Who's dropping out?
Posted: Monday, June 02, 2008 4:21 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC’s Christina Jamison, Ron Allen and NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli
On the plane just now flying from Rapid City, S.D., to Sioux Falls, S.D., campaign spokesman Mo Elleithee maintained that Clinton is not getting out of the race tomorrow night -- or anytime soon.
Elleithee said as long as there is still no nominee (and incidentally he wouldn't say the campaign acknowledges a delegate number at which there will be a nominee), the senator will be making the case on the phone to committed and uncommitted superdelegates and uncommitted delegates.
He repeatedly said there will be "an ongoing dialogue" with committed and undeclared superdelegates.
Clinton has no public schedule beyond Wednesday, where she speaks at the AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C. Tomorrow, Clinton will spend the day at home in Chappaqua, N.Y. doing local radio in MT and SD, as well as making political calls. Bill Clinton, campaign aides believe, will be home with her, as well as daughter Chelsea.
When asked about reports the campaign has invited top donors to Tuesday night's celebration, and whether that signals an end to the campaign, Elleithee said donors are invited in every state the night of the primary and this is nothing new.
He insisted the e-mail to advance staff offering flights to New York or home was just to give them an option as "this phase of the campaign" wraps up.
So what's next?
The campaign plans an aggressive outreach to undeclared superdelegates, including many currently committed to Obama. Both Hillary and Bill Clinton are expected to be working the phones for most of the day.
The campaign says it does not expect there will be a nominee after tomorrow night, and when asked about the magic number 2,118, Elleithee indicated that number may change depending on what Clinton decides to do about Michigan.
“She is, in the coming days, going to be aggressively courting superdelegates and unpledged delegates," Elleithee said, adding emphatically that there will be no nominee after tomorrow.
What if Obama reaches 2,118 and declares victory? The answer is basically that Clinton will deal with that when and should it happen.
The mantra is that Clinton will fight on especially for superdelegates until there's a nominee. But with Clinton hedging on whether she'll appeal the DNC's Michigan decision, it's unclear what she thinks actually determines when there's a nominee.
The spokesman wasn't clear about how an appeal would take place, saying check with the DNC -- perhaps only when the Credentials Committee is formed, and that's perhaps eight weeks ahead of the convention.
No word on future travel plans despite being asked numerous times about various scenarios like traveling to key battleground states, or whether she'd be focusing solely on McCain.
As Clinton said herself yesterday, "It’s not over until it’s over," and she's a person who takes things one day at a time. And as of now, insisting she's still determined to win, and believes she can.
There was a lot of parsing on when -- or if -- she will acknowledge there is a nominee, given that she has reserved the right to appeal the Michigan ruling, and her statement that superdelegates can change their minds, that it's not over until the votes are counted.
When asked, based on all that, if one could only infer that she wants only a convention vote to determine the nominee, and he demurred. Asked what happens if the leadership of the party (Pelosi, Reid, et al.) come out and end it, he said that many times in this campaign, people declared it over.
