AP Tries to Kill Hillary’s Campaign Early

Original Link: http://www.sundriesshack.com/?p=4606

Here comes the bum’s rush!

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.
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The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana later in the day.

The 46-year-old first term senator will face Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the fall campaign to become the 44th president.

Well, it’s certainly nice that the AP has gone ahead and decided that the Democrats won’t actually need the convention, but that’s not how it works. There is no nominee until the vote the convention because of one very, very important fact.

No delegate is bound to vote for any candidate, no matter what the voters of their state decided during the primary. Every single type of delegate - pledged, unpledged, super, whatever - is a potential free agent in Denver this summer.

Now, I’m quite sure it’s in the AP’s partisan interest if we believe that things are done and the Obamessiah has limped over the finish line. It’ll give Obama time to relax a bit, collect some more donors, and spend a little time figuring out just how he’s goign to get all those white voters he’s spent the last six months calling racists inbred ignorant hicks. Then he’s going to have to figure out how to tell all his black supporters that they actually need white voters and can’t call them crackers and blame them for everything from scrofula to global warming.

The more time Obama gets before he has to take on John McCain, the better off he is. But he’s not going to get that time. Let me say this again. Hillary Clinton will not quit the race until the concluding vote at the convention in Denver. She will not fold her campaign. She will not concede.

It. Will. Not. Happen.

I don’t care how much daydreaming the AP does. It doesn’t matter how many pinky-promises it gets from members of Congress who have demonstrated over and over again how easily they can be bought. This game has rules and believe me, Hillary Clinton and her people know every single one of them. I would be absolutely shocked if she did anything but take the nomination all the way to a vote in Denver.