Clinton Says She's Willing To Take Fight To Convention

The AP reports on Clinton's latest proclamations about how long she plans to contest the Democratic nomination:

In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Clinton said she is willing to take her fight to seat Florida's and Michigan's delegates to the convention if the two states want to go that far.

Asked whether she would support the states if they appeal an unfavorable rules committee decision to the convention floor, the former first lady replied:

"Yes I will. I will, because I feel very strongly about this."

"I will consult with Floridians and the voters in Michigan because it's really their voices that are being ignored and their votes that are being discounted, and I'll support whatever the elected officials and the voters in those two states want to do."

Taking her battle to the convention would fly in the face of an increasing number of party leaders who say the contest needs to be wrapped up shortly after the last primary on June 3 to prepare adequately for the fall election.

Asked if she now envisioned the race extending beyond June 3, Clinton replied: "It could, I hope it doesn't. I hope it's resolved to everyone's satisfaction by that date, because that's what people are expecting, but we'll have to see what happens."

In other remarks made Wednesday Clinton continued to press her case for the nomination, intensifying her language by comparing the Florida and Michigan recount to the Civil Rights movement. As the Politico first reported:

Hillary Clinton compared her effort to seat Florida and Michigan delegates to epic American struggles, including those to free the slaves and win the right to vote for blacks and women.[...]

"This work to extend the franchise to all of our citizens is a core mission of the modern Democratic party," she said. "From signing the Voting Rights Act and fighting racial discrimination at the ballot box to lowering the voting age so those old enough to fight and die in war would have the right to choose their commander in chief, to fighting for multi-lingual ballots so you can make your voice heard no matter what language you speak."

Comments

[hopeless277]

And even if they rule against her, she'll STILL take it to the convention. Then when she finally loses, she'll declare Obama the Illegitimate candidate because he did not win MI and FL. Eventually, she will run 3rd party and hand the election to McCain. She's just an uglier version of Joe Lieberman.

[carlgt1]

Hillary -- all ego, all the time!

[dortmunder]

Will someone please do something to shut her up? I can't take it anymore.

[lisakaz2]

Makes me sympathize a bit with King Henry II -- of the "will no one remove from me this meddlesome priest?" fame (the line goes something like that).

[AustinCynic]

Yeah, but I don't want someone to "solve" that problem like they did with Thomas a Beckett.

[Liam]

She feels very strongly about this because it benefits her. She didn't feel very strongly about this before they voted. She didn't feel very strongly about it when she agreed to remove her name from the MI ballot. She started to feel a twinge of feeling about it when she reneged on that agreement, and that grew into positive life-long principle when she won an overwhelming majority of both states.

While she makes the argument that strikes the most sympathy chords (who doesn't agree that it's bad for voters to be disenfranchised?), the fact is that she completely ignores the innate unfairness of those two contests. The number of voters who didn't vote because they believed their vote would not count. The extreme unfairness of her win in MI when every other Democrat with any real chance of winning not even appearing on the ballot (and she herself only appearing through duplicitous double dealing). The fact that the voters in neither state had any chance to actually meet any of the candidates because they all agreed not to campaign there.

This isn't principle on the part of Hillary Clinton. It's self serving BS wrapped in a pretty package.

Liam.

[BWonka]

The package isn't pretty any more - in fact it is looking uglier by the day.

[kallopolis]

If the Dems don't take FL and MI in the general, BLAME HRC.

[BWonka]

Go away, old woman. YOU blew your campaign. All you have left is your Republicans friends like LIEberman.

[AtlantaBill]

BWonka -- you must be a McBush3 troll camping out here to stir up discord. No Obama supporter would stoop to using such derogatory name calling.

[bmora]

Really? No, are you sure?