WHY HILLARY WON'T GET OUT
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published on FOXNews.com on May 8, 2008.
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Bill and Hillary Clinton have always believed that they=92re very
different than the rest of us. Over their more than 30 years in
politics together, they=92ve learned one im****tant and consistent
lesson: that rules don=92t matter. Rules don=92t apply to them. Rules are
for other people. Rules can be bent, changed, manipulated.
And that philosophy has worked very well for them.
So it=92s particularly ironic that they are now turning to the
Democratic Party Rules Committee to try and steal the presidential
nomination that Hillary has already definitively lost to Barack Obama
in the popular vote, the delegate count, and the total number of
states.
Now she=92ll try to get the Democratic bosses to rig it for her. If the
rules don=92t work, change them.
Under the guise of justice and fair play, Hillary Clinton is, in
effect, asking the Rules Committee to rule that the party=92s rules
should be ignored =97 the same rules that the Rules Committee enacted
and that Hillary and all of the other democrats sup****ted without
dissent. But that was then and now is now.
Hillary wants the Florida and Michigan votes to be seated, even though
it would still make no difference in the outcome. She can=92t win. After
her embarrassing near loss in Indiana and her sound trouncing in North
Carolina, Hillary Clinton is a fatally wounded candidate. She=92s out of
money, out of votes, and out of options.
But she won=92t give up. She=92ll never go home until the day that Obama
actually reached the magic number of delegates.
Why?
Because she and her husband both believe that she is entitled to the
nomination, entitled to the presidency. So they=92re waiting for the
inevitable signal that it will, in fact, be hers.
No matter that neither the voters nor the party leaders want her. No
matter that she has to spend more than $11 million of her own money to
keep her campaign afloat.
According to the Clintons, the nomination should be hers. She=92s earned
it. She=92s ready. She wants it. She and Bill are sure that she=92d be a
great candidate.
So that=92s why they=92re waiting. Because there=92s one other lesson
they=92ve both learned =97 that over time, anything can change. And
they=92re waiting for any break that time might bring.
They=92ve see it before. When they were worried about her criminal
liability in the Whitewater mess, they held their ground. Eventually,
as the years went on, Jim McDougal, the chief witness against them,
died of a heart attack in prison. When the special prosecutor was
after her for perjury, she learned how to delay and then get by off on
a technicality. Lost in the dust were the allegations of Hillary=92s
perjury. Once more, time was kind to her.
It was the same story during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. At first it
seemed that Bill would be quickly thrown out of the White House, but
two years later, although impeached, he was still incredibly popular.
Time and patience had brought control of events back to the Clintons.
When they left the White House in utter disgrace over their ethical
lapses and greed, they were under attack from even the friendliest of
liberal media. But years of keeping their heads low, working hard at
getting along with people in the Senate, turning to charitable works
(with a little help from George W. Bush) and helping the party
regulars erased the sordid images. Memories of pardons sold for
campaign and library contributions, their scoundrel lobbyist brothers,
and the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of =91gifts=92 that were
solicited from people who wanted favors from the White House
disappeared. Once again, time healed all.
Now, although seemingly out of time, they are still waiting. Something
could happen to change things in just a minute.
They=92re patiently waiting for that minute.
But beyond their belief in Hillary=92s inalienable right to the
nomination and Hillary=92s inevitability, there are two more factors
that are keeping her in.
One is a combination of Hillary=92s incredible stubbornness and Bill=92s
growing arrogance. They both believe that no one, absolutely no one
tells them what to do. No one is going to force them =96 a former
president and a senator =97 to do anything. So the more people tell them
that Hillary should quit the race, the more determined they are that
she should stay in.
And finally, there seems to be an uncharacteristic absence of a
reality base in Hillary=92s thinking. Normally, she is a no-nonsense
pragmatic politician who understand when she=92s up and when she=92s not.
But lately she seems to ignore everything that=92s in front of her
except the sup****tive cheering of the partisan crowds and the
certitude of Bill Clinton.
The proof of this is that she has lent a total of $11.6 million to her
campaign. The Clintons are not people who part with a dime very
easily. For them to fork over that much money to a failing campaign
already in deep debt is the clearest statement that they are out of
touch. Even after she won Pennsylvania =97 by only 12 delegates =97 there
was no mathematical way for her to win the nomination. But she then
poured another $6.4 million into the campaign coffers.
The Clintons are still waiting for a miracle that isn=92t going to
happen. They=92re hoping that over time something big will derail Obama
(no doubt they=92re still frantically looking for that something).
And they=92re stubbornly refusing to go home. And they=92re desperately
hoping to make sure the rules don=92t count for them.
When the reality becomes unavoidable and it is clear that Hillary has
to concede the nomination in 2008. Well, there=92s always 2012 or 2016
or 2020 or =85
These folks aren=92t going away.
Go To DickMorris.com to read all of Dick's columns!
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