Decision ‘08

Clinton To Drop Out Friday?

Sen. Hillary Clinton held a conference call today with members of Congress and superdelegates in which there were discussions about her plans for getting out of the race, ABC News has learned.

All indications are Clinton will get out of the race by Friday.

A senior Clinton advisor now confirms to ABC News that she will concede at an event on Friday surrounded by supporters.

Two sources tell ABC News a Friday event was discussed in which Clinton would be flanked by congressional supporters.

Given all the false starts on facing up to the inevitable by Clinton thus far, I’ll believe it when I see it. In other ‘08 news, Barack Obama has put together a VP search committee:

The AP reports that Obama has asked a three-person team, including Caroline Kennedy, to help lead the vetting of a prospective vice presidential candidate.

The other two members are Jim Johnson, who does this every four years and had already begun, and a legal advisor to the campaign, Eric Holder.

Notably, none of these figures are particularly close to the Clintons, and the choice of Kennedy in particular — the scion of a different dynasty — may help damp down speculation that Clinton is in the running.

I’m on the record as being of the opinion (probably rare among Republicans) that Obama/Clinton would make a very potent ticket…but I DON’T believe, given recent events on the campaign trail, that Hillary will be the choice (though they may put her on the short list as a courtesy)…

UPDATE 7:56 p.m.: Or perhaps Saturday, reports CNN:

The Clinton campaign said she “will be hosting an event in Washington, D.C. on Saturday to thank her supporters and express her support for Senator Obama and party unity.”

3 Responses to “Clinton To Drop Out Friday?”

1 Gulf Coast Bandit Says:
June 4th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Watch for Sen. Claire McCaskill (MO) or Gov. Kathleen Sibelius (KS). I lean toward Sibelius at the moment.
2 Chris J. Breisch Says:
June 5th, 2008 at 7:43 am
It will be Saturday, and I guess I must congratulate Ryan on being right and me being wrong.

Sort of.

Remember all day Tuesday we heard various reports that she was going to concede, and then that she’d “sort of concede”, and then came a campaign speech, not a concession speech.

We’re already getting the same sort of two steps forward and one step back with this “concession” as well.

I think unless Howard Dean’s staff writes the speech for her on Saturday, you will hear much of the same.

What she will say:
* Thank you, all 18 million of you, for your support. I will continue to fight for you and the things we brought up during this campaign
* We must unite behind our nominee and I will do everything possible to ensure that we retake the White House
* Congratulations to Obama on his candidacy
* I have always told Obama that I would support him if he were the nominee
* I have told my staff that we are shutting down activities on the campaign

(Notice here the distinction between ‘candidate’ and ‘nominee’–the only time she will mention Obama and ‘nominee’ in the same breath is in a conditional statement ‘if he were the nominee’. She will say that we must unite behind the nominee, but won’t mention Obama in that part.)

What she won’t say:
* I’m withdrawing from the race
* I’ve realized that it’s time to congratulate Obama on his victory and get behind him and do whatever I can to help him win the White House
* Our campaign for the White House is over.
* The better candidate won

Bill and Hillary still hold out hope that Obama will do something between now and August that will enable them to take their fight to the convention.
3 Ryan Says:
June 5th, 2008 at 11:06 am
GCB: Excellent call on McCaskill. She’s my dark horse right now, although I’m inclined to believe that Obama will not be picking a woman. I think he needs to skate a line between upsetting Clinton and upsetting Democratic women voters. My guess is he’s attempting to do that by making Caroline Kennedy the head of the VP search. If she picks a man, it gives the whole search a woman’s imprimatur without taking anything away from Clinton’s place as historical “first”.