**Transcript of Hillary's Conference Call with Bloggers **

(**Please note: I don't have my transcription equipment set up, so this is a ROUGH transcript. Most of the major points are covered, especially in the first part where she seemed to be reading, but I didn't transcribe all of the Q and A. Hillary seemed to be MUCH MORE genuine and real, sincere, after the first of the call which seemed to be so scripted.** Update: Thanks to Poster 'beat tk', who had a much more inclusive transcript than I had, so patched together this should be fairly complete)

Hillary Statement: "I am grateful to you for what you're blogging and the very strong arguments you are making on my behalf. I think it goes way beyond the personal feelings I have for what you're doing. I think there are important issues at stake. This is not an election we can lose. We've got to win. I know YOUR VOICES make a real difference. Your engagement in these incredibly significant ways helps us set the ground for what we're trying to say in our campaign, hopefully what we do helps you make the case you are arguing and we influence the rest of the blogosphere and beyond. As I make my case to the American people, it is gratifying to know you're out there making the case with me.. we've got to win. I'm moving on in these next contests. I'm in Oregon, doing a town hall tonight. Senator Obama declined.. he refuses to debate me anymore, he refuses to stand side by side with me or to talk about issues, answer tough questions; I think it's been a real disservice to the people of Oregon and the other states that he hasn't been willing to debate. When the TV station offered us 30 mins, I accepted.. he refused and they offered me the whole hour. I just want to make a couple of points.

First, we finally have acknowledgment that we are leading in the popular vote. I'm 50,000 ahead in the popular vote. We still trail in the delegates but I have every reason to believe we'll continue to do well in the popular vote. I'm hoping I'll end the elections on June 3 ahead in popular vote.

Secondly, we are totally devoted to making sure MI and FL count. I find it not just ironic but almost inexplicable that the Democratic party would not have figured out a way to make this problem that we face under our rules subordinate to the overriding desire to enfranchise give voters the open invitation to democracy and the democratic party that they’re turning out at 2.3 million strong would demand. I think the delegations should be seated, if that’s not the resolution, it should be done in a fair, transparent way on May 31st, so that they are part of this nominating process.

Number three, as of our big win in West Virginia, which is especially significant given the history that Democrats don’t win the White House, at least since 1916, without winning West virginia - we now have won states totaling 300 electoral votes. Barack has won states totallying 217 electoral votes. Now certainly some of my states like Texas and Oklahoma will be difficult to win in the Democratic column in the Fall. But look at the states that make up his 217 electoral votes. Alaska and Idaho, Utah, Kansas, Nebraska, it will be very difficult to win those states in the General Election. It will be very difficult for Obama to win on the electoral count. I have a cushion on the electoral vote majority, he has a significant deficit. It is the MAP not the MATH.

It is time people start asking themselves who is our strongest candidate against John McCain in the fall. If people will only look at that, it strengthens our argument. I'm making that argument, I believe it. Obviously, I wouldn't be working as hard as I am if I didn't believe it. We've got to get people to start focusing on this because that's what the SDs are supposed to be doing, they're supposed to be exercising independent judgment about who will be the best President and the strongest candidate and I think that is the appropriate criteria on which to base a decision and I have a very powerful case there.

I have said repeatedly I am going to do everything to unify this party to go into the fall election in a position to win. I mean it. I really appreciate those of you who understand that at the end of the day, we've got to win, for me its all about winning. I believe as the nominee I WILL win. I believe my opponent COULD win. That's the obvious difference that drives me to do what I do every waking hour. I want to thank you because I know its not been easy. I deeply regret the vitriol and the mean-spiritedness and the terrible insults and rhetoric that has been thrown around at you for supporting me, at women in general, at many of those who support my campaign because of who they are and their stand based on principle. I don't have time for their insults, I'm impervious to them. I figure it's a perverse form of flattery that they would spend so much time trying to tear me down when what we need to be doing is figure out how we're going to swear in a Democrat on Jan 20. That’s my total conviction and commitment and that’s what I believe I am doing by pursuing this campaign with the vigor and passion that I have. So Peter, let me throw it open to the questions that might be forthcoming.

