Hillary defiant and delusional - Democratic Underground

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Wed May-07-08 09:33 AM
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Hillary defiant and delusional

Three days ago, Hillary set the tone for her speech last night in Indiana. Some call it spin, but it really crossed the line:

Spin, as we usually refer to it, is trying to take facts and present them in a way that is good for one or another candidate. We see this most often when it comes to setting expectations. Candidates try to spin things to set expectations in a given election one way, so that when they meet or break expectations the media writes positive stories about said candidate having "momentum."

Lying, by contrast, is either saying things contrary to the facts, or pretending the facts just don't exist. We saw this most often in the Bush administration's lead-up to the Iraq War, and more recently, in Hillary Clinton pretending that she never supported NAFTA, when, in fact, a decade of public speeches shows she did. Now, Clinton is doing something fairly new: spinning AND lying - all at the same time.

Here's what ABC News reports that Clinton is now saying:

"We came from so far behind in Indiana. We're still the underdog."

Clinton is trying to set expectations in advance of Tuesday's Indiana primary, with the goal of making it seem as if a victory in Indiana would be "unexpected" and proof that she has "momentum." The spinning part - the expectations part - is fine, and no surprise. That's what candidates do, and that's part of politics. What's not fine is the dishonest basis of the storyline. Clinton has been ahead in Indiana from the beginning - and in, fact, has been ahead in the majority of Democratic primary polls done in the Hoosier state.

As Real Clear Politics shows, Clinton has been ahead or tied with Barack Obama in 12 out of 18 Indiana primary polls. In fact, she's never been behind by more than 5 points - basically the margin of error in these polls. Put another way, Clinton has been either ahead or right on the cusp of the margin of error in 100% of the polling done in Indiana.

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Why, in the face of last night's crushing defeat, would Hillary open her speech with the same distortion:

Thank you, Indiana. Thank you. Not too long ago, my opponent made a prediction. He said I would probably win Pennsylvania. He would win North Carolina, and Indiana would be the tie-breaker. Well, tonight we've come from behind, we’ve broken the tie, and thanks to you, it's full speed on to the White House.

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The delusion of "full speed on to the White House."

May 7, 2008, 9:21 am

The Early Word: Race Shifts to Superdelegates

By ARIEL ALEXOVICH

With the Indiana and North Carolina primaries behind us, we’ve crossed an interesting threshold: there are now more uncommitted superdelegates (231, according to The New York Times’s count) than pledged delegates (217) remaining to be won.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed to press on in the primary race during her victory speech in Indiana, where she beat Barack Obama by a “razor-thin” two-percent margin, The Indianapolis Star writes.

Mr. Obama won handily in North Carolina — by 14 points — but even so, Mrs. Clinton said, “it’s full speed on to the White House”:

She made glancing reference to the difficult path ahead and Mr. Obama’s numerical and financial advantages entering the final month of the primary season. Just three minutes into her victory speech, she implored the several hundred supporters gathered at a theater here to go to her Web site and contribute money.

The Clinton campaign’s financial situation might be more dire than Mrs. Clinton is letting on. Patrick Healy of The New York Times writes that “her campaign is deep in debt and believed to be near broke, and her advisers made the unusual move on Tuesday night of refusing to confirm or deny whether Mrs. Clinton had made a loan to her campaign to keep it afloat.”

Today we learn that Hillary has now loaned her campaign more than $11 million:

Clinton loaned campaign $6.4 million

The AP reports:

A campaign aide says Hillary Rodham Clinton loaned herself $6.4 million in the past month.

That sum means the campaign is fairly clearly into Bill Clinton's earnings, in theory making it more difficult to avoid questions about the source of his income. The last loan, Clinton's aides said, was drawn from Hillary's book earnings.

Though these are techically loans, these are very difficult to repay, as they must be paid from primary funds. There's some speculation this morning that Obama could help Clinton retire debt, possibly including the campaign's debt to her.

May 7, 2008, 9:54 am

Clinton Lends Campaign $6 Mllion

By Michael Luo

Highlighting the financial woes of Clinton campaign, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has lent her campaign more than $6 million over the last month, campaign officials said.

The Senator lent the campaign the money in three installments: $5 million on April 11, $1 million on May 1, and $425,000.

Mrs. Clinton is also willing to put more money into her campaign going forward, said Terry McAuliffe, the campaign chairrman.

“Senator Clinton has anted up and is fighting on,” he said.

"Fighting on"?