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Scotsman reports Carter, Gore to pressure Clinton to withdraw from race
Scotsman: It's Obama, stupid: Carter and Gore to end Clinton bid
So far this is the only source I've seen carrying the story and it seems pretty thin. More as this develops, or fails to as the case may be...
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Comments (17)
The story went out on their website at around 1.00am GMT. Drudge has picked it up in the last couple of hours. If Gore and Carter are indeed trying to stop the damage Clinton is doing to the Democratic party - and if they have decent political smarts - then perhaps the Sunday Shows will have something else to talk about tomorrow than 'bittergate'.
When there is 1 candidate in the race talking about the downtrodden people of America, and 2 candidates saying that there aren't any problems, it's all fine, and by the way, guns are great.... it's hard to believe that it's not the REPUBLICAN nomination that remains undecided.
This would be a good time to stop the hemorrhage.
April 12, 2008 11:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!!
April 12, 2008 11:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's hoping.
April 12, 2008 11:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
If there's actually validity to this story, one has to wonder what effects the *leaking* of it will have.
And as I posted in the original reporting of this story (which has since fallen into the TPM abyss) ... without some sort of ultimatum, I doubt she'd listen. At this point, I think she's best described as "rogue."
April 13, 2008 12:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Posting about the same story with a different spin still doesn't make it true.
I read it the first time, and it still reads like a press release from the Clinton campaign.
This is their own overextended narrative. It goes like this:
The setup:
People want me to drop out of this race.
The Clinton spin:
"They don't want the voice of the people to be heard. They don't want your votes to count. Do you want your votes to count?"
(cheers, applause, support)
The grand finale:
(she wins in PA, a state she's favored to win big)
"Well, "some people" tried to get me to drop out. They tried to disenfranchise the good people of Pennsylvania. But the good people of Pennsylvania have sent them a message, loud and clear!!"
That's how the routine goes, and the press will be glad to collaborate.
April 13, 2008 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Bitter"gate is a foolish nontroversy, and deserves to be ignored. But to the extent that the Clinton campaign tries to keep it alive -- and it's doing pretty well so far -- it's not good for the Democrats' chances in November to have the presumptive nominee painted as a a supercilious liberal against his populist (multimillionaire) Democratic and Republican foils.
Clinton will probably win PA with or without this (non-)issue. But to the extent it persuades a significant slice of PA Democrats that Obama is a supercilious liberal compared to working-class heroes McCain and Clinton, how exactly does Clinton's populist (and now gun-totin') strategy help the Democratic Party in the general election?
April 13, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would love to see Gore take the lead on closing down this race, and I think he may yet do it.
But why would Gore work with Carter? Carter hasn't been a Democratic party player in decades.
And why would either of them leak it before they took action?
And why would anyone who decided to leak, leak American political news to the Scotsman?
This story looks to me like a paper with too few contacts got taken in by someone who claimed to know things and didn't know at all.
(Even though I wish the Gore part were true.)
April 13, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
so, say Hillary Clinton says enough, throws in the towel, tells her supporters and followers to vote for Sen Obama in the GE.
I still wouldn't want Obama for president, because he doesn't speak for me, nor to me. He is like those guys that didn't have a part time job during college. I have had guys like him explain patiently to me that I was 'too involved' in my own poverty to see it rationally. I have heard his 'sociology' rap from other mouths that are vapid from too much distance from the real issues.
If I feel like this, I am sure other people do too. Now, tell me I am wrong to feel like this and I am going to abandon the Democratic Party to McCain/Bush/Cheney, etc.
Actually, if Obama is the nominee, I feel the Democratic Party has abandoned me.
April 13, 2008 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I suggest you crawl in that can of worms you opened.
April 13, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do whatever you gotta do.
April 13, 2008 5:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, are you saying that Hillary Clinton *does* speak to you? What does she offer to you that Obama doesn't?
April 13, 2008 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
REAL hope, sweetheart.
April 13, 2008 6:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, McCain didn't have a part-time job in college (he went to the Naval Acadamy), and his mentor, George Bush sure didn't; neither of them would have spoken to you if they thought you were a poverty-stricken person. They STILL wouldn't talk to you; they'd just tell you to get over yourself and work harder and be more responsible.
Maybe Obama really doesn't know what it is like to be poor and powerless, but he's trying to understand and do something about it. But go ahead. Vote for McCain if that floats your boat. I hope you don't have any sons of draft age like I do.
April 13, 2008 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Probably not true but even if it were true, it'd be a mistake to get Gore involved on this end of things. Given everything we know about the personal relationships between the Clinton and Gore families, and about how they deteriorated during them 90s and didn't get better when Gore kind of lost in 2000... well... I'd say that Gore pressuring Hillary to drop out now would backfire and just make her dig in her heels. Gore, though he's more popular now than he's ever been, needs to remain silent.
Carter, on the other hand, could deliver a message. It might be ignored but he's not encumbered with a lot of personal baggage relating to the Clintons.
April 13, 2008 8:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
If there's one person on the planet that knows about withdrawing from races, it's Al Gore.
April 13, 2008 8:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, snap!
April 13, 2008 9:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't buy it.
HRC listens to HRC.
Gore, Carter know that, and wouldn't leak it anyway.
Only donors and supers can end this now. The voters can help! Will the sensible people in PA do what's right for the party?? They could do us all a big favor!
April 13, 2008 9:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
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