As Steph Says It's 'Over,' Sawyer Proclaims 'It Was a Great Night'

May 7th, 2008 8:01 AM

See Bonus Coverage at foot: Morning Joe Mocks Whopper-Telling Wolfson

What kind of night is one on which Hillary Clinton, in the eyes of many, lost her shot at the nomination? "A great night"—according to Diane Sawyer.

Sawyer made her remark at the opening of today's GMA. She started with some shtick with co-anchor Robin Roberts, displaying a series of cards explaining she was losing her voice, then managed to get out these words:

DIANE SAWYER: It was a great night last night. What a night, huh?

If there was ambiguity as to what made last night "great," it was largely resolved when the duo immediately moved to a discussion of last night's primary election results, culminating in Roberts displaying the front pages of today's New York Post and Daily News, which respectively proclaimed "Toast!" and "Hil Needs a Miracle." George Stephanopoulos came on and confirmed the tabloids' grim prognosis, saying the Dem race "is over."

View video here.

DIANE SAWYER: So, you saw the headlines. Are they right? Is it over?

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Yes. Toast, Hil needs a miracle. That's exactly right. Even though this race is going to go on. Hillary Clinton will keep on campaigning. She's going to campaign in West Virginia today. But this nomination fight is over. Barack Obama has a lead that can't be overcome in pledged delegates. He's brought back his popular vote lead by another 200,000 votes last night. The only way for Senator Clinton to catch him would be to get Florida and Michigan included. That's not going to happen. What you're going to start to see in the coming days, as early as today, more superdelegates will come out for Barack Obama. They will come three, four, five at a time, and this nomination will be wrapped up.

SAWYER: How about money?

STEPHANOPOULOS: She doesn't have much. There were some reports that she had to loan her campaign some money. Now as I said, she has enough to keep going on right now. And people close to her say that she's more likely to stay in if she feels cornered in by the party leaders, if they try to push her out too quickly. She wants to get out on her own time, on her own terms. But it's very difficult to go forward. They're only six states left, Diane, 217 votes left. She'll do very well next week in West Virginia, on the 20th in Kentucky. But unless she can win in Oregon, an Obama state, on the 20th, and then have some revelation about Barack Obama come back, on the scale of the Reverend Wright controversy, this thing is over.

If last night was "great," what will Diane say, the morning after, if Obama were to win in November?

Bonus Coverage: Morning Joe Mocks Whopper-Telling Wolfson

Hillary campaign honcho Howard Wolfson had the unenviable task of appearing on Morning Joe today, and took his best shot at making a silk purse out of the sow's ear of last night's disastrous results. But Wolfson's difficult situation didn't stop the Morning Joe crew from openly mocking him when he feigned ignorance about a factoid unfavorable to his candidate.

View video here.

HOWARD WOLFSON: There's no question, we're going to have to do well in the upcoming states, we're going to have to —

JOE SCARBOROUGH: But Howard, there aren't enough points left to put up on the board, are there?

WOLFSON: Well, we're going to have to make sure that Florida and Michigan are counted. As Senator Clinton said last night, we're not going to decide this nomination based on 48 states. There are not 48 states in the union anymore; there are 50.

SCARBOROUGH [putting in the knife with a near-rhetorical question]: Do you guys have a majority of the rules committee that will make that decision?

WOLFSON: I have no idea.

SCARBOROUGH [bursting into raucous laughter]: Howard, I love you. I love you, Howard, but you know that . . .

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Ho-ward. No. We have a [BS?] meter.

WOLFSON: No, no, no, no. That's Harold Ickes's department. Harold knows all.

BRZEZINSKI: Uh-huh, yeah.

SCARBOROUGH: Oh, OK. Fair enough.

If Hillary Clinton's campaign is willing to dissemble this brazenly on such a matter, as president what wouldn’t she or her staffers be prepared to trample the truth about?