The Clinton folks are definitely not happy.To jeers and boos that showcased deep party divisions, Democratic Party officials agreed Saturday to seat delegates from the disputed Florida and Michigan primaries at the party’s convention in August but give them only half a vote each, dealing a setback to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The agreement, reached by the rules committee of the Democratic National Committee behind closed doors and voted on publicly before a raucous audience of supporters of the two candidates, would give Mrs. Clinton a net gain of 24 delegates over Senator Barack Obama. But this fell far short of her hopes of winning the full votes of both delegations and moved the nomination further out of her reach.
She now lags behind Mr. Obama by about 176 delegates, according to The New York Times’s tally, in the final weekend of campaigning before the nominating contests end.
The Times is also reporting:The deal prompted one of her chief advisers, Harold Ickes, a member of the rules committee himself, to declare that Mrs. Clinton’s fight may not be over, even though Mr. Obama’s advisers say he is only days away from gaining enough delegates to claim the nomination.
“Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee,” Mr. Ickes said before the final vote, raising the specter of a fight until that committee meets. His words drew cheers from Clinton supporters, including many who yelled, “Denver! Denver! Denver!” — implying that the fight could go all the way to the convention in that city.
Mr. Ickes said the outcome for Michigan was a hijacking of voters’ intent because it assigned delegates to Mr. Obama even though he did not win them as his name was not on the ballot.
Outside the Rules And Bylaws Committee meeting, things got ug-ug-ugly. From the New Republic:Mrs. Clinton has kept her counsel about what she might do to draw her campaign to a close. But when the rules committee of the Democratic Party divided up delegates from Michigan and Florida on Saturday night, Harold Ickes, a committee member and Clinton adviser, said she was reserving the right to contest the decision into the summer.
Still, despite the fireworks, Mrs. Clinton’s associates said she seemed to have come to terms over the last week with the near certainty that she would not win the nomination, even as she continued to assert, with what one associate described as subdued resignation, that the Democrats are making a mistake in sending Mr. Obama up against Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Her associates said the most likely outcome was that she would end her bid with a speech, probably back home in New York, in which she would endorse Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton herself suggested on Friday that the contest would end sometime next week.
But that is not a certainty; Mr. Obama’s announcement on Saturday that he would leave his church was just another reminder of how events continue to unfold in the race. She has signaled her ambivalence about the outcome, continuing to urge superdelegates to keep an open mind and consider, for example, the number of popular votes she has won. Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a superdelegate who has been at the forefront of calling for uncommitted Democrats to make a choice soon after the last vote, said in an interview that Mrs. Clinton called him last week and urged him to “keep an open mind until the convention.”
Howard Dean may hope that the "healing will begin today," but two blocks away from the northwest Washington Marriott where the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee is meeting right now to try to figure out Florida and Michigan, the Hillary protesters are occupying an utterly alternate (and healing-free) universe: a universe in which one of the big lawn rally's speakers yells that the Democratic Party no longer is in the business of "promoting equality and fairness for all"; in which a Hillary supporter with two poodles shouts, "Howard Dean is a leftist freak!"; in which a man exhibits a sign that reads "At least slaves were counted as 3/5ths a Citizen" and shows Dean whipping handcuffed people; and in which Larry Sinclair, the Minnesota man who took to YouTube to allege that Barack Obama had oral sex with him in the back of a limousine in 1999, is one of the belles of the ball.Sam Stein reports at the Huffington Post:
Then there's this clip that Stein found at firedoglake:With half a dozen flat screen televisions turned to CNN, it was not difficult to ascertain just where the political and emotional center of the crowd stood. A table of three women did not deal in discretion. A sampling of their punditry:
"[Obama] is a cult. His campaign is an anti-woman cult."
"I will actively campaign against him."
"You know who is backing him is George Soros. It'll be George Soros, not Obama, who is running the country."
"South Dakota is totally rigged for Obama because of Tom Daschle. Obama's going to win South Dakota because he's buying it and rigging it."
"[Obama] is a socialist! You know what the Nazi Party was before it was the Nazi Party? It was the Socialist Party."
I don't really need to comment on any of this, do I?
As a white, middle-class, feminist, Michiganian woman from the 60s, I am very pleased with the results from DNC. I, and many people I know, voted for “uncommitted” as a vote for Obama. We were told NOT to write in Obama’s name, as it would NOT be counted, as is shown in the 30,000 votes that were not counted. Many people did not vote because of that. Eighty per cent of the vote from Detroit, a primarily African-American community chose 'uncommitted.' If we had the ability to write in a candidate, I would not feel this way. The people of Michigan were not happy with our election and the Michigan legislature did an excellent job of trying to amend their flawed election so the voice of the ALL the people of Michigan would be heard, my sincere thanks to the DNC for understanding our unique position.
