Hillary speaks

"Thank you so much to South Dakota. You had the last word [sic; that would be Montana -ed.], and it was a good one."

"I want to start tonight by congratulating Senator Obama and his supporters on the extraordinary race that they have run." (She then proceeded to say some other nice things about him, battling through a few hecklers at one point. I couldn't quite make out what the hecklers were saying, but I think it was anti-Obama.)

"And it has been an honor to contest these primaries with him, just as it is an honor to call him my friend. And tonight, I would like all of us to take a moment to recognize him and his supporters for all they have accomplished."

"Now, 16 months ago, you and I began a journey to make history and to remake America..." blah blah blah

UPDATE: "You asked yourself a simple question: who will be the strongest candidate?" (Crowd yells "Hillary!") "Who will be ready to take back the White House and be commander-in-chief..." Hmm, where is she going with this?

UPDATE 2: "Our campaign carr[ied] the popular vote with more votes than any campaign in history."

UGH.

Hillary Clinton just implicitly called the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party illegitimate.

Now she's babbling about swing states. What a freaking creep.

UPDATE 3: Now she's talking about "count[ing] every single vote!" Unbelievable!!

I don't know why I'm continually surprised by Hillary's shamelessness. Someone tell me again, why the HELL would Obama want to make this utterly contemptible woman his V.P.?

She really doesn't know when to stop, or have any idea what she sounds like to people who aren't either idiots or sycophants. This speech isn't remotely conciliatory or valedictory. It's a blatant attempt to undermine her own party's nominee on the very night he clinches the nomination. Absolutely beyond belief.

UPDATE 4: I don't want hear her say another freakin' word about "party unity." It's like Loeb said: "Every time Mrs. Clinton claims she has a popular majority, she's...making it that much more likely that her supporters will stay home in November. If she really wants a united party, she needs to stop."

Clearly, she has made a conscious decision not to stop. Unreal.

Now she asks rhetorically: "What does Hillary want?" ... "I want the 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected, to be heard, and no longer to be invisible." (!!!)

What does Hillary really want? She appears to want Obama to lose in November. That's the only rational explanation for this speech, at this time, given in this way.

UPDATE 5: The crowd chants, "DENVER! DENVER!"

See?!? What did I tell you about rhetorical momentum?? This is exactly what I meant!! Using rhetoric like this, even now, she is creating a situation where many of her supporters will view not fighting to the convention as a betrayal! Now watch her use that as an excuse.

"Now, the question is, where do we go from here? ... This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight." The crowd goes wild. You know what decision they want!

UPDATE 6: She's telling people to "go to her website" and tell her what to do!! This is the Ross Perot strategy -- "I do what the volunteers want!" So she's deliberately creating rhetorical momentum, so she can say that she's staying in the race because her supporters demanded it!!

FINAL WORD: Hillary Clinton had one last chance, tonight, to exit the stage with dignity.

She missed it.

Comments

[Marty West]

She better not.

[David K.]

Atleast with George W. Bush I get the feeling he genuinely believes some of the things he does absolutely wrong. Hillary just out and out lies. She is a horrible horrible candidate and I don't ever want her as my President or Vice-President.

[copndor]

What she meant to say was that Bill Clinton's kids are illegitimate.

[yea]

she wants vp. strong arguments to be made she deserved it. lets remember that i predicted that shed be vp a long time ago on this site.

[David K.]

Yea, hardly a startling prediction, you and a whole boatload of people have claimed that over this election cycle. But as Brendan points out, Obama would have to be beyond stupid to give her that choice.

[Marty West]

Oh. My. God.

If by "strong arguments," you mean "totally ridiculous, retarded, wrong-headed arguments that no one with a God-damn fucking brain would take seriously," then i completely agree.

[Joe Mama]

ROFLMAO!

[yea]

david,

she could take this to the convention and pretty much minimize his chance of winning the general election. if she goes with the "scorched earth" plan i don't think people are realizing how bad she can hurt obama. hillary as vp is better than mccain for 4 years.

