Dianne Feinstein, a big Hillary Clinton fan, wants to talk to her

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California was an early and stout supporter of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid (see this campaign release from July).

Might Feinstein's comments today be a harbinger of the feedback Clinton now can expect from many backers for whom politics is a full-time occupation?

The Times' Janet Hook trolled Capitol Hill for assessments from various Democratic lawmakers on the state of their party's presidential race and reports that Feinstein signaled that, at the least, Clinton needs to provide a renewed rationale for remaining a candidate.

"I have great fondness and great respect for Sen. Clinton, and I'm very loyal to her," Feinstein said. "That said, I'd like to talk with her and get her view on the rest of the race and what the strategy is" for proceeding.

The question, Feinstein continued, is whether Clinton "can get the delegates that she needs."

She added, perhaps most ominously for Clinton: "I think the race is reaching the point now where there are negative dividends from it, in terms of strife within the party."

Feinstein said she placed a call to Clinton the other day, and expects to talk to her soon about the campaign.

-- Don Frederick

Photo credit: Associated Press

Comments

[N.E. BosybutHillary]

I personally would like to see Dianne Feinstein run as the Democratic Vice President. She would bridge the gap separating the now two polarized sides of the Democratic party. She would also bring the integrity that was missing from the Clinton campaign.

[N.E. BosybutHillary]

I personally would like to see Dianne Feinstein run as the Democratic Vice President. She would bridge the gap separating the now two polarized sides of the Democratic party. She would also bring the integrity that was missing from the Clinton campaign.

[TGM]

Can you imagine this nation electing two women into the highest office as easily as two men?

I will not be voting in the general, if Hillary doesn't get the nomination. The contest has been too ugly in terms of sexism. And I think it's time this nation had a woman go in. She's clearly the one ahead of McCain, too, nationally.

How much more qualifications does one need beyond the men?

Plus, I suspect the horse accident was rigged by the Dems' good ol' boys. And, seeing how the female reporter was openly harassed on stage at the Press Club by Obama's long-time confidant and friend, was quite enough, for this person. Viewable on youtube. The part you don't read about in the news articles.

[Linda winsh-Bolard]

May all of us be saved from friends like Ms. Feinstein and voters like Jan Hart.

While the first one is bend on pursuing her own career never mind the cost, the second would not vote for a woman whose sin is-saving her marriage and appearing on TV show.

I hope most of us decide to vote on the basis of health care,
foreign policy, taxing of oil companies, maternal leave and economy.

That is where Hilary Clinton is unbeatable.

Despite all the media circus proclaiming, before every election day that Clinton had already lost.

I dread people like Hart, whose own problems shine through their spite of successful women ( it's funny how saving her marriage was always the best female achievement, until there was nothing else to use against the woman who runs for election) and those like Feinstein ,who don't seem to be able to see that the Democratic Party will lose the support of many permanently should it pursue the same course of action as in Florida and Michigan- to take the power to vote from us in order to push through a man whose largest achievement is self promotion. In case Ms Feinstein and her flock have not noticed, we have such man as a president now. Sorry, girls, we have move much since the 1900.

There was to admire in Hilary Clinton's behavior during the relentless Republican pursuit of her husband. She never stooped to cheap or sleazy, did not allow her daughter to be shamed, and instead of braking her child's home and stability, bested her husband with her own career. It takes strength, nerve, courage and endurance to this, and for all us it is so well suited to high heels.

It would serve us better next time should we all vote on the same day. It would also be fair to all involved. It would cost less. Until then, we either all count, even Florida and Michigan, or we no longer have democracy.

[halelani]

The news media has done a disservice to the election process. Day after day, endlessly, we are overwhelmed with spin. I am spun dry. Give it a rest!

[Anne Washington]

Obama again won by the "black" vote (92%) in NC clearly a racial election. So a big win, no not really...look at the white vote. So does the DNC think a candidate that cannot close the deal within his own party, loses New York, California, Texas, Ohio, Florida ---the big states, who has a criminal friends, has the philosophy from a radical black supremacy church is going to win the vote across the US. The democrats are just handing a win to McCain. Vote for Obama who is inexperienced, a 2 year Senator is ridiculous. We need the best for this country...wake up America.

[lina]

TGM,

You aren't very attractive are you? It's okay. There are repulsively unattractive women in all three camps. We'll take you.

Go Hillary!

