Thursday, February 28, 2008
Clinton is down but not yet out
Shanna Flowers
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Two weeks ago, Kim Foster traipsed from her aunt's house through the bone-chilling cold and high winds to Patrick Henry High School to see Hillary Clinton.
Even though weather forced the presidential candidate to cancel, the 18-year-old remains a strident Clinton supporter. When I caught up with the Salem High School senior Wednesday, she said she will not turn her back on Clinton, despite calls for the candidate to concede the race to Barack Obama.
Junius Gaither, a lifelong Democrat, applauds the idea that Clinton "is holding the banner for female progress."
But the 78-year-old Roanoker said "maybe it would be best for her to drop out, if it's going to bring healing to the Democratic Party."
Democrats need "every day of the time between now and November" to come together to beat Republican front-runner John McCain, Gaither said.
The young woman and elderly man epitomize a national debate swirling about whether Clinton should drop out of the race -- for the good of the party and for the good of her standing within the party. The suggestion is for her to exit with grace, rather than in humiliation.
Obama has won 11 straight primaries and caucuses and leads Clinton in delegates. The Illinois senator has narrowed the races in delegate-rich Ohio and Texas -- make or break states for Clinton, who desperately needs a comeback. Meanwhile, more and more uncommitted party superdelegates are announcing support for Obama.
Nevertheless, "she feels -- and I feel -- she can do it," Foster said during her lunch break Wednesday. "I believe she can do it. She doesn't need to drop out. ... I'm not going to be in a fistfight to give up."
I suspect Foster, who will be voting this fall in her first presidential election, has predicted right on this one. Clinton isn't going anywhere -- definitely not before Tuesday. Even if Clinton loses next week, she still might not throw in the towel.
Knowing Hillary (and Bill) as we've come to know them during this campaign, they're not giving up that easily. Can you say "ego"? How about "sense of entitlement"?
Heck, Clinton could become the Mike Huckabee of the Democratic Party, hanging on after her fate has been sealed. She could try to carry the battle to the Democratic convention.
I said nearly four months ago that Clinton is nobody's punk.
She's running hard, and that's never been more evident than in recent days.
Who didn't see Clinton's gracious closing remarks at the end of the Texas debate last week when she said she was an "honored" to run against Obama?
Less than 48 hours later, she angrily ripped Obama for negative campaign tactics "straight out of Karl Rove's playbook."
Then there's the dust-up over a photograph of Obama wearing a white turban and a wraparound robe, shamelessly exploiting Americans' fear of Muslim terrorists.
During Tuesday night's debate in Cleveland, Clinton treated viewers to a non-denial denial over the origins of the photograph, whose mysterious appearance was vaguely attributed to "Clinton staffers."
And when NBC's Tim Russert tried to corner Obama about an unsolicited endorsement from controversial Black Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan, Clinton jumped in with how she handled unsolicited support of anti-Semites.
Clinton give up gracefully? No way.
Foster wants her candidate to fight till the end.
"She should stay in there. I want a woman president."
