Every time I decide to lay off Hillary . . .
She pulls me back in.
Contrary to what some people seem to believe, I’m far from a rabid opponent of Hillary Clinton. I’ve freely acknowledged I’m not enthusiastic about her candidacy, but I’ve also made it clear I’ll support her in the general election if she does end up being the nominee (as seems the most likely scenario right now).
But come on.
(Tim Grieve) Clinton: I’ll take those delegates now, thanks
When Michigan and Florida defied the Democratic National Committee by scheduling their primaries for dates before Feb. 5, the DNC Rules Committee responded by stripping both states of their delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
Most of the Democratic presidential candidates pulled their names off the ballot in Michigan, but Hillary Clinton didn’t. And now that she has won in Michigan — she beat “uncommitted” by 15 percentage points — she says she’s going to fight to have the delegates from both Michigan and Florida seated at the convention.
So anyone see a pattern here? You know, like trying to change the rules of the game once they prove inconvenient (think of caucuses at a place where gambling occurs)?
Everyone understands that Michigan and Florida will need to be represented at the Democratic convention. But when the vote in Michigan was taken, it was with the clear understanding of all concerned that no delegates would be awarded based upon the primary’s outcome due to the state’s defiance of the party’s rules for scheduling primaries. This may or may not have been a wise sanction by the Democratic National Committee, but it was the decision made
Because of this, no candidate’s name appeared on the ballot except Hillary Clinton’s and no one campaigned there. So, surprise, surprise, Hillary won. To suggest that the rules should now be changed to allow delegates to be allocated on the basis of that vote (to Hillary’s benefit) is absurd.
It’s highly probable the nomination will be settled long before the delegates are seated in Denver. If so, fine — let the current slate of delegates be seated. Otherwise, a different method of selecting delegates from these two states will be needed (one workable approach has been suggested by the editor of BuzzFlash; you can check it out here).
Postscript: I see Josh Marshall has a similar take.
January 26th, 2008 at 12:41 am
I’m not rabidly against her either. I’m adamantly against her. She is just Republican light in nice clothes. If she gets the nomination I’ll write in a vote for Kucinich, even though he’s dropped out of the race.