[yea]

great post 9:52. pretty easy to post without a handle and just two line comments ripping on people. thanks for adding a ton to the discussion.

[Jim]

did someone just say, 'vote for obama' in the audience?

[Tbone]

She's killing me! Shameless pandering for contributions, denial of reality, refusal to concede in an honorable way long past the time she should have done so.

She may just be crazy enough to rip the party in two. It's terrific drama...

[Marty West]

Jim,

I heard that too. I think it was an old woman saying "...can't vote for Obama..."

[Ron Paul]

I don't look so bad tonight do I?

[Jim]

re: 'go to my website'

she's obviously trying to pare down her debt a bit.

[Brendan]

Jim, she didn't just ask for money, she also asked for people's suggestions on how to proceed. The obvious upshot being, if she decides she wants to fight on to Denver, she can use the "overwhelming response" from her supporters as an excuse to do so. Just like Ross Perot and his "volunteers."

She's a fucking lunatic, she is.

[David K.]

yea, yes she can go scorched earth and blow this, but picking her as VP is guarenteed to do just that. There are plenty of people like (I assume) Brendan and even myself who would strongly consider voting for McCain just because we now despise Clinton so much. The thought of her being one "accident" away from the Oval office is too much for me.

[CORNHUSKERS 94 95 97]

The woman has no shame I mean she literally spit in his face with a take that attitude.

How could he select her after that?

She seemed to offer the VP slot to him.

[Julie]

I think what we're actually seeing is the first day of the 2012 Presidential campaign. The strength of the Democratic party needs to stand up now to Hillary Clinton and tell her to stand down. She's just looking more and more pathetic.

[CORNHUSKERS 94 95 97]

He just wiped the floor with Mccain so Hillary can take a flying leap!

[Brent Logan]

You get my quote of the day. Awesome!

[Sandy Underpants]

I keep wondering how anyone can vote for Hillary at this point, but she just won another Primary and won something like 7 of the last 10 when she had no shot at winning the nomination. What does this say about her supporters?

[Alasdair]

Ummmm ...

I'm actually starting to feel sorry for the whole sorry Democratic Party tonight ...

SU - never mind "What does this say about her supporters?" - how about "What does this say about her political Party ?" ?

How is Senator Clinton's behaviour tonight different from her behaviour over the past decade and more ?

This is Clinton Classic ... it's a matter of amazement to me that any of the Democratic Party supporters on here can still try to keep a straight face while they bemoan Senator Clinton acting in classic Senator Clinton style ... ask yourselves, will she finally use the mysteriously-appearing FBI files ?

By all means keep telling yourselves that the important thing is to defeat Bush ... (shaking head) ...

Those of us with awareness of the Harold Wilsons of the planet, who remember the Pierre Elliott Trudeaux of the planet, we see Hillary Rodham Clinton as just another such ... highly skilled yet fundamentally not-honest politicians - who have no governor, no limitations, no sense of when to go no further in the pursuit of power ...

(An honest politician is one who *stays* bought)

I wish I could say that I'm surprised - but I just flat-out cannot ...

[John]

There is only one thing in Hillary's life right now: the VP slot on Obama's ticket.
Sometimes, sociopaths are quite good at making other people feel sympathy for them. Hillary will use this skill to make people think she "deserves" the VP slot.
It is sad that we really don't know if Obama will be able to pick his own VP or not. I don't agree with Obama's entire political philosophy, but I like him and I think he deserves to pick a VP without sky-high negatives baked in the cake.

[Sophie in VA]

I'm 60, white, female -- and I'd love to see a woman as President! But exam time is over: Blue Books closed, pencils down . . . pass your papers forward. Functioning adults recognize boundaries; and, for all her obvious merits, Mrs. Clinton doesn't seem to ( . . . we already know about Bill).

It makes me ill, just to watch.