Sullivan sums it up…
May 21st, 2008Andrew Sullivan responding to Clinton’s last gambit to wrest the nomination away from Obama by making her theft a civil rights issue for the people of Michigan and Florida…
How do you respond to a sociopath like this? She agreed that Michigan and Florida should be punished for moving up their primaries. Obama took his name off the ballot in deference to their agreement and the rules of the party. That he should now be punished for playing by the rules and she should be rewarded for skirting them is unconscionable.
I think she has now made it very important that Obama not ask her to be the veep. The way she is losing is so ugly, so feckless, so riddled with narcissism and pathology that this kind of person should never be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Stumble it!
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:07 am
I’ve replied to a few of these…and since I’m from Michigan, I think I will again.
First off, I agree with the article. I agree that both the national Democratic Party and the Michigan Democratic Party screwed up big time. I believe Obama did the right thing. I believe Hillary did the wrong thing, and did so deliberately on the chance she could steer things her way, and she’s still hoping she can pull her pantsuits out of the fire at the last minute by working every angle she can.
I think the bigger issue at stake is who should be punished and how in the future. Who suffered in this case? The people of Michigan, who had little to no say in what the state Democratic Party decided to do, and yet they are the ones being punished, their votes being made worthless. The State party is the one that should pay this price if it is ever tried again, not the voters. This was further compounded by the national Democratic Party’s way of punishment: unlike the smart move the Republicans made (cutting the delegate slice in half, reducing the state’s power, but not changing the outcome of the primary in the process), the national party pulled a stupid that puts them between a rock and a hard place. Don’t count the delgates = punish the voters and possibly alienate them. Count the delegates = proving that your punishments have no teeth, and the states can try pulling off this garbage again, plus, your primaries are already flawed.
What if I’d have wanted to vote for Obama, or Chris Dodd, or Bill Richardson in Michigan? Oh, that’s right –I couldn’t, because unlike Hillary, they did the right thing and pulled their names from the ballot, leaving me with Clinton, a rambling, doddering former senator (Gravel), or Undecided. We’ll never know what the vote would have truly been, and so we can never discern the true will of the people.
The solution to the current problem is simple: Stick to your guns, Democratic Party, and don’t seat Florida or Michigan. The long-term solution, however, should be more thought out, in case this happens again.
P.S. Off-topic, but I think all primaries should be held nationally on the same day, after several months of campaigning. Then we truly have no influence where the votes of one state influence the votes of another, and the playing field is TRULY level. None of this super-delegate garbage either.