We've spent months championing Hillary for President. News hub, media watch, and reality check. A gathering of smart, sane, empowering voices on campaign 2008. Here's our pre-June 08 Hillary spin.
Reality Check> Clinton is STRONGEST & MOST
ELECTABLE>BEATS MCCAIN: Right to the end, polls by Gallup and others show HC is strongest against McCain; new polls also show Hillary handily wins swing states OH, PA, FLA, MO, NV—and even NC! (Obama loses most)
>MOMENTUM: HC won most of the major primaries since March, incl. the key states of OH & PA | HC won SD where BO was predicted to win by 20+ pts. | She won KY, WV, & PR by 2:1 margins in almost every demographic category | HC just had 2nd-best fundraising month ever
>ELECTORAL MATH: HC won states with 311 electoral votes (mostly in high-turnout primaries & in swing states Dems need); BO, 277 (mostly in low-turnout caucuses & in states that will vote Repub.).
>POPULAR VOTE: Clinton led in the popular vote, with 18 million to Obama's 17.8 million [incl. all primary results & caucus ests. but setting aside HC's win in disputed MI primary] | Numbers
>"Our responsibility is to select the nominee who is best for our party and best for our country. Our choice is clear: Hillary Clinton." —Ltr. to superdels from Congressional Dems in swing districts, 5/9 More | Also see: "Democratic Primary Matters": a prof surveys the evidence, makes a case for Hillary.
QUOTABLE>"A MAN TOOK IT AWAY FROM A WOMAN. THEN THEY YELLED AT HER FOR COMPLAINING ABOUT
IT."—Joy Behar on The View, in response to Whoopi Goldberg's
question about how to view Clinton's presidential run
"You know, I understand that a lot of people
are asking, 'What does Hillary want? What does she want?' Well, I want what I have always
fought for in this whole campaign. I want to end the war in Iraq. I want to turn this
economy around. I want health care for every American. I want every child to live up to
his or her God-given potential. And I want the nearly 18 million Americans who voted for
me to be respected, to be heard and no longer invisible."—Hillary Clinton in NY, 6/3/08, after an upset victory in the SD primary | More
"Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time,
thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it." —Hillary Clinton's powerful withdrawal speech in Washington, D.C., 6/7/08 |
Read
It | View
It
"My political obituary has yet to be written … It is not over 'til it's over."
—HC in Rapid City, SD, 6/2
"The thing about superdelegates is that they can
change their minds." —HC in Puerto Rico, 6/1, after her huge win in PR primary
| More
ALSO SEE: 'Why I Continue to Run' by HC, 5/26
QUOTABLE>
"This is a very emotional, human endeavor. A lot of dreams and
hopes have gone down. This thing doesn't have a switch. You don't walk in a room and turn
it off and turn another one on." —James Carville, CNN, 6/3
"This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our party."
—Clinton campaign on 5/31 DNC decision to award a big chunk of MI votes & delegates
to Obama, who was not even on the ballot
"[Obama] will have a harder time
winning than Sen. Clinton. And we ought to choose the person who has the best chance of
winning.—Clinton campaign guru Howard Wolfson in a conference call with the media
5/28
"They know if you come out in big numbers for Hillary …
in spite of being outspent by $60 million or more, in spite of being
told by the media that she’d been dead more times than a cat’s got lives, she’s going
to win the popular vote. And she’s going to be the most
electable. They might have trouble convincing everybody that the Democrats should
turn away from the person who won the most votes, who was outspent, who got the most
slanted media coverage in history and who’d run best in the general
election."—Pres. Bill Clinton in KY, 5/20 | More
>"People ask me all the time:
'Why, why are you continuing to fight on?' Well, because I’ve got more votes. Because
I believe I’d be the best president. And I believe I’m the stronger candidate to defeat
Sen. McCain." —Hillary Clinton at a large rally in Mayfield, KY, 5/18
>"[I]t's …
inconceivable that a party wanting to avoid Bush III at all costs would nominate the
weaker candidate by the math of the Electoral College. …
[B]ased on a poll of polls, she's winning the presidency … 330-230 electorally while
Obama is only tying McCain 270-270 … In fact, …Clinton is running 8-10 points better
against McCain in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. —Public interest lawyer &
AirAmerica prez Mark Green, Huffington Post, 5/11/08
>"The bottom line is:
The White House is won in the swing states. And I am winning the
swing states." —Hillary Clinton in WV, 5/13, after winning the WV primary by 41
points
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This site is a work in progress and an all-volunteer effort. It's intended as one more front for Hillary Clinton and against the relentless tide of dumbed-down journalism, media distortion, sexism, and bias in the 2008 presidential campaign. This page highlights Hillary's electability and makes the case that she would be the best and strongest Democratic presidential candidate to beat John McCain.
