she doesn’t really know what she wants.” But after 17 months of campaigning, and $150 million (£76 million) spent, the question that haunts the Clinton camp is: how did someone who a year ago had unrivalled name recognition, a legendary campaign organisation and more money than her opponent contrive to throw it all away?
The answers come down to wrong message, wrong tactics, complacency, character – and, ultimately, the opponent. Even Clinton aides agree that she wrongly sold herself as a candidate of experience, when voters yearned for Barack Obama’s message of change. Her campaign machine then failed to win January’s crucial opening Iowa caucuses, handing lethal momentum to Mr Obama.
Her staff mistakenly believed they could knock her rival out by “Super Tuesday” on February 5, when 22 states voted. When that did not happen, she had neither the resources nor the organisation to compete in the succession of caucuses that followed, allowing Mr Obama to build the delegate lead he maintains to this day.
Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster not affiliated to either camp, told The Sunday Telegraph: “We have known for two years that Democrats and voters in general are much more interested in change. Yet for reasons that are inexplicable, the Clinton campaign chose to be on the short end of that message stick.”
Backed into a corner, Mrs Clinton responded with increasingly outlandish claims about her qualifications, including a ludicrous statement that she had braved sniper fire on a trip to Bosnia.
That, plus her subsequent insistence that she had merely “mis-spoken” rather than admitting she had got her facts wrong, raised new issues about her character.
In any case, Mr Mellman believes the decisive factor in her defeat was the one she couldn’t control. “The most important thing was that she was up against Barack Obama. He is enormously talented.”
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
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quote:Mr Obama hinted at the plan last week. “One of my heroes is Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his cabinet because whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was 'how can we get this country through this time of crisis?’ And I think that has to be the approach that one takes.”
bold, my emphasis...should tell the tale
-------------------- Nashoba Holba Chepulechi Adventures in microcapitalism...
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posted
i watched a good bit of the democrats meeting to decide how to count the FLA and Mich votes today...
i watch this stuff while i'm working so i don't always follow who is who, but i see that there are some really pissed off hillary supporters...
i think this "count the vote" thing goes to the real point of why i can't stand the Clintons...
hillary signed on to (literally signed a letter of agreement) not counting those votes before the elections were held just like the other candidates did.. but when it became obvious that those votes would make a difference in her campaign? she suddenly cared about the voters? LOL what a crock o'chit.
any democrat who votes for Mcain "just becuase" hillary didn't get nominated deserves another 4 years of GOP rule...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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quote:Originally posted by Ace of Spades: If obama doesn't pick Hillary for VP he is a moron!!
i don't think she'll take it.
furthermore? after her Bobby Kennedy comment? i'd stay away from her if i was Obama...
IMO? Hillary and her people really beleive it has been stolen from them.... it hasn't been, they got out-campaigned...
they are broke, and in debt. they lost.
Obama took his name off the Michigan vote to be a GOOD Democrat.... now the Hillary people say it the fact hat she left hers on makes her the better candidate? LOL.. it just shows how mercenary she really is.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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posted
The fact that she's made it this far is a testament to her scrappiness. She is universally hated and mistrusted, and somehow she managed 1800ish delegates? At the end of it all, and if she was honest enough to recognize it, she did incredible.
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