Clinton: Florida, Michigan Primaries Were "Fair" And Should Be "Honored"

Sen. Clinton, speaking today at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, argued today that the delegates from Florida and Michigan should be seated, in some form or another:

"If you are a voter from Florida or Michigan, you know that we should count your vote. The nearly two and a half million Americans in those two states who participated in the primary elections are in danger of being excluded from our democratic process and I think that's wrong. The results of those primaries were fair and they should be honored. Over the last few weeks, there has been a lot of discussion about what we should do to ensure that the voters in Florida and Michigan are counted.

"In my view there are two options: Honor the results or hold new primary elections. I don't see any other solutions that are fair and honor the commitment that two and a half million voters made in the Democratic primaries in those two states. Whether voters are clamoring for solutions to the challenges that we face or not, or whether people are coming out in droves to be heard, we have a basic obligation to make sure that every vote in America counts.

I hope that Senator Obama's campaign will join me in working to make that happen. I think that that is a non-partisan solution to make sure that we do count these votes."

These comments follows a public letter from her campaign manager Maggie Williams sent to Obama's David Plouffe, seeking a resolution of the delegates from both states. Here is the text of the letter:

David Plouffe Obama for America Chicago, Illinois

Dear David:

The 2008 primary campaign has been a spirited contest that has resulted in record voter turnout. Both of our candidates can proudly boast of bringing new people into the process and energizing our Democratic Party.

With the campaign now entering the final phase of the nominating contest, it is vital that both of our campaigns come together to ensure that the delegations from Florida and Michigan be seated to reflect the will of the voters.

In Florida and Michigan, nearly 2.5 million Americans made their voices heard and participated in primary elections. We think the results of those primaries were fair and should be honored.

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Over the last few weeks, there has been much discussion about how to ensure that the Florida and Michigan delegations are seated. We think there are two options: Either honor the results or hold new primary elections.

To that end, we are in active consultation with all of our supporters in Florida, including Members of Congress. In Michigan, we are in active consultation with the committee appointed by Governor Granholm.

We hope that your campaign will join us in our efforts to ensure that these votes are counted.

Sincerely,

Maggie Williams
Campaign Manager

Comments

[DaviddeKanterArndt]

"The results of those primaries were fair and they should be honored."

Obama's name was not even on the ballot in Michigan.

How is that "fair"?

This just boggles my mind.

I have supported and defended Hillary Clinton since 1992, but she has been rapidly exhausting my reserves of good will.

This makes me lose respect for her once and for all.

[shaggles]

You might be able to convince me that FL should count but Obama wasn't even on the ballot inMI. How is that "fair". Keeping things as they are favor Clinton. A revote favors Obama. Leaving things as they are seems the most fair but I wonder if that will piss Democratic voters in those states off so much that they either don't go to the polls in November or vote for McCain instead. It's a mess no matter what they do.

[Thurber]

A revote favors Democracy, not any particular candidate. Leaving things as they are ... particularly in MI is not even remotely fair. The Clintons lie so much, I'm not sure they are even aware of it when they do it.

HILLARY, IF YOUR NAME IS THE ONLY ONE ON THE BALLOT, THE ELECTION IS NOT FAIR.

Understand?

I'm sure you'll find the Obama campaign much more interested in helping democracy. They are not and never will be interested in helping Hillary game the system, cheat, and change the rules mid-stream.

[Manx]

How can the votes in either Florida or Michigan be considered fair when thousands and thousands of Obama supporters didn't show up at the polls because they were told their votes wouldn't count???

[Modamantoo]

If HilLiary wasn't so determined to win at any cost this wouldn't be an issue. The Clinton campaign in Florida/Michigan feels an awful lot like Bush v. Gore 2000.

Bad loser. She knew the rules.

[CTtransplant]

Clinton keeps forgetting that in both of these states, LOTS of people did not bother to vote because they were told their vote would not count. So, then, how can it now be fair to count the vote as it stands - because it is fair to her? The ONLY fair way to handle it IS to do a re-vote!

[CTtransplant]

How is it fair to the voters who stayed home and did not vote because they were told their vote would not count? How would 'keeping things as they are' be fair to them? Clinton, could you explain that to me, pleas?

