Hillary Campaign Admits She Can't Catch Up

In a fascinating post today, Greg Sargent over at TPM Election Central gives us an insider's recap of today's Clinton campaign Hillraiser Summit.

In short, the campaign admits that it is not going to be able to catch up in pledged delegates and thus will need to rely on superdelegates for her to win the nomination.

Here's the key graf from Sargent's post:

The presentations had a tone of optimism tempered by realism, the fundraiser said, adding that Ickes didn't try to persuade his listeners that she would be able to catch up with Obama in pledged delegates.

Rather, the clear message emerging from the presentations was that Hillary's success depends on the campaign's ability to persuade the super-delegates that they should be considering three "data points," as this fundraiser puts it, in considering whom to back: The pledged delegate count, the popular vote, and the specific states won by each candidate.

I read this to say that the Clinton campaign admits that its sole route to success is to convince party insiders to annoint Hillary the nominee, regardless of whether she has struck out on all three pitches - total delegates, total states and popular vote. (You could even throw in a fourth strike - strength combined with results in getting to 271 electoral votes.)

The Clinton campaign's strategy may pay off, but we Democrats will pay the price if it does.