Hillary to Joe: Don’t Waste Your Time

Bloomberg Politics published a story explaining how the Clinton camp claims to have over 400 votes from a variety of delegates scheduled to attend the Democrat Party’s national convention in Minneapolis next year.

At the Democratic National Committee meeting in Minneapolis, where she will speak Friday, senior Clinton campaign officials are claiming that she has already secured one-fifth of the pledges needed to win the Democratic presidential nomination. They come from current and former elected officials, committee officeholders, and other party dignitaries. — Bloomberg Politics

The authors, Mark Halperin and Jennifer Epstein explain how Clinton is 20 percent of the way to the 2,246 votes she’ll need to acquire from the 4,491 delegates attending the convention. She also claims to hold 60 percent of the 713 superdelegates. According to party rules, superdelegates cast votes for nomination along with delegates selected by state-wide primary voters.

Clearly the Clinton campaign wants to block a potential entry by vice president Joe Biden into the Democrat primary field. However, Clinton held a similar position against Barack Obama in 2008 and failed to earn the nomination. This time Clinton holds greater superdelegate support.

The goal: “Don’t waste your time Joe, the Clinton nomination is a mere formality.”

This plan could backfire, however. Suppose Clinton’s team distributes this message in such a way as to discourage primary voters? What if the voters turning out for Democrat primaries do so to only to vote against her?

What this message really indicates is Clinton believes her email troubles will melt away and she has no intention of quitting the race for the Oval Office.

The Clinton campaign also released memos on Thursday touting the strength of its field operations in the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The memos include specific tallies of thousands of volunteer commitments, dozens of paid organizers, and offices opened, including 11 in Iowa.

Barring some major scandal or controversy, and given Hillary and Bill Clinton’s long-standing ties to Democratic Party elites, overcoming her superdelegate edge would be quite a challenge for Biden or the major candidates already competing against her for the nomination, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

The 300-or-so gap between Clinton’s public and private superdelegate commitments derives mostly from state party officials who have yet to reveal their backing of the frontrunner, but have privately pledged to cast their convention votes for the former first lady, according to the person familiar with the campaign’s tally. — Bloomberg Politics