Q: Hernando Lorenz at Talk Left: I have to be honest, I have not always been a supporter but I have become an admirer of you and your campaign and I wanted to say that first. I understand that you are in the campaign to win it because you believe you’re the best nominee, and that you will be the best president, that’s clearly your main impetus, but I wanted to mention and ask you if you feel the same way, but I think that you’re still serving some important … even if you are not the nominee in November, you’ve mentioned Florida and Michigan. I think that if nothing else that you’re continued fight for Florida and Michigan is reason enough to continue forward, and it is this kind of “imperative?” that Fla nd Mich be seated so that Democrats have a chance with them in the Fall. I also believe that you have re-emphasized the need for Democrats to reach out to working class voters of all stripes and that we simply cannot take them for granted, so I believe that your campaign is also imperative in bringing that to the fore. I also believe it is important that we not give in, and one of the things that has troubled me is…that democrats give in to what the media … who has been hostile… has been so quick to befriend attacks on fellow Democrats it’s something that we should not stand for as Democrats. We should never let them dictate to us…. I wanted to ask you this question. Are you concerned that there’s not enough concern or attention being paid not only by the Democratic party but by Senator Obama about reuniting the party, there is now I believe a Clinton wing, a Hillary Clinton wing of the Democratic Party, and I believe too many people are taking it for granted. Does this concern you? Thank you very much.

A: Well thank you first of all for that really brilliant prologue. I agree with everything you’ve said about FL and MI and the need to reach out to what used to be called Reagan Democrats, who need to be just plain Democrats again, and I think it’s imperative that the Demcoratic party do this because we can’t win without a significant percentage of working people, in fact if you look at the breakdown on my vote, it’s people making less than 75,000 a year which is a lot of people, and we also can’t win Florida if we’re going to disenfranchise them, so these are critical points that we have to keep making over and over and over again and I’m very hopeful that when we finally have a nominee, we will both be making the argument to our respective supporters that I have made — I have made it consistently — that if you have voted for either Barack or me, you have more in common than you may think right now, and you certainly have more in common with each other than you do with McCain and the Republicans. I do think that I will have the ability to try to rally the people who voted for me, to win in November on behalf of our nominee, and I will do that to the best of my ability, but I don’t know if you caught the full page ad in USA Today today, which is very striking, and it talks specifically about women, but it also talks about the need to make sure that we bring everybody into the party, and it says “Not so fast,” “Hillary’s voice is our voice and she’s speaking for all of us” and what I am finding is that the more the media tries to dictate who the nominee is the more resistant those who support me become.

And you know they feel like they have every right to participate. The history of our party is the people who are not leading in the popular vote in the past went all the way to the convention to make a point on a platform to make a point on the rules… to carrry their message forward, and I don’t recall the press being all bent out of shape about it, so this is a very sore spot for the millions and millions of people who support me and remember too that two other states that Senator Obama won the caucuses in, Washington and Nebraska, they later had primaries where I did not campaign, I didn’t spend a penny, and in both instances, even though I lost their caucuses two to one, the primaries were within two or three points. It just happened in Nebraska this week, and the press obviously paid no attention to it, but it’s very significant, that even in these states which he claims in his winning column that weren’t primary states, I have a tremendous amount of support. So, we need to stand against the media and the talking heads in any circumstance. I just started running an ad in Oregon that some of you may have seen, you know where I basically use some of the talking heads who have been trying to get me out of this race since Iowa, and basically say, you know, they’re not gonna dictate to us. We’re voters, we get to decide, and we’re going to decide on what’s best for our families, and that’s how I feel about it.

Q: Allegre, blogger. I speak for millions, we're behind you and hope you go to the convention and take this to the floor for a vote. The media has distorted the fact that you're ahead in the popular vote. I'm taking my children to the DNC meeting on the 31st.. all delegates should be counted. Stay strong, keep going, never give up.

