Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama by a 2-1 margin in Kentucky's primary on Tuesday (Obama won easily in Oregon), but the paper's lead headline didn't even reference it. While an article inside the paper did state Hillary's case for staying in despite trailing in delegates late in the game, it also forwarded bizarre suggestions that she should quit because she is...getting too many votes from white people.
The Times has suggested Hillary voters are motivated by racism before, but here the idea is explicitly used to guilt-trip Hillary to drop out and clear a smooth path for Barack Obama. Here's Patrick Healy in Wednesday's "Clinton Still Sees Plenty of Reasons to Press Her Campaign."
Mrs. Clinton has disagreed with suggestions, made directly to her by a few friends recently, that her continued candidacy was deepening splits within the Democratic Party and damaging Senator Barack Obama's chances of emerging as a formidable nominee. She has also disputed the notion that, by staying in, she was unintentionally fostering a racial divide with white voters in some states overwhelmingly supporting her.
Rather, in private conversations and in interviews, Mrs. Clinton has begun asserting that she believes sexism, rather than racism, has cast a shadow over the primary fight, a point some of her supporters have made for months. Advisers say that continuing her candidacy is partly a means to show her supporters --especially young women -- that she is not a quitter and will not be pushed around.
Campaigning in New Hampshire and Indiana this year, Mrs. Clinton endured taunts from passers-by who questioned her abilities because she is a woman and mocked her husband's affair with a White House intern. Yet Mrs. Clinton has also benefited from the strong support of white voters in many states, including some who have said that race was a factor in their support.
Healy forwarded a bizarre argument: Since she's winning by such large margins, she should drop out.
One longtime friend and adviser, Roger Altman, an official in the Clinton Treasury Department, recently urged Mrs. Clinton to consider leaving the race, people familiar with their conversation said. He said that racial divisions were worsening and that her huge white vote in West Virginia last week could make it harder to view Mr. Obama as a unifying figure.
Mrs. Clinton does not believe that a racial split will be a legacy of the Democratic nomination fight, her aides say -- especially if Mr. Obama wins, as he could point to victories in states with largely white populations, like Colorado, Iowa and Washington.
