Hillary camp threatens nuclear option
Okay, a part of me dismissed this threat as bluster, and I ignored it yesterday. But then, today, the Clinton campaign added fuel to the fire…
“There is no secret plan…. The Clinton campaign has been vocal in stating that the votes of 2.5 million people must be respected. Hardly a day goes by when a Clinton official doesn’t publicly declare that the votes of Michigan and Florida count and that the delegations from those states should be seated.”
If they pursue this option will the Democratic Party survive? My guess is no.
Tags: 2008 Presidential, Hillary Clinton
She is a Clinton and will do what she has to do to win the nomination.
I’m sure that this is making her friends among the Superdelegates.
If she is going to start off with this kind of special pleading, then perhaps she is the 3rd Term of GWB.
The party of Tom Carper will endure and continue to service the needs of their Republican overlords.
I’m actually more afraid of her supporter’s reaction. They love that she’s supposedly a “fighter”. This nuclear option will be greeted with cheers.
Each camp is becoming more entrenched, and the likelyhood of coming together grows slimmer by the day. How is this prolonged primary good for the party? What are the super delegates waiting for? Seriously, what “sign” are they waiting for?
New Hampshire?
I think the party will survive it–but with Dems in the Congress and McCain in the White House.
I know I’ve read it here before but I can’t remember where: in a Clinton best-case scenario how many delegates would she pick up from Florida and Michigan?
If I got this in the mail, I never would have picked up the gaffe, but it is funny to read about. (The comments here are sometimes choice too.)
Add on her knocking back a shot of NAFTA whiskey and the pander is complete.
Love it! A 2,200.00 German gun! Go, Annie Oakley!
On a serious note: When did Democrats start sending out gun mailers?
Steve, Chris Bowers at Open Left is keeping a running tally of the delegates counted as each candidate would count them. Obama’s count would split delegates half and half; while Clinton’s count splits them proportionally as all of the other states have done.
Cassandra
Thanks. You know the problem with all the predictions that this will be over in June is the second point that Chris Bowers makes. She not only needs favorable counts on MI and FL, but to destroy Obama as an effective candidate. From her perspective, she has been drawing some blood. I suspect that she believes that if the primary season ends without an Obama majority, and with MI and FL still hanging open, that enough superdelegates will reserve judgment until the convention.
Even if not, remember that (again her perspective) supers can change their mind at any time. She has no more reason to quit than Reagan did in 1976, even though his persistence mortally wounded Ford.
She’s in it until the end. She’s always said so. She can lose but she cannot quit.
The gun gaffe is excellent. Hillary loves guns, but only elite guns.
Just like Pa. under the Rendell Democrat machine (there were voters across the state who did not vote) machines broken, or long lines where only 103 people voted in 8 hours. Now its on to Indiana where the vote will be under the leadership of Bayh…there they claim 1,000,000 voters have already been purged. In every state there have been voter irregularities….especially in black/minority neighborhoods…of course I tried to bring this story out on WDEL Al Masshitti this am…but he wasnt hearing it…this story has been the best kept secret in this primary election. However, there are national groups and a Professor at NYU Mark Miller who are reporting on it heavily. I sent all the emails I had to Jason…I think someone should take a look at just how far Clinton will go to become the nominee….throwing voters under the bus, just like she did way back when –while working for Barry Goldwater.
A couple of guys in my (R-leaning office) say that Hillary should have promised to put one of these guns in every gun safe and that would have completely sewed up the nomination for her a long time ago.
I’ve been thinking… if CW says that a candidate should run towards its base in a primary, and then back toward the middle in the general… Where does gun-lovin’, Iran obliterating Hillary run if she gets the nomination?
Let’s see the last time i remember Voters being denied their say was in 2000 in Florida. So now the Dem’s want to deny 2.5 million voters their say by not counting their votes.
there is a word for folks who condemned other’s for their action and then do the same it begins with a H
There’s also a word for folks who take entirely disparate situations and pretend they’re similar. It’s called “dumbass.”
The folks over at Election Inspection have a great breakdown of why Hillary is unlikely to prevail in her nuclear option.
For everybody here at DE Liberal worried about the implosion of your party…. NOW I feel your pain
http://delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-ones-for-all-good-folks-at.html
Al I would have expected a more enlighten review from you than name calling. Then what are we all to expect from a food critic who eats at McDonald’s
You know, an interesting scenario could arise. It might be that Barack Obama would go to the convention with enough delegates — regular and superdooper — to win the nomination, but if there’s a floor fight, and allowing the delegates from Florida and Michigan to be seated would mean that the nomination would go to Hillary Clinton, how could the Obama delegates vote for their own candidate’s defeat?
I’m guessing that the superdoopers will get together — maybe by videoconference or some such rather than physically — and end these shenanigans before the convention, just to prevent this from happening, but I wouldn’t bet Donviti’s paycheck on it.
If they pursue this option will the Democratic Party survive? My guess is no.
Don’t tease me!
