As someone who has been wholly unreceptive of the spin from the Clinton camp the past two weeks, going so far as to refer to it to a friend as the “never-ending stream of bullshit from the sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits,” allow me to take a second to provide some vantage points from the pro-Clinton angle. First, from Time’s Mark Halperin and Jay Carney:
Then there’s her old standby case based on experience. Clinton believes Obama’s support is largely a mirage–a bunch of true believers whose passion might help him cinch the nomination, but that may prove an insufficient bedrock for winning a general election when the spell might be broken by tough questions about national-security credentials, economic-policy plans and rich experience. She can’t stop from shaking her head in disbelief when longtime friends who are elected officials inform her that they are going to endorse Obama and were chiefly convinced by their children’s enthusiasm for his candidacy.
Next, MSNBC’s Chuck Todd:
The party ought to lay off the calls for Clinton to drop out, at least for now, because her presence at worst is making Obama a better candidate. The Wright flare-up was the first true political crisis of Obama’s national political career, which is remarkable given how close he is to being the Democratic nominee. Who knows when the Wright controversy would have circulated had the nomination been locked up.
Obama needed to prove he could handle a real media firestorm, something Clinton has done numerous times throughout her career. In fact, her political survival skills have been marketed as an asset by the campaign, something I think would have sold better in ’04 when the party was looking for a tough survivor to put up against Bush.
I am not posting these because I necessarily believe them, but because far too often in the past I have leaped to conclusions and assumed ill will when mere folly was a better explanation (and this is something I really need to work on, but the past few years has made me increasingly cynical). So, in fairness, perhaps Hillary really does believe Obama is fatally flawed and that if she does not keep fighting, the Democrats will blow it. Again, I don’t buy that, but I thought I should put it out there. Plus, I find it interesting that Todd believes this is making Obama stronger.
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