Clinton: Superdelegates Trump Popular Vote

Boston Globe's Political Intelligence:

Hillary Clinton will take the Democratic nomination even if she does not win the popular vote, but persuades enough superdelegates to vote for her at the convention, her campaign advisers say.

The New York senator, who lost three primaries Tuesday night, now lags slightly behind her rival, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, in the delegate count. She is even further behind in "pledged'' delegates, those assigned by virtue of primaries and caucuses.

But Clinton will not concede the race to Obama if he wins a greater number of pledged delegates by the end of the primary season, and will count on the 796 elected officials and party bigwigs to put her over the top, if necessary, said Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson.

Read the whole story: Boston Globe's Political Intelligence

Comments

[kellygrrrl]

If the Democratic Nominee is chosen and that does NOT coincide with the popular vote, WE the PEOPLE can officially rest assured that we are meaningless drones. As if the last 7 years wasn't convincing enough

[EyeWantOneNation]

A people should not be afraid of their government.....

A government should be afraid of its' people !!!!




V

[Doofus]

Send Demo chairman Howard Dean an e-mail at

http://www.democrats.org/page/pt/chairman/40ubgk7464cu

Might as well let him know how your REALLY feel.

[thinkbig]

In that event, hopefully Gore will come out and ask her not to steal the election like Bush did.

[EyeWantOneNation]

Yep...there's already talk that the reason Gore is not endorsing, is he may be needed to negotiate between these two so the Convention isn't a total wreck !!!!

I personally cannot see either one backing down...

Obama believes so strongly.

Hillary believes she can steal it.

[BardEric]

I would sure as HELL not want to be Al Gore if he is put in the position of negotiating THAT deal..His detractors will have a field day no matter what the agreement.. They will call him disloyal to the Clintons if Barack gets the nomination, and accuse him of playing favorites if she does. Talk about no-win.

[CalliDem]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[casey123]

OK - so where -does- the popular vote of Democrats stand at the moment? I know the delegate count and all that, but that's not the popular vote of party members.

As long as there is this 'delegate' game to choose the nominee, the process by definition will not be democratic. Same way the general election is not democratic.

So get over it - nomination process is not, and never has been, democratic.

[indie17]

Obama is winning the popular vote. See
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_vote_count.html

[rollingdivision]

There is nothing wrong with Senator Clinton playing by the rules as the were written for this primary. Has Obama made a pledge that he will concede the race to Clinton if she wins a greater number of pledged delegates or the popular vote by the end of the primary season? And Obama will not count on the 796 elected officials and party bigwigs to put him over the top? And if the super delegates were to put him over the top he will not accept the nomination?

[ddlrid]

yes to all of your questions, rollingdivision...do your homework. he has said over the last week that whomever has the delegate count and popular vote should be the nominee and that the 'supers' should not vote contrary to the will of the electorate. he is honorable and a believer in democracy. i wish i could say the same about clinton.

[RusStyles]

Does this come as a surprise to anyone not comatose? There's nothing, I mean NOTHING the Clintons will not do to reoccupy the WH. This has become a sick obsession. This woman and her husband must be stopped.

For Obama supporters: go to his site and get involved on some level. There are multiple group events every week. It's easy to organize your own function. And the diverse people you meet are all positive and equally hungry for change, self-empowerment, a better America.

[starboymikey]

This is what you "obamaLovers" always said "I won't vote for Hillary no matter what."
_________________________________________

Maybe you're projecting what *you* would do if Obama wins the nomination. So speak for yourself instead of for all of us.

[Thatcher]

Obama is in the lead (including counting FL and MI) in the popular vote (for those of you asking). The totals below do NOT include Iowa, Nevada, Washington & Maine - which haven't released their totals yet (3 of the 4 were Obama wins and Nevada was Clinton's by a sliver). This DOES include the NM numbers from this afternoon:

Popular Vote (w/FL & MI) Obama 9,923,251
Clinton 9,856,657

[loisteagulp]

Still lots of voters left to weigh in.

[Lalo]

That's a spin. She said "total delegates".

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/greasing-the-su.html

[COwoman]

"We don't make distinctions between delegates chosen by million of voters in a primary and those chosen between tens of thousands in caucuses,'' Wolfson said. "And we don't make distinctions when it comes to elected officials'' who vote as superdelegates at the convention.

"We are interested in acquiring delegates, period,'' he added.

[lawyerbyday]

THIS IS INFURIATING! at one point in time, oh, just a few weeks ago, i was blissfully hoping for just any democratic nominee to seal up a nomination and began our strong unified march to a victory in november; but something happened along the way; but before i go into that, i've got to say that my allegiance is not now and never has been to the democratic party; in fact, i've only voted for a democrat in one election!! from the time i was 18 until the time george I said "read my lips, no more taxes" i voted republican -- after that i voted reform, because that's what i want; i want a new, fresh, clean, honest, solutions oriented, bipartisan or nonpartisan, government of the people, by the people and for the people; but after south carolina and bill clinton reminded me of why i couldn't stand to watch the news during his presidency (because of the nonstop daily SPIN!!!!!!!! arrrgggghhhhhh!!), i decided then and there that there was no way i would vote for hillary; barack obama, in this election cycle, represents my values best, elevating the importance of changing fundamentally the way we govern ourselves, and working to eliminate the kind of politics that, well, bill and hillary represent; so if barack obama wins the pledged delegates and hillary hijacks the process and wrestles a nomination out of the democratic party, then I, for one, and i hope everyone else, and i suspect i'm not alone, will literally revolt from the democratic party; hillary clinton's campaign represents literally everything i hate about politics as usual, and the fragile alliance of this one voter will be broken for a long long time; hillary, please, for god's sake, don't do what bush did in 2000

[iPolitics]

Hillary: "If I go down, I'm taking Obama with me." Pathetic loser.

[Thatcher]

Strange - change your view when it suits your purpose, Senator Clinton?

November 11, 2000 NYT article when she talks about the General Election:

"I have thought about this for a long time," Mrs. Clinton said at a rally in an airport hangar in Syracuse. "I've always thought we had outlived the need for an Electoral College, and now that I am going to the Senate, I am going to try to do what I can to make clear that the popular vote, the will of the people, should be followed."

She even pledges to co-sponsor legislation to do so (which she never did).

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E2D81538F932A25752C1A9669C8B63

[Merin]

Wow.

After the hell we raised about Gore "winning the popular vote" and "GWB being appointed by the elite and not elected" in reference to the Supreme Court annointed President Bush back in 2000 . . .

Won't the Republicans have a FIELD DAY with Clinton winning this way.

Many Conservative pundits have said as much already.

Another reason Senator Clinton has such high ratings of being disliked.

[Shocktheworld]

What did everyone expect Hillary to say at this point? She has to give donors hope, and reason to still contribute to the campaign. I think that if she starts to lose enough states (Texas/Ohio) she will do the right thing and drop out. Trying to win the nomination in spite of the elected delegates is a pretty ignorant thing to do.

[XYZ]

Yeah and if she doesn't have the money, which appears she doesn't.

How will she win the GE, I think really that is what the supers are really looking at. Who can pull in the most Money*Votes. Obama has her handily beat, in this regards.