Obama wins most Texas delegates: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080331/ap_on_el_pr/texas_delegates

And I think the Clinton strategy for staying in the race is more about relying on malicious crossover voting than superdelegates: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080401/ap_on_el_pr/vote_switching

Who has taken over the left and what’s next?

When do we start calling each other comrade?

The DNC had warned the states ahead of time not to do this.

(emphasis mine)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_House_of_Representatives
”
Republican Party 77
Democratic Party 43
Total 120 - Majority 34
”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Senate
”
Republican Party 26
Democratic Party 14
Total 40 - Majority 12
”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2007-05-21-florida_N.htm
”
Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill Monday moving Florida’s 2008 presidential primary to Jan. 29 and shaking up the race by bypassing a dozen other states set for Feb. 5.
…
Crist, a Republican, and other state GOP leaders have argued Florida’s diversity and size merit more influence in deciding the nation’s leadership.
”

So.. let me get this straight. A Republican Governor, in association with a Republican dominated State Senate and State House Of Representatives, decides to move Florida’s primary election up and the DNC decides to.. punish.. Floridian Democrats by not counting their delegates? There must be something I’m missing, no party could possibly be this hamfisted… ?

=darwin

Who won the popular vote in TX?

Who won the most delegates?

Whose campaign is yelling that delegates must follow the popular vote?

Even in the “new politics”, hypocrisy reigns!

This campaign is relatively mild compared to the history of US politics. This is not even the first time it has come down to the super delegates and brokered convention (see Mondale v. Hart 1984). If one of these candidates could stop doing an imitation of the the Monty Python Fish-Slap Dance and start talking about a real plan for the economy and ending the problems in Iraq, rather than one-liners, this protracted campaign will be one of the BEST things to ever happen to the party. This has zero chance of happening if Hillary pulls out.

A question on that CNN thingie, though. It has wins for Hillary in FL and MI. Does it credit her with delegates there?

Another question - have John Edwards’s delegates gotten assigned to either of the remaining candidates?

Hilary LIAR Rodham Clinton.

Take a pick please.

Now that Hillary Clinton has been nailed in an outright fabrication of her role in Bosnia, it is time to remind ourselves of another, even more galling fantasy that Hillary tried to sell the voters.

After 9/11, Hillary had a problem. New Yorkers were desperately focused on their own needs for protection and they were saddled with a Senator who was not one of them — an Arkansasn or was it a Chicagoan?
Interviewed on the “Today” show one week after 9/11, she spun an elaborate yarn. The kindest thing we could say was that it was a fantasy. Or a fabrication.

She said that Chelsea was jogging around the World Trade Center on 9/11 and happened to duck into a coffee shop when the airplanes hit. She said that this move saved Chelsea’s life. But Chelsea told Talk magazine that she was in a friend’s apartment four miles from ground zero when the first plane hit. Her friend called her, waking her up, and told her to turn on the TV. On television, she saw the second plane hit, disproving Hillary’s claim that “she heard the plane hit. She heard it. She did.”

So why did Hillary make up the story about Chelsea? Most likely to was because her co-senator (and implicit rival for the voter’s affection), a real New Yorker Chuck Schumer spoke of his daughter, who attended Stuyvesant High School (Dick’s alma mater) located next to the TRade Center, being at real risk on 9/11. Hillary needed to make herself part of the scene.

She invented the entire story on national television, the “Today” show, and didn’t blink an eye.
Her fabrication on the “Today” show was no unique foray. It is her standard M.O.. It gives us pause in evaluating all of her stories and calls into question her entire credibility.

Not enough? I thought 2024 was enough. Isn’t 2105 greater than 2024?

Please explain.

Jeff, you’re a smart guy. I’d be interested in hearing you make a case for why Hillary would be the best person to lead this country over the next four years without tearing down Obama. I’d also love to hear you address your philosophical inconsistency regarding Obama’s campaign — he employs so many of the things you preach (transparency, trusting the people, grassroots, etc) that it’s baffling to see your distaste for him. Is it a generational thing?

So…that means that in the January primary, lots of people who might have voted Dem chose instead to take a GOP ballot because it looked like the vote would count. The Dem national party had said the primary wouldn’t count.

When the revote was being discussed, Obama wanted to have another open primary. But Clinton wanted to allow only those voters who had chosen a Dem ballot in January to vote. That meant that any Democrat who had voted in the GOP to have his vote count would not be allowed to participate in the revote. It also meant that anyone who didn’t vote because the national party had banned the delegates wouldn’t get to participate in the revote.

Obama didn’t block a primary. They just couldn’t agree on the rules.