A: I cannot tell you how many people say that to me. Over the past few mos, has built into a crescendo. Just did a home meeting in Eugene, Ore, about home foreclosures, etc. At the end, woman living on fixed income, said in front of press, "Please don't give up, you are fighting for me, you are fighting for everyone I know about. Press has not covered that much. I thank you for zeroing in on May 31st meeting. There will be a lot of activity around that meeting. Important your voices are heard by DNC members. Elections were OFFICIAL elections, they were certified, they were legal. The issue is what we decide to do to get the delegates they deserve to have, before the convention, otherwise it will undermine the LEGITIMACY of our nominee, so I'm going to keep standing up to make sure these delegates are seated.

Q: Lance - supporter whose 12-year-old kid sent her $5. No question, thanks her, she's an inspiration..

A: "Thank you so much." She talks about kid who sold bike and video games.

(Blah, blah.. nothing much else interesting so I stopped listening/transcribing)

history pivoted on west virginia. someone should tell them.

But she is still wrong.

"Elections were OFFICIAL elections, they were certified, they were legal. The issue is what we decide to do to get the delegates they deserve to have, before the convention, otherwise it will undermine the LEGITIMACY of our nominee, so I'm going to keep standing up to make sure these delegates are seated."

I will not be surprised if she sues. There is still one lawsuit.

states that cheated and ruled, prior to the start - as invalid by the contestants according to DNC rules?

Yes - the media paid no attention BEFORE and they paid no attention AFTER the primaries!
Obama didn't campaign either. You can't compare those numbers to the caucuses. She is spinningggggggg.

Voting turnout was fractional to other Primary (only) states.

She continues using twisted, illogical claims to distort the reality to fit her agenda.

Is that PRESIDENTIAL?? FUCK NO!

but one of the big reasons you all wish to tell Florida to drop dead is that your candidate didn't campaign, even though Hillary didn't either.

the TX caucuses, and the MI uncommitteds--but you do count the MI/FL totals that you yourself said "wouldn't count for anything"--then you are ahead in the butchered, hacked-up number that you illegitimately are calling a "popular vote."

hillary hub sites) www.hillaryhub.com was to an ABC page where they ADDED FL and MI to her popular vote totals, and also showed the math without the MI and FL votes.

They selectively selected the number they liked.

http://abcnews.go.com/politics

but she's not fooling the Superdelegates. This is really an insult to any thinking person.

She is only trying to muddy the waters, and make people think she has a shred of a chance. And she is doing it to raise money to pay off her debt and pay back her husband.

are just a few of the reasons I loathe Hillary Clinton.

Now when she is on TV, I react to her as I do to Bush: by hitting the mute or off button, changing the channel.

She truly is despicable.

:wtf:
Well it seems she has a habit of choosing her own metrics regardless of whether they're sanctioned by the DNC or not.

so it's really ridiculous, yes.

She's finished, the country is moving on to the general election, and she's still in her delusional state.

By now she has no credibility and her name is mud with most Democrats. I laugh at the stories about Obama giving her the VP spot or any other damn thing. She's going to be lucky to keep her Senate seat. I'm a New Yorker and I know I'll never vote for her.

and she spreads the mis information on the math of the election
to thousands of gullible believers.

Its really sad that a kid would give his $5.00 which won't pay to remove
even just one hair out of Mark Penn's nose.

And she wants to discredit the entire election process.

Bottom line, I see where some DUers and HillaryIS44 get their talking points.

her to thanks them and to ask questions. It was a very nice. I listened.

this way? Suggest she reads Elisabeth Kübler-Ross "On Death and Dying." Then she would understand that she is stuck in the denial stage regarding her campaign that has jumped the shark.

Yeah, sure you do "Allegre" .... that's why she's fucking broke, the "MILLIONS" have forgot to DONATE CASH.... what a phony fucking loser.

http://www.dailykos.com/search?offset=0&old_count=30&string=Alegre&type=diary_by&sortby=time&search=Search&count=30&wayback=2628000&wayfront=0

The sad thing was that she used to write interesting articles about health care. Then she turned partisan, then completely mad. Then she threw a hissy fit and boycotted Kos. Kos got a LOT better once she and her friends left.

