Clinton Camp To Step Up Efforts To Count Michigan, Florida

The NY Time's Adam Nagourney writes about Hillary Clinton's dwindling chances and hopes for a final rescue after Tuesday night's vote tallies in North Carolina and Indiana.

Nagourney points out that the Clinton camp will ratchet up it's already aggressive attempts to have the results for Florida and Michigan - states both candidates didn't campaign in, but Clinton "won" - to be counted. HuffPost's Tom Edsall wrote Sunday about how the Clinton camp planned to carry out the "nuclear option" to get the Michigan and Florida votes counted.

With few states left, she and her aides said they would step up their efforts to count the disputed results in Florida and Michigan, where the states held contests in defiance of Democratic Party rules. If Mrs. Clinton can win the battle to have the delegations from those two states seated at the conventions on the basis of the vote there, she could greatly reduce Mr. Obama's lead in pledged delegates.

But neither candidate actively campaigned in Florida or Michigan, and Mr. Obama did not appear on the Michigan ballot.

Still, in a sign of where the Clinton campaign is going, her aides are asserting that the winner will need 2,209 delegates, not 2,025. That higher number reflects the full inclusion of Florida and Michigan, which held their primaries before the date permitted by the Democratic Party.

Comments

[Geauterre]

Once upon a time Hillary Clinton won a beauty contest. She was the only one on-stage. Still, she insists on an award. Is there something wrong with that reasoning?

[messy]

Edwards and Gravel are still technically candidates. Michigan should be apportioned between the candidates who took their names off the Michigan ballot as asked of them by the Democratic National committee. Therefore Michigan should be split three ways between Obama, Edwards and Gravel, and Clinton should be shut out there as punishment for what she did back in January.

As to Florida, the situation is different. All the candidates on the Florida ballot should be given an equal amount of delegates and those who have withdrawn should be reapportioned as per the rules governing withdrawls before the convention.

that would be the only fair way to do it and still respect the rules.

[apduncan1]

Is this a democratic system at work?

[combatveteran]

There is no possible way to count the votes in Michigan as representative of a fair election. For the sake of God that would be percieved as unfair in Myanmar. Stop talking about it. Or if acceptable with the frontrunner, seat them 50/50 or what ever the existing delegate ratio is. If Mrs Clinton is so concerned about democracy and the fairness of seating their delegates, that solution seems fair.
Regarding Florida, once again he did not campaign in Florida. Florida was not to count from a delegate point. But it did count. It counted in public opinion. Everyone knows that she "won" Florida, (who knows who won Missouri/), everyone knows she "is being cheated" by not counting the state.
Once again would the frontrunner agree to a 50/50 split or a existing proportional split?

[blackandintact]

uneducated white blue collars gave us Bush for 8 years. Enough is Enough... the young people, the black people the latte sippers have spoken.. Game Over... Go Home Clinton. (home whereever that is)



Lisa- black, educated, latte sipping Obama supporter.

[DavidK08]

"Lisa- black, educated, latte sipping Obama supporter."

Nice touch

[researcher]

hey I am a 66 year old phd former vietnam war protester and this war is like vietnam all over again. sad to say but older whites like myself put bush jr and these self serving repubs into office and we spent money we did not have.

capitalism is self destructing folks and in spiritual terms it is an interesting thing to watch. karma is not pretty but it is effective. ie the dollar is worth .63 euro.

[Satch]

I am white, 65, high school graduate, retired. coffee drinking Obama supporter.

[miltshook]

I'm sick of this idea that we're somehow "disenfranchising" the people who voted in an election that voters knew wasn't going to count when they cast their votes. To SEAT those delegates would constitute an even greater disenfranchisement than to not seat them. How many people didn't turn out because it wasn't going to count? How many of them voted for Hillary only because she was the only name on the ballot they recognized? And since no one campaigned in either state, what exactly were the voters voting for, other than name recognition?

I can go along with seating superdelegates, and possibly with seating them with a 50-50 split. And if the states want to hold caucuses to choose delegates, that's fine, too. But to use a fake election that everyone knew going in wasn't going to count as a basis for anything simply isn't fair to anyone, meaning the voters.

Milt Shook
http://www.pleasecutthecrap.com

[atila]

the only thing hillary was missing is mitt romney endorsement...now he just said that hillary is better than obama,so you can see how really worry the neocons are with Senator Obama....

[hopelessobama]

neocon? mitt was the moderate governor of massachusetts, not exactly neocon country. don't you every get tired of being a blind lemming?

[buey]

Do you?

[greenbrier]

Didn't you get the memo? Romney didn't turn into a pro-life, gay-phobic neocon until AFTER he was governor of Mass. And he didn't run for governor on his enthusiasm for the Iraq war either.

[tsloan]

oh my.....the Ken barbie doll?

