Hillary to IA, NV, WA, ME: Drop dead

My earlier question about whether Hillary Clinton would proclaim her fraudulent popular vote "lead" today -- a "lead" which, for the first time, unequivocally depends upon completely ignoring the will of the voters of Iowa, Nevada, Washington and Maine -- is, alas, answered in the affirmative:

Clinton's high command is hosting a conference call right now. Terry McAullife, the chairman of the campaign, has a new talking point. It's "Hillary Clinton has now moved ahead in the popular vote." (He requires Florida and Michigan to make this claim)

Yes, he does -- but Florida and Michigan aren't the half of it, as I've pointed out repeatedly.

Including the vote tallies from two meaningless beauty-contest primaries that didn't count -- including a Saddam Hussein-style 328,309 to zero "victory" in a state where Obama wasn't on the ballot -- is bad enough. But largely escaping the media's notice, still, is Hillary's reliance on the disenfranchisement of four whole states that held indisputably valid, binding contests!!

I know I'm a broken record on this point, but I find it absolutely infuriating, and it seems like nobody is paying attention.

It bears repeating that two of the excluded states, Iowa and Nevada, were included among the four "early states" that Clinton herself pledged to honor -- by not campaigning in Florida and Michigan!! I quote from the September 2, 2007 New York Times article about hat pledge:

“We believe Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina play a unique and special role in the nominating process,” Patti Solis Doyle, the Clinton campaign manager, said in a statement.

"Unique and special," indeed! Their votes are uniquely irrelevant, according to Hillary's current argument for being awarded the nomination!

People, this math isn't just fuzzy, it's is completely indefensible, and it's an absolute joke that nobody is calling her on it. Everyone talks about Florida and Michigan, but nobody talks about Iowa, Nevada, Washington and Maine. Yet their exclusion from the popular-vote tally isn't even arguably plausible, and it goes completely against everything Clinton is pretending to stand for in the Michigan and Florida debate. "Count every vote!" Honor the "will of the people!" Unless those people happen to live in Iowa, Nevada, Washington or Maine!

Enough! This is ridiculous. I'll be writing letters to some Clinton superdelegates from those states. I'll post 'em when I'm done.

Comments

[Alasdair]

Brendan - she is just following in the footsteps of St Al (Gore) ... he, too, wanted to "Count every Vote ! (except in this district and this district, and from these military voters, and ...)" ...

A lot of us aren't even slightly surprised by her doing it - just that it took her *this* long to do it ...

[Sandy Underpants]

The other frustrating (and despicable) thing is her campaign workers and mouth-pieces saying that she isn't saying or doing this, and will continue to not do this. It's like the 2nd coming of the freakin Bush Administration. And we don't need seconds of that.

[William J. Clinton]

If this doesn't confirm Hillary's "win at all costs and screw you I'm Hillary Clinton and therefore more important than you" mentality, I don't know what does.

[David K.]

Alasdair, shut up. The two situations are significantly different and you are just being a partisan hack. Even IF they were similar the excuse of "someone else did it so its ok now" is a Republican one, and not a very good excuse at that. This is wrong period.

[David K.]

Brendan, thanks for the idea. I just fired of letters to Sens. Cantwell and Murray regarding this issue.

[MumZ]

A bumper sticker on a truck in AZ: No Toto, the wicked witch of the west is not dead- she is alive and running for President!

[Andrew]

Brendan, I'm absolutely agree with your point about counting Michigan, but I frankly don't see the problem discarding caucus results and counting Florida. I believe that is a justifiable way to count the popular vote (I personally don't find it the most legitimate or compelling method racking and stacking the vote counts, but it's at least arguable). I also think that, if she's going to ignore the caucuses, she should at least count the Washington primary.

[B. Minich]

So, how is the DNC like the BCS?

http://www.smokingtreesinbelize.com/2008/05/hello-dnc-meet-bcs.html

[Alec]

I think I agree with Andrew with respect to the four states. In attempting to calculate national popular vote totals, it is not obviously absurd to only count the votes that we know for sure were cast for each candidate.

Now, I'm not quite naive enough to believe for one moment that this is anything other than a blatantly political ploy on the part of Team Clinton. But their way of crunching the numbers has a certain logic to it and, although it's not an especially revealing method, I don't find it "completely indefensible" as Brendan does.

However, I do part company with Andrew in relation to Florida. The circumstances of that particular contest render the results meaningless, particularly for the purposes of calculating national popular vote aggregates. (It's one of those cases in which the asterisk is so big you can't even see the number!). Any attempt to weigh votes for Clinton in Florida equally with, say, Obama votes in Georgia, is highly misleading to say the least.

