by Deb Cupples | Hillary Clinton -- the first viable woman candidate for the U.S. presidency -- has decided to end her candidacy and cede the nomination to Barack Obama. (ABC)
On Tuesday, super-delegates committed to Obama, helping him reach the magic delegate number before full election results were reported for the Montana and South Dakota primaries. Obama is the first black man to become a major party's nominee for the presidency.
Though she didn't win the majority of delegates, Hillary got more votes than any other Democratic primary candidate in our nation's history. In short, the Democratic presidential race made history on several fronts. Yesterday, Sen. Clinton's campaign released the following statement:
"Senator Clinton will be hosting an event in Washington, DC to thank her supporters and express her support for Senator Obama and party unity. This event will be held on Saturday to accommodate more of Senator Clinton's supporters who want to attend."
Some in the media slammed Sen. Clinton on Tuesday for not ending the race that night, though it was obvious that Obama had the delegates to become the nominee. Apparently, waiting a day or two was just too odious for some people to even think about.
Sen. Clinton is exiting the at-times-vicious race with style, grace and an interest in promoting Democratic party unity that some DNC leaders seemed dead-set on not earning. (Memeorandum has commentary.)
According to the DNC's own RULES, a candidate must have the magic number of 2018 in PLEDGED delegates ONLY. Sorry, Obama, you are NOT the nominee! You don't have the numbers!
Posted by: HillGirl | June 05, 2008 at 04:49 AM
HI Hill Girl,
As a Hilary supporter, I wish that were true.
Which DNC rule are you referring to?
Posted by: Buck Naked Politics | June 05, 2008 at 09:47 AM
Possibly she's presenting a garbled version of the "superdelegates can change their mind at any time" argument. If you take that and twist it around a few times, you get to "only a candidate with 2118 pledged delegates is truly safe".
Of course, even that's not true, because pledged delegates are not bound by rule to vote for their candidate, either. In fact, wasn't there already one "faithless delegate" a month back who was certified by Hillary but endorsed Obama? A lot of counts ignored it because it was such a shady move, but technically s/he had the right.
Of course, all of this is irrelevant unless Obama is caught on video doing coke and having sex with a male prostitute or something.
Posted by: Adam | June 05, 2008 at 10:16 AM