Posted on 02/15/2008 7:40:11 AM PST by jdm
Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton is desperate to turn wins in Florida and Michigan into votes she can use in her close race with Barack Obama.
The former First Lady wants party to overturn a party decision to strip the two states of all their delegates after they held held early primaries.
Together, the states have 303 delegates, which would put Mrs Clinton ahead of the Illinois senator in her bid to be Democrat's presidential canditate.
So far Mr Obama, who hopes to be the first black incumbant of the White House, is ahead with 1,276, while Mrs Clinton has 1,220.
A nominee needs to hit a total of 2025 delegates to become the party's official candidate for November's general election.
One Clinton adviser suggested a compromise where perhaps the Michigan delegates could be split evenly among the two since Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot there.
But the Florida delegates should be bound by the primary results, the adviser argued, because Obama's name was on the ballot in that case.
The Illinois senator didn't have the option of removing it like he did in Michigan.
However, the Democratic National Committee is refusing to back down from the tough sanctions it imposed with Mrs Clinton's support last year.
And Mr Obama's campaign manager today vowed to fight the decision being overturned in the face of the New York senator's change of mind.
David Plouffe said: "Now, when they believe it serves their political interests, they're trying to rewrite the rules."
Mrs Clinton's operatives want DNC chairman Howard Dean to come up with a resolution, but he is staying out of the fight for now.
Although Obama has won more contests so far, Clinton has won most of the larger states - and larger states get more seats.
So if the former first lady continues with her form she could become the front runner if she wins primaries in Texas and Ohio later this month.
Michigan and Florida had moved up their primary dates to get more prominence in the presidential selection process.
Florida's vote was originally scheduled to vote March 4 and Michigan on March 9, and are potentially pivotal due to their relatively large populations.
The villagers are revolting!!
Hillary needs to hit Obama hard . . . not just this procedural manuevering . . . if she can’t deliver a punch she can’t win.
Sure Hill. You get the delegates after we RERUN the primaries there. Or better yet Caucuses. (I’ll get you my pretties...)
It is hard to decide who is the most stupid party here:
Florida ... Michigan ... the Demodog party ... Hitlery ... O’Dumbo
My first vote is for the two states, I think... but this is really a stupid, self-inflicted situation all these parties had a hand in.
“Rules? We don’t need no steenking rules”
And I’d especially like to thank Howard Dean for this fine mess. Pass the popcorn!
Wow...didn’t see this coming at all./s
It’s the best news we’ve had. However, we really can’t expect to get anywhere for long just running against the Hill. We need the ideas that a few years back we accused the dems of not having.
She is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The American populace is so in love with Obama, she can’t say anything bad about him. But if she doesn’t, she loses.
Was there ever any doubt that this would happen?
That goes right into the:
Well, DUH!
file.
Groucho Marx with cigar "They certainly are!"
Well hey - she was for it before she was against it.
They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. The problem of this rule is now apparent. But if they change the rules in the middle of the game, there will be a backlash.
All I can say is “Gee...that’s too bad...”
ROFLOL.
100% of Michigan Democrat votes count for me!
ROTFL!
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