You wrote, “So why do I hear that it’s unfair for Clinton to rely on super delegates when Obama relies on them as well?” No one has said that. Seriously. What they say is that if the superdelegates go a different way than the voters voted, people will be pissed (and that applies if the result is Clinton or Obama). It would have a deeply damaging, long term negative effect on the party. I used to think that no one wants that. But sometimes in the last couple of days, it looks like some Clinton supporters might actually want that if she can’t have the nomination. Do you?

You wrote, “Obama and his crew have refused to allow a revote in those states; he has responsibility.” Nope. That is spin. Obama is just going with the rules as agreed. A long time ago. When your guy/gal is behind it is tempting to think that those agreements don’t mean anything. But they still do.

Keith

Just a few posts ago you wrote about how people in power don’t trust the public. I guess that would include the Democratic party and its reliance on superdelegates and smokefilled rooms, rather than actual voters and caucus-goers.

I live in Michigan so I am painfully aware of the wrongheadedness of the party people here. The state’s Democratic delegates must not be seated as is. Obama, Edwards, and Richardson took their names off the ballot at the party’s urging. Only Clinton, in a fit of hubris, left her name on. And according to the primary voting rules, if you wrote in Obama instead of voting for “uncommitted”, your ballot was thrown out as spoiled.

Even with those rules, Uncommitted got 40 percent of the vote here. In my community, Uncommitted got more than 50 percent of the vote. Clearly a true primary might not have ended with Clinton as the top vote getter.

The Republicans moved their primary too, but the national party leaders had the sense not to forbid the delegates. They cut the state’s delegate count in half so the primary counts for less. Thus no problem. Michigan’s presence at the GOP convention is diminished, but not shut out.

Looks like the Republicans trust the people more than the Dems.

But whatever you think about the party. Clinton did not win Michigan. No one won Michigan. If the delegates are seated as is, there will be an uproar.

His grandmother told him that she thinks/used to think black men were scary and unfamiliar, even distressing to her. It was a fact that is similar to a lot of people’s experience. Including mine. It isn’t “throwing her under the bus.” Don’t be stupid. Black people are intimidating. Sometimes it’s not their fault, sometimes it is. Healing would be nice. I’m not one of those people that think blackness is bad. Even so, the crime percentages and what I witness in my neighborhood is enough to get me down, to keep me in a cautious state. Reality my friend. Obama is right, and so is his grandmother. Both sides need to heal, need to find common ground.

Oh and the voting “present” Yeah you read that Karl Rove article ey? Too bad that was a lie. He also said Obama was lazy in that article. Rove, the king of painting the picture for you, hoping you didn’t see what was actually there. Listen to Rove if you want. But he’s one of the most racist and divisive people, and has gained from it for decades. Read Lies by al Franken about Karl Rove’s little bigoted schemes. He’s been playing off peoples prejudices for years, playing it against opponents. It’s really sickening actually how his twisted mind works. I was actually shocked what Rove has pulled to make other candidates look bad. uh hello John McCain’s black child? How soon we forget. Um yeah that’s Rove dude.

MarkJ go ahead and keep living your little fantasy about Obama. Keep gathering your tasty little bites to try to shoot him down. Oh dear, Obama has a pastor that said Goddamn America. Oh wow that’s so scary that an old black man would state the obvious. America has too much blood on it’s hands to get all teary over it. Our President, our Attorney General can’t even choose the high road when it comes to torture and illegal wire tapping. So remind me why I’m supposed to be proud of my country when it’s government is corrupt? God doesn’t bless a corrupt America. That’s the point the pastor was making. I totaly feel what he’s saying and I know I’m more of a patriot because I care that we should be doing the right thing. Because our values and actions MUST MATCH. when they don’t then get out the torches, time to change the guard.

Clinton likes to save our kids from video games. thanks nanny Hillary. We’re so happy you saved all those 17 year olds from GTA San Andreas. Thanks for pretending that Hot Coffee was something more than a patch enabled outside the game contents. Thanks for wasting our money investigating Rockstar and then getting it flat wrong. Thanks for playing up the fear in your own way. I absolutely truly believe we are better off without a president than with hillary. Not joking or being sarcastic, but I think she does so much more harm than good. Same with McCain.

She’s the queen of waste in this race. And what’s up with the bogus crying. that’s what you call a showstopper. Pathetic. Seeing her over the next 4 years is a terrible thought. whereas I actually learn something from Obama’s speeches. They are interesting, thought provoking.

Here’s the thing about Hillary for me. I actually can’t believe people would want to vote for her. I mean I can’t see any reasoning at all for that. It’s the same as I can’t understand why anyone would use Crystal meth. It’s so far beyond me that I can’t even imagine being that kind of person. McCain, I can understand that because many republicans I know don’t really follow issues, they follow the party. But with Clinton, she is old news and I’ve enjoyed literally nothing that’s ever come out of her mouth. How is she charismatic? She’s can’t even hold a candle to Martha Stewart when it comes to charisma. Strange.

