Clinton Would Break the Party to Save It
The Clinton campaign has confirmed that it plans to use a May 31st meeting of the Democratic Party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee to try and seat the entire Michigan and Florida delegations at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August. The campaign estimates that seating of the entire delegations from the two disputed states would give Clinton a pledged delegate lead of around 55 delegates over her rival Sen. Barack Obama. In a statement released in response to a story reported by the Huffington Post web site, the campaign did not deny that it intended to exercise what the Huffington Post characterized as the “nuclear option.” It only objected to the notion that the plan was a secret one.
“There is no secret plan,” the campaign said, “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 the campaign follows through on this, it may be left to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean to decide the Democratic nomination.
Sen. Clinton controls the Rules and Bylaws Committee with at least 50% of its members supporting her. So it seems that she would have the inside track to getting the ruling she desires. But her performance in yesterday’s Indiana and North Carolina primaries, as well as some upcoming contests, could derail the plan. Clinton needed to win big in Indiana and lose close or upset Obama in North Carolina. She did not. Less heralded but no less important to her strategy are contests in West Virginia next week and Kentucky in two weeks. Clinton stands to win lopsided victories in both of those states, perhaps by as much as 30 points in each.
Clinton supporters would then have plenty of evidence that the controversies surrounding Obama’s relationship with his church’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and comments he made about “bitter” small town voters have damaged his appeal with a key Democratic voting bloc: rural, working-class whites. She will have won Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky, rust-belt states with similar demographics, all after the revelation of Wright’s anti-American and racially charged sermons. Clinton’s victory in the general election bellwether state of Ohio, would cap off a fairly convincing argument that Clinton stands a better chance in November than Obama against Republican Sen. John McCain.
Obama supporters will protest loudly any decision to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations to the Credentials Committee of the Democratic National Convention, which will meet after the primaries and before the convention opens in late August and which has the final say on who may participate in the nominating process from the convention floor. The full make up of the committee is dependent on the outcome of the primaries. And true to everything about the Democratic primary to date, it is complicated.
One hundred sixty-one of the committee’s 186 members are allotted to each campaign in a ratio equal to the results in each state contest. Those results would necessarily mirror pledged delegate counts. Under the current scenario, Obama would have a majority of the 161 seats on the committee. But the process also means that the final makeup of the committee cannot be determined until the primaries are over. In any case the split between Obama and Clinton supporting members will be razor thin. Moreover, should the Rules and Bylaws Committee vote to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations, there could be a battle over the make up of the Credentials Committee itself. Michigan and Florida would in theory be entitled to seats on the committee, boosting Sen. Clinton’s representation and enhancing the chance that the disputed delegation would win final approval.
The remaining 25 members of the Credentials Committee are appointed directly by DNC Chairman Howard Dean. He should be able to swing his bloc of votes on the committee to whichever candidate he believes would make the better general election opponent for McCain. In his time as DNC Chair, Dean has espoused the philosophy that the Democratic Party should be a 50-state party and compete across all demographics. But if the question of seating the Michigan and Florida delegations comes down to his committee members, he will have to choose which traditionally Democratic demographic is most important to the future of the party: working-class whites who are increasingly siding with Clinton and vulnerable to being picked off by McCain; or African-Americans who side with Obama in overwhelming numbers and have voted for the Democratic presidential nominee nearly 9-1 in recent elections.
All efforts to resolve the dispute over Michigan and Florida before the convention have not been fruitful. Sen. Clinton has not made life any easier for Chairman Dean by reneging on her pledges not to appear on Michigan’s ballot and not to campaign in Florida. Yet, her insistence on seating the two delegations in their entirety is the better principle for the Democratic Party to follow since it avoids alienating voters in two critical states for the general election. In the end, Dean may have to decide if the Democratic Party is a party built to win now or to carry a governing coalition into the future. By the end of this month, it may become known whether the Democratic Party’s presidential nominating process has left it hopelessly broken, or just greatly weakened.
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[…] Clinton Would Break the Party to Save It - Mark Impomeni, Political Buzz The Clinton campaign has confirmed that it plans to use a May 31st meeting of the Democratic Party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee to try and seat the entire Michigan and Florida delegations at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August. (tags: hillary_clinton 2008) Posted at 1:35 PM in On My Radar Save to Del.icio.us Share on Facebook […]
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If Hillary wants a hopeful future in the Democratic Party, she will give her concession speech after winning Kentucky (saving face there). Obama will clinch the nomination after winning Oregon and as a part of the deal for Hillary to stop campaigning after June 3rd, Obama’s campaign will pick up a portion of Hillary’s debts (even though the Clintons’ income is in the mutliple millions). The Democratic Party will/have been vetting various V.P. spots; it’s like either a Governor or Jim Webb from Virginia will be selected. Stay tuned for the sequeal, Hillary’s book on her experiences in running for President, a movie deal with Hollywood, and Obama will probably be sitting in the Oval Office, perhaps taking that call at 3 a.m.