[fixbone]

sorry, by any intelligent analysis - these elections were NOT valid and should not be counted - It is like asking to replay the 2nd inning when the game is in the 8th inning - the rules were established, the rules were agreed upon, the rules were applied, should be end of story - period. If i am correct, hrc is actively undermining her own national party.

I think the delegates should be seated, they should be allowed to participate in all the votes on platform etc EXCEPT not on the president nomination vote.

[Rianna]

What the heck does Hillary know about being fair?

Was it fair to attack a fellow Democrat?

Was it fair to endorse your opponent over your fellow Democrat?

Was it fair to throw the kitchen sink at your fellow Democrat?

Was it fair to to frighten the nation, to win elections?

After agreeing to not count the Michigan and Florida votes, Hillary is now changing her tune,
just to win the nomination. How pathetic.

[lovethesinner]

"In Florida and Michigan, nearly 2.5 million Americans made their voices heard and participated in primary elections. We think the results of those primaries were fair and should be honored." -Hillary Clinton

Hillary's vision for "post Bush" America: a Soviet state minus reason and accountability.

Hardball: NBC exit polls showed that 24% of Hillary's total vote in Mississippi yesterday was delivered by Republicans urged by Rush Limbaugh to improve the GOP's chances in November.

Hillary's vision for "post Bush" America: Rush Limbaugh.

You can see why the GOP picked McCain. Compared to Hillary, he actually is the CHANGE candidate.

Obama-Webb (McKaskill, Gore, Richardson, Edwards, Nepolitano) in '08

[generaldelivery]

C'mon, you can blow this out of proportion more than that, can't you?

[DoninJoisey]

I agree with you. Now that McCain has the nomination, republicans want to see Hilly get the nod because they can whup her. Think about it - Clinton claims experience and projects toughness. She herself praised McCain. Unlike Hilly's fabricated "35 years of experience" myth as "wife of" - McCain REALLY has experience. You want tough? Yosemite Sam McCain ....

The Hillary campaign is stupid and sleazy - why wouldn't it attract Limbaugh listeners??? ;-)

[Querent]

No Webb. Webb's a conservative. He talks a great fight, but when it comes to action, he's suddenly absent. Webb votes with Bush on foreign policy/national security issues. Plus, he was a Repig only a couple of years ago, and he only changed parties because he couldn't stand the way the Repig party treats veterans. Webb would be a better choice than only a couple of other possibles, like Lieberman and Feinstein. McCaskill is as bad or worse than Webb, although at least she was never a Repig. Look at these people's records, and I'm sure you will agree with me when I say NO WEBB.

[Denni]

GO AWAY you blight on humanity! Who could trust her? EVER!?!??!

[kramskoi]

these people need to put away the hashpipe for good...how exactly is one candidates' name on a ballot a fair election?.­..in what parallel universe, dimension, spirtual plane, and etc. is this even logical?..­.

you see the reality of the math is slowly dawning over the Clinton campaign..­.they will win Pennsylvania but what happens afterward?­...ah!...t­hat's where MI and FL come in...

i'm of the opinion that a do-over is'nt gaining much traction with the Clinton campaign because her 17 point win is unlikely to be repeated given the current political climate...­her claims to the Michigan delegates are hallucinatory at best!...

don't be fooled...t­he Clinton campaign wants those initial contests certified and seated...a­ny other way is a disadvantage to them, given their trifecta of vote deficits..­.and to illustrate, she is hemorraging pledged delegates this week...WY, TX caucus, MS and the 8 delegate swing from CA...every­thing from 3/4 has been wiped away...

Pennsylvania won't determine the nomination no matter how much they spin it...she is behind in all three metrics that "should" determine the nominee and that is FACT, no matter how they choose to rationalize it away...the big state argument is grasping at straws...

this business is going all the way to the convention now...Ohio and Texas was the trapdoor that did'nt open for Obama...no­w they'll have all the mitigation they need to make it to Denver...t­hat is her only way to the nomination­...the superdelegates in a floor fight, just the type of hype the Clintons savor...