[TGM]

lina,

Hang on, while I grab the kids, my broomstick, and my girdle.

;-)

[Anee]

The dems are handing the WH over to McCain. When can we vote Feinstein out, she has done nothing in Congress for us.
I hope there is an independent presidential candidate to vote for otherwise I will vote for McCain.
The democratic party doesn't represent me anymore, they are full of hate and elitism.

[Robert Laughing]

LONG over-due, DF!!! This 'woman' is too arrogant, too demanding and NOT what this Nation/World desperately NEEDS, after the Neo-Constipated Bush cabal. As much as I have despised Bush, WHAT do you Dems have to offer? Barney Frank? Kennedy? The goofball from Vegas? YOUR Democratic leadership is an impotent sham! There is NOTHING to turn towards! At least, GET RID OF THAT OTHER CLINTON!!!!

[Robert NO longer in LA]

Let's face it Dianne; the OTHER Clinton (shudder!!!) can't even win with the backing of cross-over Neo-Cons!!! Hillary can't even keep her husband's zipper zipped...and she is to 'LEAD' America????? Oh, BARF!!! SHAME on all of you impotent Dems for tolerating this presumptuous, duplicitous, and evil politician.... leave her in New York, where she clearly fits in with Wall Street and other frauds! And for CRIMINAL FRIENDS, remember, Slick Willie pardoned a FUGITIVE FELON, living the Good Life in Switzerland... such an important message to Wall Street, NO?

[D. Stephens]

I belive that the media is very biased in promoting a male over a female. We have a very competent lady who make a fantastic Madame President. A woman in the White House deserves a chance now!! We don't need another man; they have had their chance.

[robert]

Ms. Clinton is not only a bold face liar, she is also a very poor loser.

I'm glad we (americans) will have to deal with her for 4 years.

In my opinion, she's a female George Bush.

[Marks]

>Posted by: Anne Washington

>Obama again won by the "black" vote (92%) in NC clearly a racial election.

When blacks voted for Bill Clinton in same percentages was that racist?

>loses New York, California, Texas, Ohio, Florida ---the big states, who has a criminal friends, has the philosophy from a radical black supremacy church is going to win the vote across the US

Vote for McCain if your bitter. That blather has so many holes I won't bother to correct your mistakes.

Hillary's list of shady supporters is twice as long than Obama's.

Bill made over $100 Million in 4 and 5 years. Who paid Bill so much money for a speech? He talked NAFTA benefits when the trade program was hemorrhaging jobs in some states? People simply bought access into Clinton's world of influence.

Tony Rezco helped Obama?

Norman Hsu gave Hillary's campaign $850,000 and had fund raisers for her while a fugitive.

In 2000, Hillary made statements wanting to end the Electoral College because Gore won the popular vote over Bush.

Now she tried to use Electoral College reasons for the general election in the primaries!

Plus Hillary says, if Democratic Party had Republican party rules, she would be ahead.

It shows the caucus events ruined Hillary' s chances where she wasn't competitive. The DNC pays for caucus events.

Some states can't afford primaries while having budget cuts. Not every Presidential election has been so involved. Caucus events in =former years with low Democratic party participating, gathered people to discuss the candidates.

Nobody talks in the line waiting to vote in a primary. People going through caucus for the first time enjoyed the event!

Hillary counted on winning the popular vote and never accomplished getting ahead of Obama that way, since he took the lead from her. Obama has had an unsurmountable delegate lead since Super Tuesday!

I like Obama's less years in Congress because we've had former Governor's as Presidents make huge mistakes.

No candidate is more elitist thinking than a former Governor with a political machine at the ready to use in D. C.

We saw the Clinton cabal from Arkansas show up in DC with horrible effects. Bush cronies from Texas, rubber stamped his poor decisions that put America in this weakened position.

McCain has corporate lobbyists running his campaign they will be rewarded with appointed White House jobs?

Obama has to bring together best and brightest from both parties to run his White House. That's Change, America is demanding. Less partisanship from the White House so Congress can vote better on Federal Legislation working together there.

A too partisan White House causes gridlock in Congress.

McCain will lose to Obama, people are tired of the GOP and where Bush has lead this country.

[Liovushka]

In the days of Geraldine Ferraro's VP candidacy I've already heard that the first woman President will be conservative. It was tremendously disappointing to see Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party lose to Sarkozy in France. But I hope Clinton isn't drawing her lessons from them.

This nomination campaign has brought out both the racism in the American feminist movement and the sexism in the Civil Rights movement - both of which were heartbreaking experiences in my years of social activism. Yeah people talk bitterly about the "black vote" as if black people don't have minds of their own. And then they come around and talk about the "white vote" in PA as a nothing more than a strategic issue (e.g. "Can Obama win white votes?") C'mon... listen to ourselves!

The Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party has a realistic chance at changing our country this time! We can't choose a candidate just because some of us think a white woman is "safer" and "more electable". We can't vote on fear! If that were the case then our democracy is in trouble!

[M.A.R.]

The electorate is ready for SOMEONE ELSE FOR PRESIDENT. It will be hard for the Democrats to lose however I feel they will if they go with Obama.

[didi]

You go Diane. Talk some sense into Ms. Clinton. While you are at it, why don't you bring your sister-senator B. Boxer with you. It might help that "REAL" women politicians help her understand the gist of the real situation.

[fedup]

Obama projects himself as a person who has gotten everything he has wanted in life easily without having to work for it very hard. He thinks he has earned it but he has not. Not by his intelligence or insights or work. He has been given much and he has done little. It is a sign of his ego and self serving ambition that he now thinks has any right to be president. It is why many people hate Obama and will continue to whether he wins or loses. But is explains why so many others like him. He represents the dreams of the masses who wish to believe that you can be lazy and stupid and still rise to the top. To all those who struggle hard to get ahead in this world Obama represents all that this wrong. He may be your affirmative action & politically correct president but for many others he will be but a reminder of what is wrong with America. People can still vote for Nader and hope that Obama will be forced out of the race with a scandal from his past. But if he fails to win the democratic party and black supporters will have much to answer for. You should think about that as well.

[N.E. BodybutHillary]

There needs to be a distinction between "a" female presidential candidate and "any" female candidate. America can and will elect "a" female president. It will not be Hillary Clinton. Genitalia alone is a poor platform for either political party. There are women of integrity who have the ability to lead our country. Hillary does not. Senator "More of the Same" from New York did not even manage to run her campaign in a honorable or even a successful manner. Look to the future and for now embrace the change.

[Larry]

We can't afford another 4 years of Bush's policies. I like both Hillary and Barack, and will vote for either over John McBush McCain in November.

I agree with Hillary and Barack on questions of policy - and on the answers to those questions. (McBush says 'you don't need health insurance, or college. When you're sick, go to the emergency room.') I want to end the occupation of Iraq, universal health care, a strong and healthy economy, a secure nation, and a clean, cool and beautiful environment for my children and grandchildren.

Dylan in Masters of War said "for threatening my baby, unborn and unnamed, you aint worth the blood that flows thru your veins."

In '92, Bill Clinton said, "Vote your Hopes, not your Fears."

Today Hillary is saying 'Don't vote for hope. Hope ain't gonna get you thru the night.' That worked for Bush and Cheney in 04 - the Nuclear Bombs will go off in Ohio if you don't vote for us. And maybe John McBush McCain will say that too in October. And maybe a few rubes will buy it in November.

But Obama is saying with hope, vision, and judgment we can win.

That's why Obama is winning.

[George M. Allen]

If I were DF I'd make a couple of points with Hillary about the Clinton Franchise:

My sense is that the Clinton decision to keep going in what Rachael Maddow aptly terms a post-rational universe is much more about maintaining the very lucrative Clinton franchise than about running again in 2012. I think the Clinton calculus all along has been that John McCain is so weak that she could beat him even if the Democratic Party is divided and bitter. But let's not kid ourselves, the worst thing which could possibly happen to the franchise is Obama being elected President. So paying lip service to party unity while launching every possible attack against Obama, especially racist or classist attacks, serves the strategy of trying to prevent an Obama Presidency.

A lot of this is driven by fundamental decisions which emanate more from Bill Clinton's instincts than anything else. Bill's instincts have been that if they could get Obama to be perceived as the Black Candidate then they could separate him from that part of the Democratic electorate which never really cared for either the Civil Rights Movement or for upward mobility for African Americans.

The main problem with Bill's instincts is that they are rooted in an America which has changed very fundamentally from the America of the late 20th Century. Thus being hawkish has turned out to be a liability, not an asset. Thus pandering on the federal gas tax has turned out to be a disaster for Hillary, for two reasons: one, it looked just as phony as it was and, second, it cost the Clintons another precious week of Indiana focus on Reverend Wright.

