Slate sets up a Hillary Deathwatch on Clinton candidacy

While some people still debate whether Sen. Hillary Clinton should drop out of the race for the Democratic nomination for president and others argue that she shouldn't and still others discuss when she should quit, Slate has gone ahead and established a Hillary Deathwatch on her candidacy.

A year ago now, it looked like a Hillary Clinton nomination was virtually a sure thing, despite the growing number of Democratic candidates, many of them senators trying to become only the third sitting senator in U.S. history to become president.

As it turns out, all three of the remaining candidates, including Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, are in office, so the 44th president will be the third sitting senator to move into the White House after Warren Harding and John F. Kennedy. Americans in more recent years have shown a distinct preference for governors as their national chief executives.

The new Slate Web page constantly adjusts the chances it says Clinton has to actually win the nomination.

Tuesday the odds improved -- not a whole lot but still up -- from 9.7% to 9.9%.

The site determined she hadn't had any major screw-ups in a few days. Some disparate polls showed her up a little. "Slow news is good news for Clinton," it proclaimed.

You can check the latest reading here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[dave]

these speculative deliberations failed to include congressman ron paul.

(Oh, c'mon, Dave. You know better than that. We're always writing about Dr. Paul. Read the item first. It's a DEATHWATCH on one Democrat's candidacy by another website. You really want us to include him in someone else's gimmick because his days are numbered?)

[Robert65]

Obama himself has said that Hillary Clinton should stay in the race as long as she wishes to do so. What's the rush? It gives the media more to write about and saves the purely Obama vs. McCain battle for later.

If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee and Americans genuinely like both McCain who will 72 years old and Barack Obama who will be 47 years old by November 4, 2008, how many Americans of whatever age will actually pull the lever for the 72 year old?

[dave]

as you astutely noted, it's a deathwatch on a democratic candidate, so it might be of relevance to a running republican candidate. which would make it relevant not to omit his name from the equation.