Clinton
A battle of words covered browsers across the world Tuesday as stories debated whether or not Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., would concede from the presidential race following the primaries in South Dakota and Montana.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addressed his supporters in St. Paul, Minn.
“Because of you I can stand here and say I will be the Democratic nominee,” Obama said.
Clinton is technically still in the race, although, according to the Associated Press, Obama reached the minimum 2,118 delegates needed for the nomination.
However, when questioned if she would concede, Clinton announced Tuesday in New York she would “not be making any decisions tonight.”
With Michigan and Florida’s delegates each given one half a vote, Clinton had trailed Obama by about 178 delegates.
Because of the obvious number gap, Mark Grebner, a political consultant with East Lansing-based Practical Political Consulting Inc. said it was just a matter of time before she conceded.
“It’s like a game of chess. Obama took the winning position months ago, and it’s been a boring game since then,” Grebner said. “Conceding is the normal way to drop out, anything else is just becoming an entertaining spectacle.”
MSU Trustee Joel Ferguson, a Clinton supporter and Michigan superdelegate, said Clinton’s reason for staying in the race was her supporters.
“She needs to deliver to her people and supporters in a way that helps the party,” Ferguson said.
Bill Ballenger, editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, a Lansing-based political newsletter, said there were reasons for her to hold off concession.
“She may still think that when push comes to shove, many superdelegates will vote for her, or something could happen between now and then to reverse the roll call,” Ballenger said.
“She’ll wait till then, lose and then back Obama.”
Ferguson said Clinton could have been more successful by focusing on winning different states.
“If she had run a more caucus-based strategy, she would have split the vote and she would be the nominee,” Ferguson said.
Though Ballenger agreed Clinton should have concentrated on smaller states, he said she could have been the nominee.
“She ran a very energetic campaign and reinvented herself as a candidate — the Hillary Clinton you see today is completely different than the Hillary Clinton of a year ago,” Ballenger said.
“Her record amount of money raised is only second to Obama, and without her one blunder of ignoring the caucus states, she could have won.”
Hilary Schmid, an second-year osteopathic medical student, said Clinton wasn’t a contender for much of the campaign.
“Part of the reason she was even in it toward the end was to make sure Obama had someone to lose to in the big states, not just a name on a ballot with no candidate,” Schmid said.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
“But after the primaries today, she has nothing to gain by staying in it.”
Though Schmid said Clinton didn’t have a chance at turning her campaign around from here, Clinton’s chances of walking the halls of the White House are not gone. Reports say Clinton is open to being a running mate on the ticket for the November elections.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