[wuddog]

This is a very black and white issue that many people are trying to paint grey. Bottom line:
Florida and Michigan knew the rules and penalties for moving their primaries up on the calendar. Barack and Hilary knew the rules and penalties for Florida and Michigan moving their primaries up on the calendar. One cannot retroactively change the rules after the play has been made. Would Hilary even be discussing this if she were leading the nomination? She is truly displaying the colors that make the Clinton name so difficult to swallow for many Americans.

[JohnFromCensornati]

Okay, now she *is* sounding like a charater from an SNL skit!
Results from a primary where they told people in advance that their votes would not count are fair?
She's on drugs.
Or maybe she needs some.

[DavidK08]

Can you believe the audacity of that petty B? Holy cow batman! She can't even run her own camp. Yet she knows just what the winner needs to do.

Does she mean to say that the American people are too stupid to handle voting on our own, and she needs to lay everything out for us?

To the supporters of HRC: Do you really go along with everything she is doing? If so, I would love to know why. She is, by anyones definition, loosing. No one owes her anything. She is taking advantage of Obama's high road and trying to make it look like his not getting into the gutter with her seem like a weakness.

To Obama: You are on a high road and it shows in the pols. If everyone listened to HRC we would be in a useless war in Iraq loosing 3000 precious lives and countless billions of dollars. Oh! Make that one more point to not listen to her.

She is not a fighter...­.she is a crying baby who is taking her marbles home while she crys in the corner.

The super delegates need to be eliminated for the futre. They are not helping. They could end this now. Yet, they are silent while the best chance to get rid of the war hawks is slipping by. They are stupid to think that after hillary destroys the party in the comming months, that they can put it back to gether around some camp fire singing.

[KaAp]

Ah Senator Clinton wrong and lying from day one ... fair and square as in names not on the ballot in Michigan? She has really lost it completely she is as divorced from reality as George Bush

[JonStewart4President]

First off, those states decided to break the rules. Yes the Republicans in FL were trying to mess with the system, but no Dems came out against it and didn't work with the DNC to come up with alternative. In MI it was just Dem leaders who decided they wanted to screw around with the rules.

But ALL the candidates knew that FL and MI wouldn't count and took a pledge, gave their word, that they wouldn't. So people like Edwards and Obama got their names removed from the ballots in MI and tried to in FL, but couldn't because it's against their state's laws. And Hillary justified her keeping her name on the MI one, in an interview with NPR, saying "it wouldn't count." But now that she needs the votes, NOW they have to count.

And for her to then say that the votes were fair, especially in MI? She's such an opportunistic, well monster is right. Yeah, too bad Obama followed the rules, he should pay for actually keeping his word and that she won ONLY with 55-40 against "uncommitted" really doesn't speak well about her electability, does it?

Hillary daily proves she has ZERO honour and doesn't care about the Democratic party of the people it helps. She only cares about her. What a selfish, horrible person she is showing herself to be. Stuff like this and the Ferraro thing? I just lose more and more respect for her every day.

[JSquercia]

I have to agree that she is doing the PARTY no favors with her tactics and can't wait to hear Olberman go after her tonight . Sadly Originally I was open to her as a canidate and tried to defend her against people who HATED her and yet could rarely articulate the reasons for their hatred other than she will do anything to win and I thoght to myself don't they ALL . Now however i am disgusted by her blatent attempts to rework the rules in HER favor . Her disgusting non reply to the question concerning whether Obama was a Muslim really turned me off . As did her tolerating Ferraro's remark playing the race card . Her camp was so quick to attack the Obama Advisor for remark calling HER a MONSTER .
I would have to hold my nose and vote for her were she to become the Nominee but that is only because McCain has proven to be even LESS principaled and even MORE willing to do whatever it takes to win . His position on the Bush Tax cuts is a particular point wherein he voted against them twice and yet NOW wants to make them permanent . His original votes WERE courageous and his reasoning flawless : he said no tax cuts in a time of WAR .
An earlier poster pointed out that particularly in Michigan it would be so unfair to reward her for staying on the ballot when others removed themselves and even then she hardly won a resounding victory .