[americanwhocares]

I was wondering the same thing about you hopelessobama. I guess just "sour grapes" your team lost. Get over it and support Obama for PRESIDENT.

[iPolitics]

Florida and Michigan will be seated for Obama's nomination celebration in Denver.

[Satch]

RIGHT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Arbos]

If we crown Obama the nominee now their will be plenty of time for the ADULTS in Florida and Michigan to get over it...after all it's not Obama's fault that the rules are the rules and were set wayyyyyyyy before the Primary's started.

You can't change rules mid game. Rules ARE NOT made to be broken.

End of story.

[ColoradoDan]

Doesn't this country have enough trouble with the last 7-8 years with Bush and Cheney?

Now we've got the Hildabeast to contend with no matter how many times America says NO to her.

Hillary and Bill have long since outlived their stay. She's become a national embarrasment with her ties to the NeoCons. Her main backers now are the followers of Rush Limbaugh and Fox types ... cross overs ... as so many who once liked her have long since left. I knew many of her supporters here 6 months ago ... now, not one person is even pro-Hillary.

Please Bill ... take your accusing finger away along with your wife ... back to New York where she is welcome and loved. Bill can make up the $10,000,000 in slick speaches. Call it a day and leave America alone. Perhaps McCain will consider Hillary as a running mate ... might be a great fit.

The Democrats at the top better get serious and quickly. Hillary's only stake now is to attempt to ruin Obama and the Democrats who've rejected the Clintons. I think we can all admit that we've never before seen such an ego in politics nor perhaps ever will.

[Satch]

The Clintons = ego and power.. That's what they're all about...

[TheCSNews]

What bothers me most about this whole FL/MI debacle is the Clinton campaign wants to award Obama ZERO delegates and ZERO votes from Michigan. A quarter of a million people voted for "Uncommitted" in Michigan and they want to just toss those out. I understand the importance of counting the two states but let's not be ridiculous about it. At least give him those 250,000. Be fair.

[SonofLiberty1]

And I might add...

Young dems probably are still in college and don't know what they are doing!
And progressives have jobs so their view is skewed too!

[Arbos]

Nobody counts but the blue collar...is that what you're getting at? That is ridiculous.

[theMightyT]

sonofliberty sounds like he's making a last stubborn attempt to keep the blinders on...

Dude, she lost. Get over it. Support the nominee.

If she doesn't make herself completely irrelevant, she can be a force in the new political landscape. She's an excellent politician, and still - maybe - the most powerful woman in American politics. That's not something to throw away.

But continuing to deny reality is only hurting the party.

[k6007]

"young dems probably still in college......

Fear not, they are smart enough to know what happened to 'blue collar jobs', and are voting against the politicians that scrooed you.

[debwarot]

Why is 'Clinton Math' so much different than what we all learned in school?

[SonofLiberty1]

If you are a candidate in any election and you choose NOT to file, that's your problem not the problem of the voters.

Why can't folks here understand that?

Because that's exactly what's working here...

Boo hoo that Obama didn't file in one of the primaries.

No one said he would go to jail for doing it.

Now, the voters who CHOSE to go to the polls have a right to have their votes counted and those
delegates who CHOSE to run have the right to go to the convention.

End of Story.

If that isn't the end of the story, if they are NOT seated, or if they are seated any different.

There will be a price to be paid in November.....

[Grunty1]

The party said it didn't count and it STILL doesn't count, nor should it.

[Independent voter]

Senator Obama removed his name from the ballot as agreed by all of the candidates. The clinton thing said that it forgot to remove it's name.

Facts suck, don't they

[Satch]

Get over it... Obama is going to be the nominee... Billary should abide by the rules like the other candidates did.

[debwarot]

Listen up , now: Obama did file but removed his name after an agreement was reached, and signed, by all candidates (including HRC) that the votes would not count. Hillary at one point admitted that she 'forgot' to remove her name. So........­..........­all this rhetoric over a mistake your candidate made?

Should the votes have been counted? Sure! But use your noggin' and place the blame where it is rightfully due - with the DNC and the state (Florida and Michigan) democratic parties who allowed the votes to continue knowing they were not sanctioned and would not be counted.

And blame Hillary - the one who refused to even consider caucuses as less expensive alternatives to revotes - even though, until just recently, Michigan had a successful rack record with caucuses.

[skeeterbugboy]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, SUPERDELEGATES, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?????????? OBAMA HAS GONE THROUGH HELL AND BACK WITH THE CLINTON MAFIA. LET'S START A NEW
DAY WITH OBAMA NOW!!!!!! DON'T LET HER BULLY YOU TOO!!!!!!!

[TheCSNews]

I think a whole lot of people are feeling the same way today, Skeeter. Enough is enough.

[hppygrl15]

confernece call on live right now on MSNBC....saying she will continue