As the Obama wave rises, Hillary Clinton is busy rearranging the deck, changing campaign chairs, throwing NBC cable overboard and lending herself millions to keep the victory party going.
Yesterday's loss in Maine with a massive turnout, added to Saturday's setbacks, makes the tip of the iceberg more visible. The Potomac primaries tomorrow won't bail out her campaign, leaving Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania as the last lifeboats.
But, to run the maritime metaphor into the ground, will the Democratic Party be able to weather the coming storms over seating Florida's and Michigan's illegal aliens and the role of Super Delegates at their convention?
It all recalls what Will Rogers, the cowboy philosopher of the FDR era, said: "I don't belong to any organized party. I'm a Democrat."
Showing posts with label super delegates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label super delegates. Show all posts
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Clinton-Obama: Loser Takes All?
With Barack Obama's Saturday sweep, are the Democrats headed for their own version of Bush-Gore 2000 in which the candidate with the most popular votes ends up losing?
Using the latest available tallies from CNN and Time, my calculator shows Obama ahead of Clinton by 168,721 votes of 15,854,593 cast on Super Tuesday and in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nebraska, Louisiana, Kansas, Washington, Nevada and the Virgin Islands. (He won in Iowa, too, but the popular vote there is a mystery.)
If this trend continues, as it may very well do, Hillary Clinton could lose in the popular voting but win the Democratic nomination as a result of what 796 Super Delegates decide, just as George W. Bush moved into the White House in 2001 based on what nine members of the Supreme Court ruled.
In a year of strong feelings, would such a situation lead to a contentious convention like the one in 1968 that tore the Democratic Party apart and led to the election of Richard Nixon by less than one percent of the vote in November?
I was there as an alternate delegate in Chicago to be tear-gassed by the police of Democratic Mayor Richard Daley, which, to my lasting shame, led to the decision to vote for Hubert Humphrey but not campaign for him, as did others I knew.
Over the years, Democrats have found many ways to lose elections they might have won. Will we find a new one this year?
Using the latest available tallies from CNN and Time, my calculator shows Obama ahead of Clinton by 168,721 votes of 15,854,593 cast on Super Tuesday and in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nebraska, Louisiana, Kansas, Washington, Nevada and the Virgin Islands. (He won in Iowa, too, but the popular vote there is a mystery.)
If this trend continues, as it may very well do, Hillary Clinton could lose in the popular voting but win the Democratic nomination as a result of what 796 Super Delegates decide, just as George W. Bush moved into the White House in 2001 based on what nine members of the Supreme Court ruled.
In a year of strong feelings, would such a situation lead to a contentious convention like the one in 1968 that tore the Democratic Party apart and led to the election of Richard Nixon by less than one percent of the vote in November?
I was there as an alternate delegate in Chicago to be tear-gassed by the police of Democratic Mayor Richard Daley, which, to my lasting shame, led to the decision to vote for Hubert Humphrey but not campaign for him, as did others I knew.
Over the years, Democrats have found many ways to lose elections they might have won. Will we find a new one this year?
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Stupor Tuesday
If you haven't started the day with a headache, chances are you'll end with one. The mathematics of today's primaries would stupefy Einstein--super delegates, bonus delegates, caucuses, district splits, threshold percentages...
Last night Keith Olbermann and reporter David Shuster started out to explain it all and ended up in Abbott and Costello's Who's-on-First routine. Click on "Deconstructing delegates" and watch.
What ever happened to people going into a booth, pulling a lever and counting up the votes to see who wins?
Last night Keith Olbermann and reporter David Shuster started out to explain it all and ended up in Abbott and Costello's Who's-on-First routine. Click on "Deconstructing delegates" and watch.
What ever happened to people going into a booth, pulling a lever and counting up the votes to see who wins?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)