The R &B decision leaves Hillary Clinton with virtually no chance to win the Democratic nomination for presidency and reports from The Telegraph say that Barack Obama aides are drawing up plans for Clinton's 'negotiated surrender" which would allow her a dignified exit.
The plans will include a cabinet position that would allow her to work om the healthcare issue and possibly paying her large campaign debt, if she agrees to bow out of the race.
The Obama camp, however, remains nervous about Mrs Clinton’s intentions and ambitions, and is preparing a face-saving package that will allow her to continue to play a role in health care reform, which has been her signature issue for more than a decade. Despite pressure from some Clinton allies, Mr Obama and his advisers do not wish to ask her to be his vice-presidential running mate. “They will talk to her,” one Democrat strategist close to senior figures in the Obama camp told The Sunday Telegraph. “They will give her the respect she deserves. She will get something to do with health care, a cabinet post or the chance to lead the legislation through the Senate.”
According to the same article there have been tentative contacts between the Obama and Clinton campaigns, although nothing formal with one strategist saying, "She has not surrendered in her own mind yet and until she does it’s very difficult to have these conversations."
Whether Clinton will bow out and accept such a deal at this time still remains to be seen and if the statement issued by her campaign is anything to go by, that day may not be as close as party leaders would hope.
According to DNC rules, if the Rules and ByLaws committee came up with a compromise that either candidate did not agree with, that candidate would then have the right to appeal to the Credentials Committee and bring it to a floor fight at the convention if need be and from the statement issued at the Hillary Clinton campaign site, that option is still open for Hillary Clinton.
Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy:
Today’s results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party’s nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party’s convention. The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly.
We strongly object to the Committee’s decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan’s delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan.
The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party.
We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan’s delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.
There was an incredible amount of anger shown from Clinton supporters yesterday when the R & B Committee made their decision about Michigan and many of them are still showing it today as well as leaving comments asking Clinton to take this issue to the credentials committee.
One of those people, from Michigan, uses the name Doug and Tracey, on the Clinton website and says, "I am a Michigan voter and i want you to take this to the Credentials Committee. We will stand behind you all the way. You stand up for us and we will for you in whatever way you need! Thank you Hillary Clinton!"
That is representative of what her supporters are saying.
Others are pointing out that by acknowledging Florida and Michigan, the DNC has now made it possible to officially count those two states into the popular vote totals and where yesterday's decision only gave Clinton a net of 24 additional delegates it put Clinton above Obama in the popular vote totals.
Looking at everything, from the outside looking in, and not being a Clinton or Obama supporter, I am left with the question of whether Hillary Clinton can lay down her arms, so to speak, at this time, and accept whatever plan the Obama camp is drawing up to offer her a position in his cabinet, or if Clinton will do what her die hard supporters are insisting on and continue to fight to the proverbial death?
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