Never missing a trick, Pundita says to file this one under B, for "betrayal."
RezkoWatch has to agree. If true, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), who is scheduled to suspend her run for the presidency either today or tomorrow, will lose the overwhelming support she had earned by 18 million voters and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will be the welcoming recipient.
On Thursday, June 5, 2008, at approximately 9:58 PM ET, during the Hannity-Colmes show, Fox News announced that according to senior sources inside the Clinton campaign, Hillary Clinton was meeting at that time with Barack Obama in Washington, D.C.
Reuters limped, not reporting the news until 10:57 PM, and CNN seems so embarrassed by their slow-footed reporting that they didn't even announce the time on their website when they reported on the news.
Meanwhile, on Fox's Greta Van Susteren show, at around 10:14 PM, Fox political correspondent Major Garrett repeated the news and added that according to the two senior Clinton sources, the meeting was taking place at the District residence of Diane Feinstein.
CNN and Reuters were only able to report that the meeting took place at an undisclosed location.
Meanwhile, Fox correspondent Aaron Burns, on stakeout at Hillary's District residence since 5:00 AM, was reporting to Greta that unless there was a secret tunnel he couldn't see how Hillary had left the house to meet with Obama and that there was no sign of Obama's secret service detail at Hillary's house.
Back to Garrett: Yep, Hillary is indeed in a meeting with Obama at Feinstein's house according to those Clinton sources. He explained that the location of the meeting was highly significant because Feinstein is a staunch Hillary supporter.
He also analyzed why Obama was willing to meet with Clinton; her announcement that she intended to support his candidacy was "predicate" to the meeting, which was a step toward reconciling divisions in the party that arose during the primary.
Major Garrett's scoop suggests that several months ago Clinton advisors figured out that the only major news outlet that can be trusted to report fairly on her campaign is Fox News. Here is the Fox report on the Clinton-Obama meeting at Feinstein's house.
Fox also reports on their website that Clinton is expected to seek help from Obama in retiring her $30 million debt -- and that Obama's campaign wants her help with fundraising.
What does this mean for Democrats who want to take their fight for Hillary's presidential aspirations all the way to Denver, and who swear they won't vote for Obama under any circumstances? I believe it means that in politics when money talks, nobody walks:
Clinton will likely seek help from Obama in retiring her massive campaign debt, which has swollen to more than $30 million, including $11 million she lent the effort, advisers said Thursday.
The former first lady, who plans to bow out of the race and endorse Obama on Saturday, told donors she will raise money for Obama’s campaign, both to help the Democratic Party’s cash position and to expand the Illinois senator’s prodigious fundraising base. Her advisers estimate the former first lady could bring in $50 million to $100 million for the general election campaign — and much more if she were named Obama’s running mate.
The advisers spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Clinton hosted a conference call Thursday with her national finance committee, urging them to shift gears and begin raising money for Obama and for the Democratic National Committee, which will be coordinating fundraising efforts with the Obama campaign.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean has already reached out to some major Clinton fundraisers, urging them to put aside any lingering bitterness over the primary and come aboard to help Obama. Dean dined with several top donors in Boston on Wednesday night.
“He clearly made the case to this group of people that he needed them very badly and asked for our willingness to reach out and join up with the campaign as soon as possible,” said Steve Grossman, a former DNC chairman and a Clinton supporter.
But in return, the group had asked Dean to relay to the Obama campaign “how very focused they are on Hillary being on the ticket,” Grossman said.
Earlier this week, Clinton’s national finance chairman, Hassan Nemazee, said he was also pushing an Obama-Clinton ticket, claiming that together they would be able to raise $200 million to $250 million for the general election.
Update #1: 7:55 AM ET from Pundita: A reader pointed out that if his memory served he'd first heard the story of the Hillary-Obama meeting on MSNBC around 8:45 PM ET on Thursday. My check at the MSNBC site shows an updated report at 8:51 PM ET on Thursday, so the reader's memory served him well.
But to my knowledge, so far Fox's scoop on the location of the meeting still holds. NBC/MSNBC could only report:
[...] Robert Gibbs, an Obama spokesman, would not say where the former rivals met, except that it was not at Clinton's home in Washington, as had been widely reported.[...]
Update #2: 8:45 AM ET from RW: Jeff Zeleny reports from the New York Times:
It wasn’t until after [Obama's] plane landed in Chicago — sans the presidential candidate — that Mr. Gibbs confirmed a meeting had taken place between the rivals. Details? None given.
The face-to-face meeting, initiated by Mrs. Clinton, illustrated how the hierarchical roles of the candidate’s relationship suddenly were changing. While Mr. Obama agreed to meet Mrs. Clinton on her terms — at the location and time of her choosing — he was doing so wearing the title of a presumptive nominee, eager to get their first session out of the way and move onto the general election. [...]
For a time, the search took place live on cable television, unfolding like a Washington spy thriller, with the two leading characters sneaking around with the help of decoys and diversions. [...]
Finally, as Mr. Obama was headed back to Chicago on a private plane and Mrs. Clinton had returned to her home, another rarity took place. A joint statement was issued by representatives of the two senators, but sent out by Mr. Obama’s staff. Those words, perhaps, were the first cooperative undertaking since the presidential race began six seasons ago.
“Senator Clinton and Senator Obama met tonight and had a productive discussion about the important work that needs to be done to succeed in November,” the statement said.
Mrs. Clinton’s farewell from the race comes Saturday. When she offers her endorsement, Mr. Obama said he intends to be in Chicago with his family. Unless, of course, he isn’t.
There is certain to be more to come of this story.