ReplyDeleteThis woman from New York does not speak for the voters of Michigan.
There are other women who may not speak as passionately but they make a hell of a lot of sense:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/31/91456/6724/836/525972
The party is self-destructing.
Ladies and gentlemen, President John McCain
I found it funny that most of her bitter supporters there were NOT from Michigan or Florida, but were instead from places like Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Kentucky. Way to go, Maria, way to throw gas on party disunity and aide the election of John McCain, he thanks you for the chaos.
ReplyDeleteThis is no longer about electing Hillary Clinton or getting her the nomination. Those who worked within the Gore and Kerry campaigns (as I did, I was healthy back then), know one central fact: the Clintons undermined both campaigns with very subtle maneuvering. Now the Clintons are undermining Obama by causing disunity and chaos. Anybody who truly wants to defeat John McCain will no longer stand with Hillary Clinton. It's time to unite around the party's nominee, Barack Obama.
If this keeps up, a certain section of the feminist crowd will bolt for McCain out of spite. Obama will be left with no choice but to try and replace them with disillusioned evangelicals by picking a pro-life running mate like Bob Casey or Tim Roemer. As a pro-life Democrat, I would be thrilled by that. And I ultimately think that'd bring in more people than it'd lose. Casey is an especially good pick.
Hillary Clinton fought a good fight until the last couple weeks. Now, she's going too far and undermining the party's nominee by making him appear weak. If the Super Delegates listen to her and "hold off," people will ask "what's wrong with Barack?" And we'll be doomed in November. McCain, Hillary's friend, will get elected. And all sorts of bad policies will be enacted. It's not about progressive policies or the Democratic party with the Clintons. With the Clintons, it's always about the Clintons.
i took my decision very seriously. i decided on obama.
ReplyDeletei can't believe the attitude i've been confronted with in some cirles because of this. i thought it would come from republicans or from bigots but to my surprise it came from fellow liberal democrats, mostly women, mostly yonger.
i tried to explain my reasons, my backround, the fact that at 56 and female i would LOVE to see a woman as president but not this woman.
she LOST my vote for good when she ran the commercial saying that she AND mcain were the one's ready on day one, ready for the early morning phone call. he campaign, in my eyes, has just gotten more roveian since then.
these are the politics that i have been afraid of since the republicans began to subtlely play them back when reagan ran. they kept gettinf away with more and more and kept winning so i was sure in time, someone in my party would. she has.i don't like it.
i will vote for her if i must.
unlike some of her supporters, i care more about every issue than just the sexism that is still rampant in our country.
we are facing so many, many issues, terrible issues and i know, that the WORST thing we can do, for us, for our children, grandchildren,elderly parents not to mention the rest of the world to which we are tightly bound, thru ethics, responsiblity, economics etc.
the WORST thing would be to let mccain win just to spite the DNC.
am i pissed at a lot of the crap thrown at clinton only because she is a woman?
you bet. as howard dean said this morning. if the situation had been race and not sex there would have been people in the MSM fired over some remarks made.
but, to use her gender as a dividing tool to rally women, to threaten to let mccain be our next president, that is embarassing to me AS a woman.
i am, as i said, 56, the mother of 1 child, a daughter, grandmother of 1, a girl. of course i despise sexism, the 2nd class citizenism.
but, i've paid my dues as a woman, in the times i came of age and my vote counts too.
white, blue collar, i used to belong to a union when i worked. i will always be a union supporter.
non-college educated female.
obama supporter
even if i did have some concerns about obama OR clinton to vote to elect mccain is just selfish.
i respect their right to vote as they choose, but i still say it is selfish.
I do not think for one second that the people in DelewareDem's DailyKos diary(linked by Anon 10:03) is at all representative of Clinton supporters.
ReplyDeleteIs the party self-destructing? I don't think so. The protestors at the meeting were very noisy but reports I've heard that the more vitriolic they got, the more the genuine Clinton supporters were willing to talk to Obama supporters at the meeting, many of them discussing coming together and unity for the Fall.
I undestand that the Clinton camp is not happy w/ MI, but let's face facts - it was an unsanctioned primary, it was a "flawed" primary as Carl Levin noted, a primary that threw away 30,000 write-in votes.
Now, how you can have a legitimate election where 30,000 votes are tossed is beyond me...and for that fact you cannot say that the results, as they stood, were reflective of the will of the voters.
Obama could have forced a 50/50 split; he had the votes. But he didn't. He could have really put the screws to camp Clinton...
