Saturday, May 03, 2008

Joe Andrew charts a path for Hillary

In a peculiar sort of way, I think Joe Andrew inadvertently supported the concept that it's feasible for Hillary Clinton to win the nomination.

Speaking to the South Bend Tribune, Andrew said:

Andrew: The Clinton campaign is trying to turn this into a statement that I think we should end the process, as in, the primaries that come about do not matter. Of course they matter. I want to do everything I can to make sure that everybody comes out to vote in them because at the end of the day, all that really matters here is who has the most delegates.

But we also know ... that it is mathematically impossible for Senator Clinton to have more delegates on June 3, when the last primary is, than it is for Barack Obama to have them. So therefore the only way that she can actually become the nominee, just as a mathematical and statistical fact, is in order to convince superdelegates to go for her.

She has to have superdelegates do what I've done, which is to switch. I think superdelegates ought to announce as soon as they possibly can. ... The superdelegates ought to come clean.

Now we all know that superdelegates can switch. Hillary's scenario is that she comes close to sweeping the board in remaining primaries, coming within mid-single digits in NC, winning Indiana and doing better than expected in the remainder. Meanwhile, something equivalent to Wright's recent eruption hits Obama; his performance with white working class voters deteriorates and his poll numbers follow; Hillary closes out the voting season able to make at last a slanted case that she's won the popular vote. Then superdelegates can "do what I just did" -- Andrew has shown the way.

I don't think it will happen, or that Andrew is helping it to happen; the superdelegate tide continues to pull the other way. But he shows here that it could happen.

No comments:

Post a Comment