Clinton Compares Florida, Michigan Situation To Zimbabwe Elections

Hillary Clinton is pushing harder and harder to convince the DNC to count the votes held in Florida in Michigan. And with reports suggesting that she is just going through the motions of the election, Clinton has apparently decided to ratchet up the rhetoric. During a rally in Florida yesterday, she not only compared the current situation to the 2000 election, she also referenced rigged elections in Zimbabwe:

Desperate to get attention for her cause to seat Florida and Michigan delegates, Hillary Clinton compared the plight of Zimbabweans in their recent fraudulent election to the uncounted votes of Michigan and Florida voters saying it is wrong when "people go through the motions of an election only to have them discarded and disregarded."

"We're seeing that right now in Zimbabwe," Clinton explained. "Tragically, an election was held, the president lost, they refused to abide by the will of the people," Clinton told the crowd of senior citizens at a retirement community in south Florida.

"So we can never take for granted our precious right to vote. It is the single most important, privilege and right any of us have, because in that ballot box we are all equal. You're equal to a billionaire. You're equal to the president, every single one of us."

Steve Benen, for one, isn't exactly pleased with Clinton's comparison:

I'm 35, and have been following politics for quite a while, and I've never been so disappointed with a politician I've admired and respected. Yesterday's tactics weren't just wrong, they were offensive. For that matter, they seem to be part of a deliberate strategy to tear Democrats apart and ensure a defeat in November....

Instead of trying to help bring the party together -- Election Day is 24 weeks away -- Clinton went to Florida to argue that if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, his nomination will be illegitimate. And if the DNC plays by the rules Clinton used to support, it's guilty of vote-suppression -- comparable to slavery, Jim Crow, and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, the Obama camp has suggested their willingness to find some form of compromise. David Axelrod told NPR:

"We are open to comprise [sic]. We are willing to go more than half way. We're willing to work to make sure that we can achieve a compromise. And I guess the question is: is Senator Clinton's campaign willing to do the same?"

Axelrod continues: "Well, obviously, any compromise is going to involve some give, and that means if there's something on the table, we're willing to consider it. That may include us yielding more delegates than perhaps we would have, simply on the basis of the rules."

Comments

[evekendall]

Howard Dean and the members of the DNC need to come forward NOW and explain to us and the news media what the agreement meant when they asked all the Dem candidates to sign said agreement on Aug. 28, 2007. Evidently, the DNC Rules Committee came to a vote at that time and drew up an agreement that they asked the candidates to agree to and sign. I have quoted the text of the agreement in one of my posts below. Howard Dean and the committee need to come forward to explain what that agreement means and end any false assertions by any candidate NOW before the continued arguments over this situation cause any more division in the Democratic Party!

TELL US WHAT YOU MEANT IN THAT AGREEMENT LAST AUGUST, DNC! You don't need to have another meeting in order to clarify to us and the news media what the intention of that agreement was when you drew the document up last August! Failure to address this issue NOW is gross negligence of your responsibilities and a clear failure of leadership that is causing a great deal of hostility and dissention in the Democratic Party!

[evekendall]

I am sending this request to clarify the agreement to Howard Dean at the DNC:

http://www.democrats.org/page/petition/chairman

and to the DNC at:

http://www.democrats.org/page/s/contact

[padfoot]

We're seeing that right now in Zimbabwe," Clinton explained. "Tragically, an election was held, the president lost, they refused to abide by the will of the people," Clinton told the crowd of senior citizens at a retirement community in south Florida.

Does she realize that if she were sucessful in stealing the nomination she herself would be thwarting the will of the people?

The people have spoken Hillary Clinton

Go Home

[TheProf]

I agree--Go Home! If she doesn't the men with the butterfly net and straitjacket will be stalking her at her next speaking engagements. She has gone over the line sanity and needs some deep psychological counseling. I suggest that some of her rabid followers who must have been truly bruised in life need a little downtime in front of a softly glowing fireplace while sipping their drink of choice.