I can’t believe most of the crap I’m hearing these days coming from blacks…They are saying oh we will riot in the streets if Obama doesn’t win…OMG, some “change” he is bringing to America! America has had more than it’s share of blacks rioting in the streets years ago. I think thats the blacks answer to everything…”Give us our way or we will cause upheaval in your streets and cause torment and destruction…That is about the last thing Americans need right now!
Hillary is on the campaign trail working her azz off fighting for Americans homes that are in foreclosure,fighting to get gas prices down,fighting for ALL Americans…What do we hear from Obama and his backers? “Change” but obama never tells us what change he plans on bringing and he has yet to give Americans any form of detailed outline of his policies…thats not change.Obama has no experience,no plan to turn our economy around and his supporters are just voicing threats of rioting in the streets…Thats just intemidation! I hope Americans are smart enough not to fall for Obamas supporters threats. I fear the Super Delegates will fall for the threats from them just to avoid confrentation…
Hillary has EXPERIENCE, Obama does not.Everyone should research how Obama managed to get where he is today in the Senate…It is quite the story and very inlightening.
McCain will destroy Obama if he is the Democratic Candidate! God knows he has all the ammunition he needs to do it…
Wright,Rezko,Ayers,Sinclair,Michelles mouth,His own elietest statements about Americans! Good grief,a racist anti-American minister,friend,mentor,father-figure,Illegal dealings with Rezko,ties to Ayers,Ties to known terrorists,and ofcourse my personal favorite which I wish I would see the media take more notice of….Obama/Sinclair gay sex appointments in Chicago where they would meet for gay sex and cocaine use!
Voters really need to look into this crap before voting for Obama!
I have voted Democrat for over 15 yrs. now and if Obama is the nominee I will for the first time be voting republican which I thought I’d never do…I will not vote for someone so unexperienced as Obama is!The ONLY way that Obama would get my vote is if Clinton is on the ticket with him…I think if she was the Vice President she could pick up the pieces when Obama starts making bad decisions because of his lack of experience!
The Presidential race won’t be a cake walk nor a slam dunk for either side. Just a year ago, if not even more recently (just prior to Iowa in January), everyone had Clinton as the inevitable POTUS and McCain was all but “dead” politically last summer. It may depend more so in this election (than in past elections) who will be their respective Vice-Presidential running mates. If Obama puts Hillary on the ticket, say goodbye to the Democratic Party - if you think Obama has baggage, with the two of them on the ticket, it will be a recipe for disaster. I know I would vote McCain if Hillary insists on a joint Democratic ticket. If Obama becomes POTUS, he could better reward Mrs. Clinton for her tiredless efforts with an ambassadorship to Bosnia…
Michelle Obama should be ashamed.
“GLORK” Michelle Obama should be ashamed of her separatist-racist connection to Farrakhan and Chicago’s Trinity United Church trumpeting Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama as the second coming of the messiah. Beneath that Darth-Vader-Mace-Windu-Jedi-Me ssiah Helmet Hairdo of Michelle Obama lurks a Wildabeast. If Michelle Obama new what her husband — the Hope-A-Dope, Fonster Monster — Barack Obama AKA Barack Hussein Obama did in Harlem, she would wash her wide-open, Hus-suey loving MUSILM mouth out, with twenty-four (24) mule-team double-cross X-boX-BorraX. The Lexis-Nexis-Albatross-Abacus-Complex of Barack and Michelle’s relationship with MUSLIM “PATWANG-FWEEE” Rev. Wright, Louis Farrakhan, and black demagoguery of Obama’s Stump Lines Echo Malcolm X; is about as much of a Hoax as Oxfam volunteers believe in HIV– AIDS Witch Doctors in Africa they feed.
“God damn America” - Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama.
“God bless America” - Pope Benedict XVI and Hillary Clinton –
Michelle Obama AKA Wildabeast — failed the Illinois Bar Exam. If Barack Obama had married Shaniqua instead of the leftist-separatist-racist-beast-’ist Michelle, his jackanapes’ excitedly-fixed-elitism, Nemet-Oure-Saxas Our Father Our King — black rage, and “GLORK” black demagoguery of Obama’s Stump Lines Echo Malcolm X; would be taken a lot more expeditiously. Its expected that Obam will manage his explosive MUSLIM JIHADI — FATIMA EXTREMISM obsession bitter. He is a MUSLIM “Glork” It’s time to introduce this false, fake “GLORK” Xerox - X box Obama and invite the self-indicting thief plagiarizing pipsqueke Xerox - X box to meet the Buffalo “GAZOWNT-GAZIKKA” Police Department Buffalo Creek. He’s MAD!!!
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
I certainly DO NOT want any BONEHEADS, DIM BULBS, nor TRASH in the White House - from any parties, race, gender or lifestyle!