Opinion: Clinton puts a word in Obama’s mouth
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Barack Obama already had come to rue the comment he made, while campaigning in Indiana in April, about the potential importance of the state’s primary. And he probably rues it a bit more after Hillary Clinton and her crew threw it in his face tonight, conveniently skewing for their own purposes one key word.
In the days before the April 22 primary in Pennsylvania, Obama conceded that Clinton had the edge in that state, made himself the favorite in North Carolina (which joined Indiana in conducting a primary today) and said the Hoosier state ‘may end up being the tiebreaker.’
Clinton, taking the stage in Indianapolis a few moments ago to claim what may end up a narrow win for her in Indiana (a key county expected to tilt toward Obama remained to be counted), immediately spotlighted his comment -- except she ignored his use of the conditional, saying he had predicted Indiana ‘would’ be the tiebreaker.
Around the same time, her staff issued a memo that similarly tried to use the ‘tiebreaker’ comment as a way to put the best possible spin on a day that was less than stellar for Clinton, given that her dual hopes of winning ...
in Indiana and at least making it close in North Carolina were dashed when she got thumped in the latter state.
Again, note how that pesky little ‘may’ gets rolled over (all the more remarkable, given that the memo includes the Obama quote). Here’s the release’s opening paragraph:
In April, Barack Obama called Indiana a ‘tie-breaker’ for the Democratic nominating process: ‘You know, Sen. Clinton is more favored in Pennsylvania and I’m right now a little more favored in North Carolina, so Indiana right now may end up being the tiebreaker. So we want to work very hard in Indiana.’
The rest of it, which seeks to make the case why Clinton should have been viewed as the underdog in Indiana (despite what most polls showed) can be read here.
Clinton’s main message in her remarks was that she would continue to soldier on in her bid to overtake Obama -- and that part of that strategy was to keep fighting for recognition of the disputed, and so far disallowed, primary results in Michigan and Florida.
‘It would be a little strange to have a nominee chosen by 48 states,’ she said.
As she did when she celebrated her win in Pennsylvania -- an occasion much more worthy of celebration for her -- she used her national television exposure to make a pitch for the contributions she needs to keep soldiering on.
-- Don Frederick