Virginia superdelegates hedging on Hillary support
By: Rob Published On: 2/24/2008 4:07:13 PM
Obama has been picking up steam among super delegates lately, including potential switchers from Clinton. And a few of Hillary's Virginia supers might join the trend:
Clinton supporters slightly outnumber Obama supporters among Virginia superdelegates who have announced their choices. But some of the Clinton support appears soft.
Del. Lionell Spruill, D- Chesapeake, has been an outspoken Clinton supporter for the past few years. Spruill suddenly backed off after Virginia voters sided with Obama by large margins in the primary.
"I'm going to wait until after March 4 to see where we are," Spruill said, referring to the coming contests in Texas and Ohio. "Then we'll re-evaluate."
And Del. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond and vice chairwoman of the state party, has been a Clinton supporter.
But when asked recently whether she was firmly committed to Clinton, McClellan said: "That's a hard question to answer. I have not changed my mind, but I'm not going to decide today. I'll probably decide in August."
Given the importance Hillary Clinton's placing on superdelegates, the softening up of her support with them is bad news for her.
Comments
This race.. (Terry85 - 2/24/2008 4:47:47 PM)
really isn't as close as the super delegate count suggest. Hillary needs to strongly consider dropping out before this goes on too much longer.
Yeah, especially with (Lowell - 2/24/2008 4:51:24 PM)
After seeing all these images, I just cannot imagine Sen. Clinton as President. I guess it's up to the winner (Sen. Obama) to pull all of us together after March 4. I am not sure what role Sen. Clinton could play in that effort.
The really sad thing... (Greg - 2/24/2008 6:35:29 PM)
... is that she's not even taking on Obama's policy positions, or his supposed lack of experience.
She's taking on those of us who have the temerity to actually think we can change things in Washington -- toward a new politics which represents the interests of the people, not the 'special interests' with phalanxes of lobbyists.
It's funny how she specifically attacked his "speeches" and "big rallies" in her fit she had yesterday, but really made no mention of his stance on any of the issues.
She must be going through menopause (MJW - 2/24/2008 11:06:15 PM)
Oooops, she's my age. It's been quite awhile since I've been through menopause.
If Obama acted that way the remarks would have been, "Manly", "Stands on his own two feet", "Assertive". Since it was Hillary, "Shrill", "B****"
McCain is going to win with the same behavior since he is a guy.
MJW
Wrong. (Terry85 - 2/24/2008 11:12:23 PM)
Don't try to make this in to a gender argument please. I actually supported Hillary at first even though I like both candidates just about equally. The deciding factor for me was the polling out recently that shows Hillary to have a bad "trickle down" effect at state and local races. More specifically, Democrats running under her on the ballot do about three points worse than they would with Obama on it. I want Dems to pick up the maximum number of seats, therefore I'm supporting Obama.
"If Obama acted that way the remarks would have been, "Manly", "Stands on his own two feet", "Assertive". Since it was Hillary, "Shrill", "B****""
Wrong again. She could have argued her point without flying off the handle like she did.
Agreed (DanG - 2/24/2008 11:34:59 PM)
One of the major reasons I went from Edwards to Obama was because I was convinced Edwards wasn't going to get the nomination, and I had to choose who would be better for Virginia Democrats. Seriously, that was the first thing i turned to (of course, I came to the conclusion Edwards was done back in July, cause I was positive Edwards wouldn't live past NH). After that is when I actually started to find Obama intriguing. But the first thing I thought was President Obama is harder for the GOP to unify with independents on than President Clinton II.
OH WOW.. (Terry85 - 2/24/2008 5:38:04 PM)
They just replayed the video. She really is losing it.
Sad.. (proudvadem - 2/24/2008 8:02:15 PM)
She's shrill and her behavior is below that of even a middle school debate team. IF she did get the nom, this would come back to bite her so hard.
I'm really disappointed in her tactics, I expected a lot more from her. Specificaly, some dignity. I don't like "junkyard dog" campaigns and that is what she is running.
"We are the people our parents warned us about"-Jimmy Buffett
The Virginian-Pilot covered this last Wednesday (Randy Klear - 2/24/2008 5:01:54 PM)
as their lead page one article. The Daily Press quote from Spruill looks identical to what he told the Pilot. McClellan said she was getting pressure from constituents but was sticking with Clinton. (See the left hand column, which were captions under delegate photos in the print edition.) The trend certainly looks good for Obama.
If Obama wins either Texas or Ohio (DanG - 2/24/2008 5:14:38 PM)
I expect Hillary might start getting calls from Party officials asking her to drop out for the good of the party. Whether she will or not, I don't know. This is her shot to be President; it was her year. And thus far she has blown it.
Don't expect the opportunity to come around again, if she wanted to be president, it had to be this year.
Barack Obama is 90% certain to be the nominee. Hillary Clinton would need a miracle in either Texas or Ohio. Even though she still leads by 8% in Ohio, there's a reason she's nervous: Polls have consistently been understating Obama's lead since Feb 5. He was predicted to win by 5% in Washington: he won 2-1. He was predicted to win by 17% in Virginia. He won by 29%. He was predicted (by the credible firms) to win by 5% in Wisconsin, he won by 17%. Because of this trend, I've really started to ignore polls: Obama's people are primarily "new voters", and thus very hard to track. "Credible firms" like Rasmussen and SurveyUSA have Obama within 5 in Texas and within 8 in Ohio. These polling organizations were very off in Wisconsin. My hope is that they are also off in Texas and Ohio.
as I like to say (pvogel - 2/24/2008 7:21:31 PM)
Hillary used to be known as the Ice berg queen
Now she is just the HMS TITANIC
Its been a slow falling apart since IOWA
That we are only figuring out now.
Early voting carried California,
But Texas and Ohio early voting has started after S.C.
Bottom line.... we will see Hillary on SNL before St patricks day
Three cheers for Tina Fey (MJW - 2/24/2008 11:33:10 PM)
Obama has been picking up steam among super delegates lately, including potential switchers from Clinton. And a few of Hillary's Virginia supers might join the trend: