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When Hillary might drop out

James Forsyth

Sunday, 20th April 2008

Geoff Garin, Mark Penn’s replacement as Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist, was debating his opposite number on the Obama campaign, David Axelrod, on Meet the Press. Garin turned in a rather shaky performance, repeatedly having to admit that he wasn’t up to speed on certain issue. One answer of his, though, seemed particularly telling:

MR. RUSSERT: Will Senator Clinton stay in this race through all the primaries in June?
MR. GARIN: There’s not a reason not to, but, look, I think that will be dictated by, by events. Her commitment now is to let the process play through, to let voters vote.

Reading between the lines of this answer, it seems that if Clinton doesn’t win one of the two primaries on May 6th, then she will consider dropping out. Certainly, if she was to be defeated in both North Carolina and Indiana then she will be under huge pressure from party big wigs to stand aside.