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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Elitist.

Long before what is turning out to be the longest nomination battle in memory, The Democratic National Convention told the Democratic leaders in Florida and Michigan that if they moved up the dates of their primaries, their delegates would not be sat at the convention. In other words, their votes would not be counted in the primary. The states went ahead and moved up their primaries anyway knowing this.
Before any Democratic candidate began the process of securing the parties nomination, all candidates acknowledged and understood that Florida's and Michigan's delegates would not be counted. All candidates agreed to this and as a result, no candidate even campaigned in those states. Voters stayed away from voting in the primaries too. Obamas name did not even appear on the ballots in those states.
Now, with Hilary Clinton falling further and further behind, she wants those delegates counted. She wants votes counted from ballots that don't even have the names of her rivals on them after she agreed along with everyone else that those delegates would not be counted. Even Howard Dean, the leader of the DNC, says it is not fair to change the rules in the middle of the game.
To be honest with you, I am blown away that after all the problems in counting votes in Florida, the Democrats would even allow this situation to happen. But it has and when Hilary was the front runner, she was fine with it.
Here are the mathematical facts as they are today. Obama leads in pledged super delegates and regular delegates. In other words, Obama, by any test you want to give, leads in the popular vote. If the DNC decides to vote Hilary for the Democratic candidate, it will be saying fuck you to the average voter and fuck you to the whole idea of following the rules. Again, each candidate agreed before the process started that those delegates would not be counted.
As usual, the Democrats find away to fuck themselves even in a year when people are closeting their Republican affiliations.
Now we have a mess with powerful peoples ego's getting bruised. Some people who are rich and support Hilary, have offered to pay for a recount of Florida and Michigan. Will there be new ballots or just the counting of ballots that only have Hilary's name on them? Will it make a difference to Hilary's campaign? Should those states have been penalized in this way? What the hell was the DNC even thinking?
At this point, I don't think it would put her ahead in pledged delegates. If the super delegates go against the will of the popular vote, they will look as bad as the Republicans they have been yelling about corruption and back room deals for the last 7 years. Like it or not Clinton's, but Obama is the choice of most Democrats. Maybe not the rich ones who own movie companies, or the Republicans who have donated a lot of money to you in the start, but the choice of Democrats who get up in the morning and wonder how they are going to pay for things.
Hillary loaned her campaign 5 million dollars a few months ago and just announced it is now giving herself another 6 million. Yet, she calls Obama the elitist. I have news for you Hillary, if you can give yourself 9 million dollars of your own money to continue to fight the obvious, you might want to reconsider calling Obama an elitist.
This is why more people continue to go for Obama, he is not calling anyone names or playing the normal game of politics like changing the rules for his benefit.

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