With just three primaries remaining after today’s contests in Kentucky and Oregon and an insurmountable lead by Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton is winding things down on the campaign trail even as she and her top aides insist the race isn’t over.
Clinton has been campaigning hard in Kentucky, where the polls indicate she could win by 30 points or more.
But it will be the second blowout this month in a campaign for which, according to Democratic political consultant Peter Fenn, “the sand has run out of the hourglass.”
As if to acknowledge her minuscule chances, Clinton talked to voters Monday about policies she would put in place “if I were president,” rather than the usual “when I’m president.”
Clinton has in no way officially indicated she plans to abandon her bid for the nomination. In fact, she told voters in a Kentucky gymnasium Monday that the race “is nowhere near over,” because neither she nor Obama will have captured enough delegates to secure the nomination when the primaries end in 13 days.
But gone are the overt attacks on Obama that were once a staple of her speeches and a sign that she aimed to defeat him. Those barbs disappeared shortly after she won the West Virginia primary in a landslide and then watched Obama pick up a bevy of superdelegates in the following days, including a Virginia lawmaker who jumped from her camp. Those endorsements sent a strong signal to Clinton that Democrats are coalescing around Obama, said some political analysts.
“I do think losing can make you a sympathetic figure if you lose in the right way,” said veteran Democratic political consultant Tad Devine. “She has gone off the negative kick.
Now that she’s beyond that, I don’t think it is harmful for her to stay in the race.”
Clinton referred to Obama as “my opponent” Monday, and made the case to Kentuckians that she is leading in the overall popular vote, a calculation that could be attained only in the unlikely event that the discounted Michigan and Florida primary results are validated.
“The watchword for Democrats right now is unity, and she realizes people are wary of any kind of back and forth between the candidates,” said Fenn, who is not affiliated with either candidate. “It is just pragmatically not smart for her to go on the attack.”
Clinton’s tone is not unlike that of former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who lingered in the race for weeks after John McCain had all but won the GOP nomination. Although Huckabee refrained from attacking McCain, he won two primaries, highlighting McCain’s inability to gain wholehearted support in some regions and with some core constituencies of his party.
Clinton’s victory in West Virginia and her likely win in Kentucky similarly underscore Obama’s problem with white working-class voters. It also delays the Obama campaign from conducting “important research into how to beat McCain,” Devine said.
