Did Hillary Clinton Conspire with DNC to Rob Hillary Clinton of Nomination?
It's just disgusting what's happening to Florida and Michigan, isn't it? How can the evil DNC tell two states that never wanted anything more than to disregard all the rules and place themselves in what they thought were power positions* for choosing the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Presidency?
Who could be responsible for such a heinous act of fairness?
[A DNC committee] stripped Florida of all 210 delegates to underscore its displeasure with Florida's defiance and to discourage other states from following suit. In doing so, the DNC essentially committed itself, for fairness' sake, to strip the similarly defiant Michigan of all 156 of its delegates three months later.
Clinton held tremendous potential leverage over this decision, and not only because she was then widely judged the likely nominee. Of the committee's 30 members, a near-majority of 12 were Clinton supporters. All of them — most notably strategist Harold Ickes — voted for Florida's full disenfranchisement. (The only dissenting vote was cast by a Tallahassee, Fla., city commissioner who supported Obama.)
And now poor Hillary Clinton is the one who has to suffer. Can you believe that? Where's the justice.
I wonder what she, herself, had to say about that?
"I will of course be following the no-campaigning pledge that I signed, and expect others will as well."
I'm sorry. What pledge was that?
…I _______________, Democratic Candidate for President, pledge I shall not campaign or participate in any state which schedules a presidential election primary or caucus before Feb. 5, 2008, except for the states of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, as "campaigning" is defined by rules and regulations of the DNC.
Yeah, but just because her staff members and supporters were instrumental in stripping the delegates from Florida and Michigan and then she signed a statement saying that she wouldn't be participating in their elections doesn't mean that their fake elections shouldn't count in light of the fact that their results favor Hillary Clinton. Right?
Right?
You know what? On second thought, don't read all those preceding paragraphs. My bad.
(via Daily Kos)
Update: In the comments, I_heart_bears makes a good point…
Yeah, and remember the time when Obama implied he would seat the delegates (in the same week as he signed that exact statement above)? And remember how he then took it back because he lost the primary?
True enough, politicians in general are slimy, self-serving opportunists who will say what they need to say to the people they need to say it to in order to further their own agendas. No arguments here.
And Barack Obama is no exception to this rule. But neither is Hillary Clinton. And she's the one playing victim these days.
* In an admittedly idiotic and unfair nominating system.
RSS
2000. Chads. I counted those fucking ballots in Florida. I hope Obama does a line of chads and snorts up some Hillary dust since she ummm… LIED to us and broke her pledge. As a Floridian, I had an open mind with her until she tried to change the rules in the middle of the game. Two Balls. Fine. That's what you're gonna have to suck Hillary if you wanna be veep.
She used us like the peninsula dildo we are. And, she was in on it! Stuck our state right up her own honey hole and now has the audacity to cry about bees stinging her vagina? She triangulated her own triangle and has increased the liklihood of our state looking like a bloody tampon. Thanks.
but, I hope she's veep. a nice, gentle, vice-president.
"And she's the one playing victim these days."
And he's the one pretending to be "new politics". It's his only selling point. His campaign is (rightly or wrongly) trying to turn the word "politician" into a dirty word, so I don't think it's unfair to hold him to higher standards. Especially because we can't exactly elect him on his record. I urge you all to look into his past in the Illinois Senate (suing his opponents to win elections etc.). You'll find out that he's just as much as a P********* as the rest of them.
The Rules Committee was warned that this would happen if the race was close enough for Florida to matter. The Florida DNC folks told the Committee that their General Assembly, controlled by the GOP,and the Republican Governor had orchestrated the move up in the Primary in order to lure the Dems into stripping the delegation and to forbid campaigning by Dems in the Primary. The FL Dems could not afford to run their own caucus and the GOP legislature certainly was not going to fund it. Unfortunately, we did not really have a chance to debate this on the floor of the DNC.
The solution: fully seat the two delegations but do not allow them to vote unless and until there is a second ballot. That way they get their full delegation and vote unpledged on the second ballot. If there is no second ballot, then that is their punishment (even though FL does not deserve it) for going early.
Not knowing fully where all this is going, can I say in my late-great-sanitary-worker-husband-word's, 'What comes around, goes around."
Yeah, and remember the time when Obama implied he would seat the delegates (in the same week as he signed that exact statement above)?
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/sep/30/obama-vows-do-whats-right/?news-breaking
And remember how he then took it back because he lost the primary?