The Rev. Wright thing was always going to have a relatively short shelf life because portraying Obama as unpatriotic is basically not going to work over any long period of time. But another week of it in Indiana just might have gotten Hillary a clear victory instead of a cliffhanger. And it was in those five hours of the Russerts and the Frankens and the Gergens looking at an Indiana which might, just might, go for Obama when the vote from Gary came in, that her doom was sealed. That was when the pundits looked at the whole thing and said, ok, she's out of money, she's way beyond hopeless on the numbers and therefore there is no rationale other than damaging Obama.

But let's be serious, there really has been no rationale other than damaging Obama since she finished third in Iowa.

So what is the franchise? It's speaking and consulting fees and deals for Bill. That has been worth over $15 million per year in the six year span from 2001 to 2006. And we do not know how much 2007 was worth but probably way over the six year average or they would have disclosed it.

But the franchise depends on the imagery of the Clintons as the premier leadership of the Democratic Party and as the holders of the heir apparent role to running the American government. If Senator Obama is elected President by an electorate which is no longer the electorate of 1992 or 1996, the Clinton franchise will not be ended, but it will be terribly damaged. The next book deal -- about how-we-lost-the-nomination-to-a-freshman-senator-with-a funny-name -- is not going to pay the way the just out of the White House book deals did. And the speaking gigs for hundreds of thousands are going to be harder to come by and pay less well. And the deal-making? The deal-making is tied to a sense that it involves delivering at least the tacit acquiescence of the U.S. government. And that won't be there either.

So is it really about damaging Obama? Yes, and it has been ever since Iowa.

George M. Allen

Telluride, Colorado

[matt in San Diego]

People, please. Will you listen to yourselves? We're on the verge of electing either the first woman or the first black president, and people are saying they'd sit out the election or vote for McCain out of spite?

There are valid reasons to vote for John McCain. Spite isn't one of them. For goodness sake, people are losing their jobs. Children are going hungry. And we have thousands of troops spending every moment of every day in harm's way.

The least we can do is to cast a reasoned vote based our highest ideals, not petty vindictiveness. And it wouldn't hurt to show each other a little more respect in the meantime.

[deborah]

May I just say... the hierarchy of privilege is: white men, white women, men of color, women of color. And if we are being really honest, african-american men and women are at the very bottom of this chain... This means that having an African-American man as president before having a white woman president opens more opportunities faster because the "hierarchy of privilege" would be turned around (it could possibly come undone). This hierarchy of privilege also means that it's easier to get Sen. Clinton into the White House than Sen. Obama. However, she does not inspire me anywhere near as much as Sen. Obama does. Sen. Obama is the better candidate, and if we can end the primaries sooner rather than later, he might have enough time to strategize how to win in a racist country. I love America, I am white (sort of), but this really is a racist country. If I have to choose between Clinton and McCain, I will vote for Clinton, but I will not feel anywhere near as proud.

[donna darko]

It's not spite. The sexism is beyond comprehension. The party is unrecognizable and has lost all its principles for Obama. Many are writing in Hillary's name.

[kathleen]

i agree that there is sexism in the democratic party, just as there is racism. that said, i don't think hillary clinton is the person to carry the post-sexism banner. i am a 66 year old white woman who remembers both the beginning of the feminist crusades and the push for civil rights for what we then called "colored people." so i can tell a feminist when i see one, and hillary is no feminist. she has few accomplishments that are not the result of her ties to a two-term governor and two-term president; she is forever whining about how the men are picking on her--is this how she will respond when in a tough negotiation with putin?
in my opinion, clinton has been quick to play the sexism card on her own behalf even as she attempts to use racism against obama--who is that pants-suited woman out there pointing out she does better with "white working-class voters"?
but to me the deciding factor is how each has run their campaign. clinton started as the all-but-crowned candidate, with near-universal name recognition, $100 million in campaign money, the support of the party establishment and a front-loaded primary schedule that should have made her impossible to stop. she managed to squander all that advantage and is today reduced to whining that elections (in florida and michigan) that she herself agreed wouldn't count should be factored in after all.
obama looked at the rules and figured out how to amass votes, money and delegates within their framework.
to me, this says he has superior executive ability and should be our chief executive.
i am sad that i may not live to see a woman elected president--but i am also confident that there will be a woman in the white house some day. just not this woman--and i am more than okay with that.