Post-Rules Committee, Clinton Camp Argues the Popular Vote

Fox News ^ | 6/1/08 | Aaron Bruns

[Dawnsblood]

Read the full list of talking points below.

THE RULES AND BYLAWS COMMITTEE DECISION

* Yesterday’s results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party’s nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party’s convention. The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly.

* We strongly object to the Committee’s decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan’s delegates-the decision does not reflect the votes of the people of Michigan.

* The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party.

* We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan’s delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.

* Today’s decision also reaffirms Hillary’s lead in the popular vote. She has earned more votes than anyone in the history of the Democratic primaries-more than 17 million. And when the primaries conclude on Tuesday, Hillary will maintain her popular vote advantage.

* In the coming days, superdelegates will have a clear choice: who is ready to serve as President on day one and who is best able to beat John McCain in November? When you look at her wins in the important swing states and her strength against Sen. McCain in head-to-head matchups, there’s no question that Hillary is the strongest candidate.

* Regardless of the outcome, our Party will unify behind the nominee and do everything in our power to elect them the next President of the United States.

[Dawnsblood]

The official Clinton Talking Points are out.

[johniegrad]

They are persuasive talking points but they may not matter. The fix is in for Osama and they are willing to forego the presidency to not fracture the party by alienating the black vote.

[pnh102]

There has to be more to this. Did anyone else notice that the magic number needed to win the Democrat party nomination increased from 2025 to 2118? Obama currently has 2070 delegates, which would have been enough to secure the nomination under the old "rules." Why aren't his supporters protesting this?

[Drango]

This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party.

Chant it loud, chant it proud....

SELECTED NOT ELECTED

SELECTED NOT ELECTED

[Graybeard58]

Regardless of the outcome, our Party will unify behind the nominee and do everything in our power to elect them the next President of the United States.

Them?

Less awkward than "him/her" or a reference to Billary?

[billclintonwillrotinhell]

Forget Operation Chaos. It’s now becoming Operation Entertainment Value. This is like a baseball team losing a game 4-2, but protesting to the league office that they should be declared the winner because they had more hits, more home runs and fewer errors than the other team.

If only Hillary had as much patriotism as she has personal ambition, she might be a decent person.

[Drango]

...like a baseball team...

Yeah! And they serve popcorn at baseball games!

[redreno]

[Mark]

The official Clinton Talking Points are out.

So are the MSM

[WorkingClassFilth]

Many in the RAT Party will throw the black voter under the wheels in the same way the krintons did to the gay vote on the issue of 'Don't ask, don't tell' in the military. If I recall, X42's comments were something like: 'Let them complain, but they don't have anywhere else to go.' Quoting J.C. Watts' father: "A black man voting for a Republican is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.' The slaves will stay on the plantation. Freedom might be a nice yarn around the evening campfire, but the RAT masters are counting on the dependency they've carefully fostered over the last 50 years.

[Dilbert San Diego]

The Clintons spin and spread lies, half-truths, and innuendo too much. If they had put half as much energy into explaining and promoting what they think of as their agenda for the middle class, things may have turned out differently in this campaign for them. Average voters tend to tune out all these process arguments (i.e. if you take the delegates won in primaries vs. caucuses, elected delegates vs. super delegates). Average voters care about issues and candidates and personalities, but do not really care about the processes of the Democratic party. Yet so much of the Clintons complaining has been about how all these rules have been unfair to her.

And this is the same Hillary who said that if you can’t stand the heat stay out of the kitchen. And she said she’s very comfortable in the kitchen. How does that reconcile with her team constantly complaining that this aspect or that aspect of the process isn’t fair????

[chardonnay]

instead of admitting that THEY are the buffoons, the committee took the chicken-s___ way out by splitting the delegates evenly. So typical of democrats to avoid having to make a tough decision. This is just more of the same old, can't we all just get along, nonsense. If Hillary won FL, give her FL. If Obamma won MI, give him MI. It's the only way to restore confidence in the VOTERS, and it's the right thing to do. ya hear that DNC? VOTERS. We the people? the DNC made the choice to punish FL, and MI, not the voters.

[WorkingClassFilth]

You’re looking for consistency or principle in krinton dealings?

If killing were part of the recipe for power, she’d do it with her bare hands - that’s all one needs to know.

[cubreporter]

I saw Rachel Maddow on a talk show and she said hilllleree does NOT have the pop vote because they haven’t even counted the states where Obama won the pop vote. Did anyone else see or hear this today? I THINK it was on Chris Matthews this morning...the one with Pat Buchanan and Nora O’Donnell.

[Dawnsblood]

It is mostly a dispute over the caucus States. Only a 10-20 thousand show up there and no one knows how to count them. Do they split according to their actual numbers or try to weight them according to population?

[MaryFromMichigan]

Hillary only wins the popular vote when she excludes the caucus states of Iowa, Nevada, Maine, Texas, and Washington state.

More info here.
It's quite convoluted, but here is the gist:

And that conclusion? Using these estimates of actual voters in the Iowa, Nevada, Maine, Washington and Texas caucuses, rather than the initial delegate counts, we get a net total Democratic vote to date of 17,607,152 for Obama and 17,504,742 for Clinton, an Obama lead of 102,410 votes – even with Michigan and Florida included.

[cubreporter]

What in the world is her rationale then for going around saying she has the most votes? I think at this point she is quite dillusional and is grasping at straws that are just not there. Pitiful in a way. Not that I care because she is not, never has been and never will be the kind of President who deserves to represent our great country but...it’s almost like an “I’m ready for my close up Mr.DeMille” moment. Tragic but...reality. Thanks for that info. I think that is exactly what Rachele was talking about. I think her campaign staff or those who have the biggest clout are enabling her into something that will never be.

[cubreporter]

Ya got me. :) Like I said she is grasping for straws and gasping for air.