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Home Page
Message to Hillary
June 3, 2008
[following Hillary's upset victory in SD primary]
DEAR HILLARY,
¶ WE ARE NOT GIVING UP on seeing our party nominate the strongest candidate to take back the White House. We are furious and heartsick that nomination math games, media bias, and Democratic party failures have managed to knock out the party's best contender for the fall.
¶ YOU HAVE WON the blue states and the critical swing states we will need to win in Nov. You've won a clear majority of voters who are Democrats. You've won states representing a critical mass of electoral votes and claim the broadest coalition of voters. Polls show you handily beating McCain in battlegrounds from OH to FL, PA to MO—and even swing states Dems rarely win (NC). You have the current momentum, winning most of the major contests since March. With your new wins in PR and SD, you are the winner of the popular vote by nearly 200,000. It is YOU, not Sen. Obama, who is clearly 'closing the deal' with voters. And it is YOU, not Sen. Obama, who is winning overwhelmingly among self-declared Democrats.
¶ And it's not only about electability. You are an extraordinary and inspiring candidate. as well as demonstrably the most progressive candidate in the reace (Your experience, knowledge, and qualities of temperament and leadership are unsurpassed in this race—and position you to be a truly great president.
¶ FOR ALL THESE REASONS, we implore you to fight on. You carry with you the best hopes of 18+ million voters. We know that superdelegate nods have allowed Sen. Obama to claim victory, but we also know superdelegates don't vote for real until the convention. The fight is too close, and too much is at stake for you (or us) to give up at this moment.
For all of us, and for victory, PLEASE FIGHT ON! [We'll help by contacting superdelegates!]
-----------------------------------------THANKS, SWEETIE (um, is this the unity memo?) | "It has been a hard-fought and sometimes bitter campaign, but Obama is not, one of his advisers assured me Tuesday night, going to spend a lot of time in the next few months wooing Clinton supporters whose feelings may be hurting."—Obama's First Test: Handling Hillary," Politico, 6/3
-----------------------------------------
Making
the Case to Superdels
Letter
from Hillary Clinton (5/28)
"I hope that you will think hard about which candidate
has the best chance to lead our party to victory in Nov. I hope you will consider the
results of the recent primaries and what they tell us about the mindset of voters in the
key battleground states. I hope you will think about the broad and winning coalition of
voters I have built …" | Read Letter | Also: HC's detailed memo to
superdels
| ACT NOW: Urge superdels to back
Hillary!
Note: It's still possible! They don't actually vote until the
Democratic National Convention in August. Sen. Obama does NOT have enough pledged
delegates to clinch the nomination without the additional votes of superdelegates. These
are party leaders (mainly elected Dems in Congress) who can change their minds at any
time up until they actually cast their votes on the convention floor. Lobby your state's
superdelegates to support the candidate who truly OUGHT to be the party's nominee … and
who clearly has a better shot of beating John McCain in November! | Lobby
Superdelegates
| See our Links + More page for info. on
efforts to support Hillary at the Democratic National Convention in August
The "Feminists for
Clinton" letter
Signed by a group of prominent
feminist intellectuals & activists
"[I]t's time for feminists to say that Sen. Obama has no monopoly on inspiration. We are
among the millions of women and men who have been moved to action by Hillary. Six months
ago, some of us were committed to her candidacy, some of us weren't, but by now we all
find ourselves passionately supporting her.
"Brains, grace under pressure, ideas, and the skill to make them real: we call that
inspiring. The restoration of good government after eight years of devastation, a decent
foreign policy with ties to world leaders repaired, withdrawal from Iraq and universal
health care: we call that exciting. And the record to prove that she can and will stand
up to the swift-boating that will come any Democratic nominee's way: we call that
absolutely necessary."