Why have a convention if there is no debate on the floor i can remember a great floor fight back in 1959 which gave us JFK
Also pledge delegates are not Bound delegates. So a good debate on the floor could just change a few minds either way
TT: OK, then. Let’s examine the claim that “denying 2.5 million voters in Florida” the chance to vote for Hillary is in some way similar to the 2000 election in which — wait a second, what did happen in 2000? Did anyone have their vote uncounted? Not that I recall. Nobody disputes that the popular vote was within a spread of a few thousand.
But let’s pretend for a moment that Gore voters were somehow disenfranchised. That would be by the Republicans, right? And who did Floridians vote for in 2004? Oh, that’s right — Bush. Yeah, they really, really held it against the party that screwed them over, all right.
Do you think about this mindless pap put out by the Clinton campaign before you repeat it?
I love this line from Steve Newton’s post on the topsy-turvy Libertarian battle for that party’s presidential nomination:
“But Libertarians apparently don’t compromise–even when it would be stupid not to.”
Anyone who’s been on the receiving end of a Libertarian lecture could have told you that, Steve.
Oh, and Liz — when you have more than two examples of funny stuff, get back to me. You’ll notice that, once again, nobody here has responded to you.
Question for you, Liz: Overlooking the fact that you have no proof that your concerns are well-founded, what do you suggest we all do if they were? You’re always telling us the sky is falling. It’s boring, and nobody responds. That’s why I “have none of” your arguments — who cares?
Is HRC referring to her own career and/or credibility?
😉
Von, who knows what she’s talking about anymore. 😉
I really believe that her latest attempts have been, in Cheney-parlance, the Last Throws of the DLC.
God, let’s hope so!
Thanks for that link, Cassandra. It ties in nicely with Hillary’s unfamiliarity with gas station coffee dispensers.
“(I) can remember a great floor fight back in 1959 which gave us JFK”
No, that was the result of a back room deal with LBJ (the original “Southern Strategy”) and Teddy running around handing out bags of daddy’s money.
Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing an old style convention, as opposed to the coronation ceremonies they’ve become.
Al you worked for a News paper but not in the news room therefor you must have missed the fact that in 2000 the Supreme Court stopped the vote count in Florida before it was completed. Also the 2.5 million votes are a total of both Florida and Michigan. Florida in 2008 seems like a fair contest both Obama and Hillary didn’t campaign their but were on the ballot. Michigan is another story Obama took his name off the ballot no one forced him to and Hillary had to run against the hardest person to beat NONE OF THE ABOVE which she defeated. Also all this talk about let the peoples choice prevail seems to me to be nothing more that a bunch of obama supporters pap when half of the states that he has been successful in all the people didn’t have a chance to vote because they weren’t primaries.
Unforunately for HRC, and you too TT, there is no Constitutional right for a Primary vote – the Parties’ processes are how they see fit to do it….simple as that.
Truthy, I know that you don’t believe the puke that you just wrote. Hillary and Obama were both on the ballot, so name recognition carries the day. No coulda, woulda, shoulda about it.
Do you think that a Michigan voter that heard that Obama wasn’t on the ballot ran out to vote for none of the above? Really? There are plenty of reasonable arguments that could be made about FL and MI, but yours are not.
Can you look yourself in the mirror and say that “none of the above” votes reflect the full extent of Obama votes? If you can, then you have turned away from the ideals that make Democrats better than Republicans. I feel sorry for you and your bitterness.
Pandora I have read your comments on the gas tax issue. And your main argument seems to be that Bush would veto it. So it really doesn’t matter and Hillary is just wasting her time to bring it up. Well if that be the case have the dem’s wasted their time and ours by passing children’s health care and stem Cell research both of which Bush vetoed. And I believe that the Dem’s have pledge to bring both of these bills up before the election. Would that be pandering Pandora?????
TT: Your ignorance grows with every post. Caucus states certainly DO let everyone participate; most voters choose not to because it takes too long. I certainly did work in the newsroom, and — you apparently missed this — a consortium of newspapers did its best to reconstruct the missing votes. And, since you also missed my point, Floridians obviously didn’t hold it against the Republicans, because they voted for them in 2004.
The problem with the gas tax — this is probably over your head, so go look it up — is that it won’t save anyone any money. At best, it would transfer the money from one pocket in Big Oil’s suit to another.
If you remember the 1960 race, your loyalties are explained by your demographic — another old fart for Hillary.
Speaking of ignorance Albert how do service men overseas get to vote not to mention Nursing Home patients in those states along with policeman and others working shifts that prevent them from attending theses caucuses.
As far as your news room experience goes what did you do beside tell us where not to eat..
And once again you show your superior intelligence by resorting to name calling.
by the way i hate to bring this up but what unit did you serve in Nam was it north of the Border
Albert you didn’t address the fact that the dem’s passed Stem cell and Children’s health care in the face of a veto was that a waste of time . And plan to do it again before the election.
And one of the reasons the folks of Florida voted for bush was because Kerry was acting like an elite, also he failed to address the swift boaters which sometimes leads me to believe that there just might be some truth to their claims. I would have fought them tooth and nail had they made those charges against my naval Service.