And I think we're all in agreement about Michigan.

[Joe Loy]

And if the foregoing Post & Commentaries don't conclusively demonstrate the utter Folly of any alchemical attempt to transubstantiate the present Presidential nomination Processes into a Cumulative Popular Vote model, I cannot Imagine what would.

Well. Unless of course it might be This :} ~~

Eye-o-WUH! Neh-vaah-DUH!! Warsh-ing-TUN!!! and-Remember-duh-MAINE!!!! :>

Pursuant to which principles: Brendan, as my only known fellow-O'balmy who loves Barack greatly & consistent Procedure just-Slightly more ;>, will you Join me in proposing that since Puerto Rico's upcoming Primary PV is not to be Counted because it Elects no Electors for to vote in the December presidential Election, so the PVs of Guam, Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and Democrats Abroad (aggregate Obama margin 9,301) must Posthaste be Subtracted from the operative Cumulation, since said Entities Also wield no EVs in the Wintertime? (And if So, will you kindly communicate our joint Finding to Chris Matthews before his Head essplodes? :)

"A bumper sticker on a truck in AZ: No Toto, the wicked witch of the west is not dead- she is alive and running for President!"

MumZ, I didn't know you guys had bought a Truck. Good for you. :}

[David K.]

Joe, I appreciate the support, but if you ever pronounce Washington with an R again I may have to shun you ;-)

[Becky]

I think you need to change dictators. Why Saddam Hussein? He's dead. How about Mugabe-like victory? Isn't he f-cking up Zimbabwe's election as we speak?

[Alasdair]

David - the only one mentioning "the excuse of "someone else did it so its ok now"" is *you*, dear ... perhaps you might gain some clarity if you allowed a little oxygen to get to your brain cell ?

With that said, having replied both In Kind and Unkind, I happen to agree with you that her approach is just flat out wrong, just as St Al Gore's was just flat-out wrong ...

(For future reference, if I am going to be a hack, I am more likely to be a longbow hack ... I believe way too much in distance/ranged weapons ever to be a partisan ... you, with your ummm interesting version of logic, are much more suited to such a polish weapon ...)

[Alasdair]

Your comments about Florida 2000, entertaining though they are, do rather gloss over the fact that it was Governor Bush who appealed to the United States Supreme Court to halt the manual recounts.

I promise you that I'm not a Gore bore, but in the interests of balance.....

[Alec]

Alasdair

...sorry, I'm an idiot. That last comment was by me, attempting to address it to you.

Drat.

Alec.

[Joe Loy]

"Joe, I appreciate the support, but if you ever pronounce Washington with an R again I may have to shun you ;-)"

LOL! :) David K, my apologies but I can scarcely Help myself.

New Englanders, as everyone knows, have No regional Accent whatsoever :}. But I grew up with a Dad who hailed from westr'nn Murr'l'nd and I've been married for 31 happy years :> to a Wife raised in downstate Ellanoy. ;> So I can't claim the "R" is in my Genes but it's a strongly-Acquired trait. :}

Granted, my relatives who speak the Potomac dialect were always referring to Our Nation's Capital when they uttered the dreaded "R" sound, as were the Heartlandophone in-laws more than Half the time I'm sure; but anyway There it Is ;}. I'll try to do better. / But you'll excuse me now, I have to go Warsh my hair & then drink some nice warm Melk before bedtime. :)

[Alasdair]

To "Alasdair" @ May 15, 2008 6:32:26 PM ... see what happens when we try to be a Smart Alec ! (grin)

As I understand it, Gov Bush appealed to the SCOTUS to stop the selective manual recount authorised by the SCOF-lawyers ... absent the SCOF intervention giving SCOTUS their opening to intervene, SCOTUS would not have been able to do anything ...

[Alasdair]

Elder Loy - when someone over here says that I have an accent, my standard response is "Actually, no, I don't have an accent. *You* do ..." ... it's amazing how many don't pick up on the irony involved ... (grin) ...

Actually, the longer version goes roughly like this ...

Someone: "Where are you from ?"

Alasdair: "Glendale."

Someone: "No. Before that ?"

Alasdair: "Before that ? North Hollywood."

Someone (with increasingly puzzled look): "But you have an accent ?"

Alasdair (smiling innocently): "Actually, no. I don't have an accent. *You* do."

Alasdair's Wife (rolling eyes): "Ask him where he's from originally!"

Someone (with lightbulb going on above his/her head): "Where are you from, originally ?"

Alasdair: "Scotland."

Someone: "{mutter, grumble}"