[Barbarossa03]

40% uncommitted with just Hilary on the ticket is telling, but even then you don't know if the vast majority of the 55% voted for her because there was no one else on ticket. Since they showed up shouldn't they at least vote for someone?

[DoninJoisey]

Well, in case there was any doubt, it's more evidence of what a Clinton's word is worth....

Fear, smear, race, gender - anything at all - change the rules, show arrogance in dangling the VP slot to the one WHO IS AHEAD - anything to win power. "It's mine, you hear? MINE!"

[anythinggoes]

IF OB PREZ AND HOUSE WIFE HILARY BE VP AFTER 1 YEAR CLINTONS WIL KICK OB AND THIS POWER FREAK TAKE OVER BE PREZ

[Jazz42]

Desprate times call fo desprate measures.
(so pathetic)

[Notapathetic]

We are just coming to the end of a President who is not totally balanced mentally. I'm not saying Bush is out-and-out mentally ill, but I do think he is not fully sane and capable of thinking properly.

I'm afraid we are looking at another similar package in Hillary. She is not as off-base as Bush, but she definitely has big emotional swings and her thinking processes/­conclusion­s are not what one would call completely rational.

We really don't need another President with obvious weaknesses in temperament.

[Independentjunkie]

"Sen. Obama Co-Sponsored Bill Creating Vote By Mail Program" on Hillary's FactHub http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=6493

[JonStewart4President]

And mail in voting works great! where they have time to do things like get signatures, make sure they're sending ballots to the right people. That if it's a closed primary, that people are rightly registered in a Party, etc.

Problem is, is that FL has none of the kinds of things that say Oregon or Washington do, in terms of their mail in voting. This last minute mail election, would have none of the things that prevent voter fraud, set up. And FL certainly doesn't need another case of voter fraud. So yes, unless FL can run a GOOD mail-in campaign, the way states like OR and WA do, they should probably avoid it.

[spiritualized]

it took over five years to implement the vote-by-mail method in oregon.

doing it in a few weeks/months would be a recipe for disaster.

[mesuki]

Yeah, but at the time he had no idea that Hillary would set her people up to try to steal the votes. Florida made their bed,and now they have to sleep in it. If anything ,I think they should hold a real primary this time. But as usual Hillary didn't play by the rules,cause she always thinks that they don't apply to her.

[hank48188]

They had a REAL primary in Florida paid for by the TAXPAYERS of Florida. If the DNC and Howard Dean want to PAY FOR the Primary he can name the time and date, when the State pays they should all all the shots, it is their money and the political parties should be THANKFUL that the states run these elections

[BrooklynLager]

Vote by mail systems make sense, but not under circumstances where they're rushed, no one knows who's going to certify them, printing and mailing out ballots would have to begin immediately (thus running into the "no-campaigning problems again"), and you'd run into a problem just figuring out where to mail the ballots to.

Oregon's vote-by-mail system took them years to iron out the kinks. Trying to set one up within a month isn't going to work.

[DaviddeKanterArndt]

HRC: "The results of those primaries were fair, and they should be honored."

In three words: Un. Be. Lievable.

[BJohnson]

Keep pounding on judgement.

The POTUS nominates Supreme Court justices, and apparently Hillary believes:

* Precedence and the rule of law (Ok, the agreed upon rules of the party) should be ignored, and ruling bodies should invent new rules, for revisionist political purposes.

* The stench of a one-candidate election is an acceptable price to pay for getting access to the levers of power.

She puts these ideas on the table as legitimate. Is she exhibiting the judgement we need in our next President?

[finethnx]

Guess you don't live in Florida or Michigan, huh? Why weren't the other states that moved their primaries up punished in the same way?

[elizab1949]

Great post - exactly as I called it when I heard her statement.

[CTtransplant]

How is it fair to the voters in both FL and MI who stayed home and did not vote because they were told their vote would not count? How would 'keeping things as they are' be fair to them? HRC, could you explain that to me, please? And tell me why everyone conveniently forgets about these other voters, on top of it all!

[pbfishtaco]

Un-be-Lieberman!

[Didi47]

Hey DavidKante­r...:

Lievable is not a word.