If we learned anything, it's that the Clinton's no longer control the party. An era has come to a close.
John K. says: What to do, what to do. Count the people of some States as having only half a vote. And then give Obama delegates even though no one actually voted for him. And decide all this in a back room, away from the glare of the camera. Harold Ickes Jr. Rules !
ReplyDeleteI think what we're beginning to see is a polarization within Clinton's supporters.
ReplyDeleteThere's one wing that is resolved to handle outstanding issues with clinical detachment, out of equal parts doing what is fair for everyone, bowing to the inevitable, and doing what looks to be best for the party.
Then there is the other wing. Most of that wing will either be lost in November, or some will come back after getting a good, hard, lengthy look at McCain.
This entire issue is a patently absurd. If you accept (as you must) the premise that the Party is an independent entity with rules and regulations of its own, then there simply is no reason why, once having disobeyed those rules, the state parties in MI and FL should have been allowed to have a primary that "counts."
ReplyDeleteAren't we Democrats supposed to be upholders of truth and justice? Aren't we supposed to be all about "following the rules?" If so, then everyone in MI and FL should just get over it. Your argument is with your State party leadership, because it is they and Dean who set this disaster scenario into motion....
Pilt
Well, I'm not ready to take a few overheated comments from a Manhattanite as proof that there's a "rift" between Hillary and Obama supporters. There'll be a core of die-hards but even there numbers are dwindling. Carville and Rendell have both essentially conceded that the nomination is Obama's and I've a feeling that even if this goes to the convention that that'll be over fairly quickly. Still, yes, some pretty fair damage has been done. But Denver's a long way as, much less November. Here's hoping that the worst of it is over.
ReplyDelete- Shawn
John K. says: The worst is not over. Oh no! Mostly because the left leaning elitists just up and gave Obama delegates from a State he was not on the ballot in. And to decide that one person can only cast half a vote. Is that like splitting a hoagie? All this from the party of Olbermouth and Matthews. LMAO
ReplyDeleteWith half a dozen flat screen televisions turned to CNN, it was not difficult to ascertain just where the political and emotional center of the crowd stood. A table of three women did not deal in discretion. A sampling of their punditry:
ReplyDelete"[Obama] is a cult. His campaign is an anti-woman cult."
The "Obama is a cult" meme bobs up to the surface quite frequently in fetid internet swamps such as Little Green Footballs, Redstate.com, and Powerline--as well as in the comments from right-wing trolls on this site.
"I will actively campaign against him."
Because we all know John McCain has much stronger positions on women's issues than Barack Obama, right? Isn't that why such well-known feminist "icons" as Robert Hagee and Rod Parsley are backing McCain?
"You know who is backing him is George Soros. It'll be George Soros, not Obama, who is running the country."
If you go to the FEC search page and do a search on "George Soros" you'll find he's contributed to both Obama and Clinton. However Clinton has received more money from Soros than Obama.
"South Dakota is totally rigged for Obama because of Tom Daschle. Obama's going to win South Dakota because he's buying it and rigging it."
Yeah just like having the support of Robert Casey Jr. helped Obama win the Pennsylvania primary, right?
"[Obama] is a socialist! You know what the Nazi Party was before it was the Nazi Party? It was the Socialist Party."
OK, it's official. We now know Jonah Goldberg is both a cross-dresser and a Hillary supporter.
Tuesday's going to be an important day. Politico's Ben Smith is reporting that Hillary has summoned her senior staff to NYC for a meeting tommorow. Also, junior staff are apparently making vacation plans with no real complaints from the upper level.
ReplyDeleteThis could be the end.
- Shawn
Here is the link.
ReplyDeleteThe text:
Members of Hillary Clinton's advance staff received calls and emails this evening from headquarters summoning them to New York City Tuesday night, and telling them their roles on the campaign are ending, two Clinton staffers tell my colleague Amie Parnes.
The advance staffers — most of them now in Puerto Rico, South Dakota, and Montana — are being given the options of going to New York for a final day Tuesday, or going home, the aides said. The move is a sign that the campaign is beginning to shed — at least — some of its staff. The advance staff is responsible for arranging the candidate's events around the country.
With the future of her campaign in doubt, Clinton hasn't announced her plans for the final election night of the primary cycle or beyond, but the aides said she would stage her election night event in New York City. Her entourage is currently expected to wake up Tuesday in New York and to arrive in Washington, D.C. Tuesday night.
Clinton's senior aides didn't respond to requests for comment on her Tuesday night plans.
The important phrase in the first paragraph is "advance staff."
Somehow this might not be what we might think it is. With no more primaries, there WOULD be fewer events to plan, right?