Hillary: "Not supporting Obama in GE is to betray everything I campaigned for."

[Youphemism]

This is the statement she needs to make. I doubt she'll offer it on her own, so Obama's people should push that question into the media, to be asked of her:

"Senator Clinton... Given the similarity between your positions and the gaping disparity between democrat and republican positions, wouldn't you tell your supporters that to abstain or to vote for McCain in the General Election would be a betrayal of everything you were campaigning for? Yes or no."

Push back, Obama. Push back. Make her live up to her promise to "campaign her heart out" for you, starting now.

[Meshuga]

1. Damn, I thought she actually made that statement :-) n/t

[Youphemism]

4. She promised she would...

...when the time came. I want to see her live up to her promise. I don't expect her to offer it. The Obama camp needs to get this question for her into the media ASAP.

Hardball's Big Number of the day was 5. 5 months since the first primary, five months until the GE.

That campaign starts today. In a few hours, Hillary will be on Obama's clock. Time for her to start living up to her promises, instead of starting a new campaign for VP.

Oh, and if Obama's folks are really going to entertain the notion of paying off any of her campaign debts, they'd better put those arrangements on an installment plan, to help motivate her. Interest payments every month, the principal to be paid off in November, upon completion of her election assignments.

[cbayer]

2. She's already said it. n.t.

[BlooInBloo]

3. I'm ok with this list of 7 things Clinton needs to say...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20080602/cm_huffpost/104457

. She was treated fairly. This is the key message she needs to convey and do it convincingly. It is perfectly reasonable to indicate that she was mistreated, if that is how she feels, but she needs to state that candidates are always mistreated, that Barack Obama and the other Democratic candidates were as well, and that she was no more mistreated than any of the others. In response to the inevitable questions, "didn't you say X, or Y" just a week ago, her answer is that it is the nature of conflict that one picks their best points, but that is not the whole picture; and, that taken together, her campaign was treated as fairly, or as unfairly, as any of the others.

2. Her own mistakes in a close election led to her losing. Taking responsibility buttresses the message that it was not something unfair in the process that led to the ultimate outcome. It is not political suicide for her to admit the obvious, that having no plan B for after February 5, she lost 11 primaries in a row and, once that happened, anything she did to correct her errors were just too little, too late.

3. She herself will be fine. There is an enormous amount to do after the disastrous Bush presidency, and she intends to continue to contribute and to fight for the causes that are so important. She specifically cites the Supreme Court, and the negative impact on everything women have fought for, if John McCain gets to appoint more Alitos and Roberts, as he has sworn to the radical right that he will do. She needs to be concrete, and to repeat.

4. She believes the campaign showed that women can achieve anything, and that she was gratified that there was no pushback against the idea that a woman can be as good, or better, a Commander-in-Chief as a man. If a woman can be Commander-in-Chief, what job or position of authority can she not hold? She should repeat that John McCain promises, swears, to change the Supreme Court to nullify all the gains women have made, and that it would be a travesty if people sat home, or were unenthusiastic, just because she did not quite make the delegate majority.

[Youphemism]

5. No. Make It Eight.

That list was fine and dandy, and I'm agreed on all points.

But it leaves out this direct address to her voters, which is the most important one.