Opinion: No matter what, Clinton tonight vows to run a ‘while longer’
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Don’t look for Sen. Hillary Clinton to be dropping out of the Democratic presidential race immediately, even if things don’t go entirely her way during Tuesday’s primary voting in Texas and Ohio.
After a full Sunday of campaigning in Ohio, an unusually ebullient senator visited the back of her campaign plane en route from Cleveland to Toledo late tonight. The alleged reason was to introduce her celebrity friends, Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. Asked what he thought about fellow actor Larry David from ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ endorsing Barack Obama, Danson said in mock horror, ‘I’m out of that show. I’m not going to do it again.’
But an outgoing Clinton dominated the conversation with reporters. At one point...
she was talking about the ongoing race between her and Obama and predicted it would go on ‘a lot,’ then she appeared to catch herself in mid-sentence and said, ‘while longer.’
Asked to elaborate, Clinton replied simply, ‘Sometimes a word is a word is a word.’
Clinton explained it had been necessary to sharpen her rhetoric recently to draw the differences between her and Obama, and rejected any notion that their increasingly bitter contest might hurt her party in the fall’s general election.
‘I think it’s actually great,’ she said, ‘great for the party, and great for the country.’ That’s when she predicted the race would continue a ‘while longer.’
Clinton also said her recent 3 a.m. White House crisis call ad helps ‘dramatize’ their differences. However, she declined to provide any examples from her White House days of such a situation involving her, suggesting that would be classified.
She also refused to answer a question about New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s suggestion earlier Sunday that the Democratic candidate with fewer delegates after Tuesday’s contests withdraw from the race.
Her reply: ‘I’ve had a great day in Ohio.’ A non sequitur that obviously doesn’t answer the question but indicated she wasn’t going to, so give it up.
Which reporters did.
In just a few hours, Clinton will be up before dawn to campaign at a Toledo factory gate, with other stops in northwestern Ohio and then in Texas, ending up Monday night in Houston.
--Louise Roug