In the past two days Sen. Clinton has been doing more of what she's been doing for the past few weeks: whining a lot. On the heels of yet another irrelevant primary win in Kentucky, which of course Clinton claims as a huge victory that proves she should keep going, Clinton has begun aggressively campaigning for the votes of Michigan and Florida to be accepted into the primary election.
The reason these places weren't included to begin with, is because they went against party rules and changed their primaries to be the first in the country. They were warned that if they did so, their votes wouldn't be accepted, and the Dems followed through. All of the candidates, including Clinton, pledged not to campaign in that state.
So what has changed since then? Well, in Gallup polls done between August through September, around the dates they signed this pledge, Clinton led Obama by 47% to 25%. There was, in her mind, no risk in making this promise because she was the "inevitable" candidate. Boy was she wrong. Her new strategy, and her only hope of winning it seems, is to fiercely promote these states "right" to be represented in the primary. Now Clinton is comparing it to Bush V. Gore and calling the Florida and Michigan voters "disenfranchised". If accepted, Clinton would be ahead in the popular vote, and seems to believe she could make a stronger claim for the superdelegates to vote for her in the convention. She will of course forget to mention that Obama never campaigned in Florida or Michigan, like she did, and that Obama wasn't even on the Michigan ballot.
I for one can't get over the feeling that she's fighting dirty and it's confirming all my suspicions that she is out for power, in any way she can get it. The Democrats for those states made the decision to defy the party, and they made it knowing the consequences. The Candidates signed the pledge, and followed it. The fact that Clinton didn't ever consider the idea of losing, doesn't make it ok for her to go back on her word, and risk dividing the party even more. Her tactic now seems to be "win at any cost", and I can't imagine this will bring her any good will with the superdelegates, or in the general election.
For McCain's response to the whole thing, see this video of him on SNL.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
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2 comments:
Although Hillary has no claim to the nomination by any measure (popular vote, pledged delegates, number of states won, or even current pledged superdelegates), there is still a reason she's staying in and still a reason some of the superdelegates are holding out. Ultimately, in key swing states, Hillary does much better than Barrack. She polls better in FL, OH, PA, MI, MO & AR, and I don't mean in an insignificant way.
When is the last time a president has won without taking Florida, Missouri, and Ohio? Hillary can win all these, and Obama is significantly behind them. On top of that PA is in play with Obama, and it wouldn't be with Hillary. I don't think the little midwest states he might pick up playing the "unifier" will matter as much as what he stands to lose, as the polls currently show their number fairly limited (CO, ID, maybe NM)...
All that being said, she is still delaying the inevitable as Ricky said. There is no way the Dems will risk fracturing their party.
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