With all due respect, you are incorrect. The mainstream media keeps reporting on Senator Clinton as if she’s still a viable candidate. It was politico.com that correctly observed that H. Clinton has essentially zero chance of winning the pledged delegate race or the popular Democratic vote. Further, for the “superdelegates” to overturn the express will of the voters would make a mockery of the selection process, and would clearly be electoral suicide for the party in November. Richard Wolffe of MSNBC noted that were the situation reversed, Obama would have already dropped out of the race.

It is, in fact, H. Clinton, who, by refusing to recognize reality and withdraw with even a shred of grace, threatens to snatch defeat in November from the jaws of victory with her reprehensible campaign tactics. Sadly, she is also so sullying her own reputation as well as that of her husband that both will be hampered in their efforts to do otherwise commendable work in the US Senate and on the global stage respectively.

Anyway, looks like the good Rev. Wright just spiced it up again, calling Italians ‘garlic noses’ and Jesus’ crucifixion ‘a public lynching Italian Style.’
in addition to saying yet again that White Supremacists and the KKK run America. And all this in a tribute of remembrance! Is ther ANY part of world history Wright doesn’t see through the prism of his own narrow racism?

I think you can scratch Obama’s Italian support now, along woth the rest of the white community’s. Even the most gracious of us will tolerate a crazy uncle acting out for so long. Obama’s Titanic of a campaign will not survive the Wright iceberg. And he just keeps ramming into it.

Could you answer me something: Did Hillary Clinton or did NOT Hillary Clinton go along with this whole “if you move up your primary” crap from the very beginning?

The way I see it, two states—democratically governed states, may I add—through democratic process (and in FL’s case, against the state’s Democrat representatives’ votes) moved up the date they hold their IN-STATE primary.

The DNC had warned the states ahead of time not to do this. Howard Dean even went so far as to get both Hillary and Obama to sign into their infamous “pledge” as a threat. I did not hear Ms. Clinton nor Mr. Obama railing against such a heavy-handed and potentially disenfranchising move AT THAT TIME.

The only reason Clinton ended up on the Michigan ballot AT ALL and Obama did not comes down to a linguistic dispute about what constitutes a pledge “not to campaign”. (Hrm. What the definition of “is” is?) [Personally, I find it abysmal that Ms. Clinton vowed not to "campaign" but then, contrary to the spirit of the pledge, saw fit to allow her name on the ballot…why didn't the Clinton campaign decline inclusion on the ballot?]

To me, this isn’t all so hard to understand. Howard Dean is a horrible leader, for a leader doesn’t resort to threats–childish or otherwise. The DNC should have done “the Right Thing”: offer monetary support to oppose the legislation in the states if needed, offer amicus guidance as to why moving the primaries was bad, pledge to help the states (Florida, here’s looking at you) get over the electoral problems that had plagued them in prior elections, but finally to submit to the outcome of the process regardless and deal as best as possible which ever way it goes. That could have meant less coordination resources, smaller financial injections, and fewer campaign stops; so be it! After all, that’s the way DEMOCRACY works!

However, in all of this, a lack leadership has been the most tragic missing element. How neither Obama nor Clinton could have seen this situation coming when Dean started throwing his 800lbs around is beyond me. How neither could see how such ridiculously heavy-handed tactics such as ‘pledges’ and not seating delegates for ENTIRE states for disobeying the party leader was simply wrong. (Fascist?) How neither of the now-remaining candidates stood up, at any time BEFORE something really could NOT be done about this WITHOUT COSTING MORE TAX MONEY, and said “Hey, this just isn’t right, just isn’t fair, and just isn’t reflective of the Democratic party’s ideology.”

All of that would have taken a LEADER, someone who could see the farce for what it was, for what it has become. Someone who had guts, temerity, and principle.

Unfortunately, this whole affair seems, to me, to be an indicator of what I can expect from the current crop of Democratic “front-runners”, “power-brokers”, and “hopefuls”. Act like jackasses, create more problems than the country already has, make (more) promises, connive to use problem to a selfish gain, smear each other after the fact about subtle differences in said false promises, offer to throw some (more) cash at newly created problem, piss (more) people off, act innocent of the whole process, promote gloom and doom and with end-of-everything tantrums, and make the whole bunch of us look like fools for paying to watch from the cheap seats.

All of these folks should be ashamed. They’re not. They’re each on a mission that really doesn’t involve the rest of us.

It saddens me deeply. I feel disappointed, and ultimately betrayed. I don’t think this has to go to August to destroy the party…it is already gone.