Hating Hillary | Andrew Stephen, New Statesman,
5/22/08
A superb column by a British journalist who gets it
"In their headlong rush to stop
[Clinton], the punditocracy may have landed the Democrats with the least qualified
presidential nominee ever."
Media Bias Hall of Shame
Dept. of Outrageous Media
(… But how to choose? Just for the moment,
we'll ignore the massive flotsam of outright Hillary hate … the "Hillary is evil" blogs,
the obscene t-shirts. There's still plenty of jawdropping bias in the mainstream media.
Here are a few recent examples.)
End-Game Analysis: CNN pundit Jeffrey Toobin, 6/3, part of the general tide of indignation at
HC's failure to conform to their scripts for how she should behave, vents that "the
Clintons' deranged narcissism" is the culprit.
KY Primary Coverage Watch: (Bias or Stupidity? Both?)
¶ CNN pundit Alex Castellanos,
5/20—In discussion of HC having been called a b****, interjected, "And some women, by the
way, are named that and it's accurate." More here
¶ Tim Russert (MSNBC) dissed
Clinton's strength in swing states, asserting that she is not necessarily poised to do
well this fall in OH (new polls show HC beating McCain in OH by 9 points, while BO loses)
… and that Obama can win states Clinton can't, "such as MN" (new poll shows HC and BO
would run almost equally well in MN against McCain)
WV Coverage Low Points (among many):
¶ Keith Olbermann (MSNBC) describing
Clinton's ongoing presidential campaign as a 'Ponzi scheme … a pyramid scheme' aimed at
voters … ¶ Campbell Brown
(CNN) quizzing a panel not about the implications of Clinton's tremendous strength
with WV voters, but about 'what is it Hillary Clinton wants?' …
¶ Donna Brazile
(CNN) literally rolling her eyes while Clinton campaign adviser Howard Wolfson was
being interviewed. Comment: CNN's
continued i.d. of Brazile as a superdel 'who has not endorsed either candidate' is
outrageously misleading; Brazile has made clear her pro-Obama views, even admitting on
the air, 'I'm not undecided, just undeclared.'
Selected Classics:
Ken Rudin on NPR: "Hillary Clinton is Glenn Close in Fatal
Attraction. She's going to keep coming back and they're not going to stop
her."—as reported by Media Matters, 4/28/08 ¶ Keith Olbermann's Idea for Beating Hillary: Literally Beating Hillary—as
reported by Rachel Sklar, Huffington Post, 4/25/08 [+video link]
Featured
Hillary's Letter to
Superdelegates 5/28
---------------------
Two Ur-Reads:
•Andrew Steven's
Hating Hillary
•Letter from
Feminists for Clinton
--------------------------
Fact Check: Who's More
Progressive,
Hillary or Obama?
Hint: It's not Obama
--------------------------
Smart Women
for Hillary
Media
Bias
Hall of Shame
--------------------------
QUOTABLE
>AT THE END OF THE
DAY, [Obama's] resounding 'victory' was the product of
having a crack team of activists take advantage of a crazy system."—Columnist
Froma Harrop, 5/22
>SUPER DELEGATES CAVED IN TO OBAMA |
>"[THE PUNDITS on CNN
couldn’t wait to anoint Obama. Even in spite of the fact that with all
the dismissive reports of Hillary’s candidacy since March she has won more primaries in
bigger states and in a manner that should have made super delegates seriously question
whether the Obama phenomenon was simply that. A manufactured one, built on tenuous
victories, many in caucuses in small normally Republican states. … If the super delegates
had any cujones they’d be calling each other tonight and say, ’What have we done? There’s
still time to set this thing right.’"—Michael Russnow, Huffington Post, 6/4
You are here: The Case for Hillary (pro-Hillary
spin + electability news archive ).
Media Room 1 … news archive
page 1 + our complete video archive
Media Room 2
… news archive 2 + one great read in its entirety (The Double Standard
by Caryl Rivers, Boston Globe)
Media Room 3
… news archive 3
Media Room 4… news archive 4 + special news focus on women,
gender, + sexism in the 2008 campaign (links to Rebecca
Traister, Gloria Steinem, Robin Morgan, Ellen Goodman, Tennessee Guerilla Women, + more)
Smart Women for Hillary Home Page
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