Wheels Within Wheels

My initial thought on election night when the anemic John Podesta came to the Javits Center to tell the “I’m With Her” faithful to go home was that the Clinton camp was huddled preparing to challenge the results of the election in several close states. There are a few reports, not yet substantiated, that Hillary was in a rage and not physically able to come to the Javits Center herself. It was surprising when only 45 minutes later the news came out that Hillary had called Trump to concede the election. Why couldn’t she have waited that long to decide and come make the traditional public concession speech on election night? Yeah, they were “with her,” but couldn’t she have reciprocated and been “with them”? Apparently not. I’ll await more reporting on election night from Mark Halperin and John Heilemann (among others) on this episode. I expect it will be the last nail in the Clinton political coffin.

The Hill reports late today that Obama himself called up Hillary after midnight telling her she ought to concede:

“You need to concede,” Obama told his former secretary of State as she, her family, and her top aides continued to watch results trickle in from the key Rust Belt states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. The latter state, called after 1:30 a.m. by The Associated Press, was the clear tipping point for the White House race, ensuring Trump would crest over the 270 electoral-vote threshold needed to win. . .

Obama’s call left a sour taste in the mouths of some Clinton allies who believe she should have waited longer, and there’s now a fight playing out between the Obama and Clinton camps over whether to support an effort to force the Rust Belt states to recount their votes.

If this account is true, it represents the final humiliation of the Clintons at the hand of Obama. No doubt Obama wanted her to win and constitute his “third term” in office, but it’s also true that Obama held the Clintons in contempt from early on a decade ago. So he might well have enjoyed dealing out this final humiliation.

Now there’s the Jill Stein/Green Party instigated recount effort under way in Wisconsin and perhaps Michigan. But I thought the idea of election fraud was a Republican bogeyman! It is fun watching the left’s continuing meltdown in real time.

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