I don't want to offend people by going into a long explanation of what's so wrong with it...suffice it to say that it reminds me of an episode of the Office and sounds right out of the amateur leagues. I felt like I was watching the The View or something; Clinton's leadership style reminded me of Barbara Walters' journalism.

--whether she still thought that her WA state caucus strategy of having her state campaign chair call all the LD and county Dem chairs and threaten them with reprisals for not getting behind the "inevitable" candidate was a a good idea.

probably just a small crew left involved in the whole thing, people disappearing from the scene as the weirdness grows...

the picture of a campaign whose wheels have already fallen off.

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old faithful

talking to bloggers, for the most part she talked a lot about unity and didn't get off of the delusional talking points so much.

All in all, it was very very strange.

.

increasingly tortuous chains of legitamacy offered up by her campaign, while the republicans and those democrats that realize that they're under attack by them, are fighting those REPUBLICANS, while they focus almost singularily on taking out Obama. 'for me its all about winning' indeed

Thanks for the transcript. I took it with a grain of salt, as I know you are terribly biased against her, but it was nice to see her talking to regular folk.

It is so scary that she might have some ability to disrupt our democracy to the point America loses once again to the big business republicans.

I can tell you as a New Yorker she will not be a senator again with my vote.

Thank you! I am just shocked at her TONE. I really thought she was letting go of it, but she sounds so bitter and angry and like she will kneecap him if she can only find the tire iron.

Utterly delusional and out of touch with reality...

I see it was Alegre and Talk Left and a kid. I was just wondering who else was on the call.

http://www.taylormarsh.com/audio.php?audio=http://www.taylormarsh.com/podcast/mp3/stream.2008-05-16.134204.mp3

Any "independent blogger" was able to listen in. Only 3-4 were actually selected to ask questions/comment. Some posters here have already said they were on the call. But no way to know exactly who was listening.

Who is Allegre? Who is Lorenz? And the other guy? How did they get invited onto this call? The don't sound like high level bloggers - are they on payroll?

they are all "volunteer" AS FAR AS I KNOW. I don't know how the invitation was sent, but the HillHub and Hill44 and DU people certainly knew about it. It's Hillary Underground, I guess :-) Not "high level", but they're certainly keeping the delusional talking points going on BLOGS THAT ALLOW IT and they are obviously encouraged by Hillary Herself to do so. "Repeat it over and over and over to influence the blogosphere and beyond." It's all she's got left. The media has lost interest.

Bobbleheads.

So when we see all those posts about Hillary being ahead 50,000 in the popular vote or Obama not debating Clinton or "it's the map not the math" or the Michigan primary being officially certified and legal or Hillary having a "tremendous amount of support" in states that she LOST... well you get the idea.

When we see all that nonsense posted here on DU, we know where it comes from and we can immediately move on because it's more of Hillary Clinton's delusional nonsense; not any sort of rational argument.

:puke:

It's verging on Nixonian. Talk about bitter.

"I don't have time for their insults, I'm impervious to them. I figure it's a perverse form of flattery that they would spend so much time trying to tear me down when what we need to be doing is figure out how we're going to swear in a Democrat on Jan 20."

I am so tired of hearing that. Obama got the most delegates in Texas, and that's the number that counts, in the real world.

I tried, but then I just shut down. I really cannot believe it. I see it, but I don't believe it. I can't wait until this ends. There are so many blatant lies being perpetuated. Won the popular vote, right.

Thank you for posting this. I know it took a lot of work, and we appreciate it.

Sam

Seriously, is this some kind of joke. Did Hillary forget that this is May and not April 1st. I hope Obama doesn't pick her as a running mate because this woman has gone mad. It makes you wonder why she is trying to get into the White House so bad. I know she will be the first woman president but I get a feeling there is more to it. I remember her telling Couric how she would be the nominee. It was kind of creepy how she said it as if she knew something at the time that the rest of us didn't. It turns out that whatever she knew didn't work so well because she is still losing. There will be books written about this one day.