[suwhki]

I am so disappointed in Hillary Clinton. Every week she and her handlers come up with some new way for her to be the nominee...and they're all laughable. If she were in Obama's shoes right now, having won the most delegates and the most states...do you think she'd be complaining? Of course not. Because he won those contests legitimately and PLAYED BY THE RULES...something she obviously no longer cares about. I'm disgusted with the DNC for allowing her to continue this sort of negative campaign. If the superdelegates had any guts, they'd be flocking to Obama to show their distaste for what she's doing to the party. I no longer find her behavior inspiring or courageous.. just pathetic. And now her latest claim: comparing sexism to civil rights?!! Is she nuts?!!! How many white women were sold into slavery? How many white women were killed because of their skin color? How many white women had to sit in the back of the bus? How many to this day have trouble finding a taxi who will pick them up in cities late at night?!! I'm a white woman who's disgusted with the women who are still egging her on in this hopeless pursuit. Thank God the few friends of mine who supported her originally, have finally seen the light. Let's hope the rest of the country wises up soon.

[meltingpot101]

Hillary has sunk to an all time low, even for her. This does not sound like she is trying to unify the democrats...it sounds like she is trying to destroy it. She has definetly changed her tune from last week.

Here is a link about Obama getting ZERO votes in Harlem. Obama never mentioned this to his supporters. Never. Hillary will do anything to win this nomination, it's shameless

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/16/nyregion/16vote.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=sloginef=slogin

[whitey7]

I kinda see the comparison - she's the corrupt dictator who won't step down right? Hillary Mugabe!

[MaeScott]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/22/0226/35614?detail=f

"Clinton DNC operatives strip FL of all 210 delegates "
On Aug. 25, when the DNC's rules panel declared Florida's primary date out of order, it agreed by a near-unanimous majority to exceed the 50 percent penalty called for under party rules. Instead, the group stripped Florida of all 210 delegates to underscore its displeasure with Florida's defiance and to discourage other states from following suit. In doing so, the DNC essentially committed itself, for fairness' sake, to strip the similarly defiant Michigan of all 156 of its delegates three months later. Clinton held tremendous potential leverage over this decision, and not only because she was then widely judged the likely nominee. Of the committee's 30 members, a near-majority of 12 were Clinton supporters. All of them"most notably strategist Harold Ickes"voted for Florida's full disenfranchisement. (The only dissenting vote was cast by a Tallahassee, Fla., city commissioner who supported Obama.)

Hail Hillary of Arc. NOT

[evekendall]

Clinton says the DNC agreement she signed was ONLY about not campaigning in FL and MI and it didn't mean that the delegates wouldn't count.

Question: Why would the DNC go to the trouble of asking all the candidates to sign an agreement not to campaign in FL and MI if the DNC's plan was to allow those delegates anyway? (They didn't, of course, because that makes no sense.) The DNC voted to disallow the FL and MI delegates, and they asked all the candidates to sign an agreement to that effect, which they did.

The answer comes from an editorial in The Stanford Daily that quotes the pertinent language from the agreement that all the candidates signed:

"The Four State Pledge all candidates signed on Aug. 28 (2007) stated, "Whereas, the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee will strip states of 100% of their delegates and super delegates to the DNC National Convention if they violate the nomination calendar... Therefore, I ____________, Democratic Candidate for President, in honor and in accordance with DNC rules ...pledge I shall not campaign OR PARTICIPATE in any election contest occurring in any state not already authorized by the DNC to take place in the DNC approved pre-window." When the candidates pledged to campaign only in approved states, they were also agreeing to the terms listed above, WHICH EXPLICITLY MENTIONED STRIPPING NONCOMPLIANT STATES OF THEIR ENTIRE DELEGATION."

Source:

http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2008/2/25/editorialFollowDncRulesOnSeatingDelegates

[woodchips]

Clinton is trying to mince words. She may say that she only agreed not to CAMPAIGN there, but as Eve points out, her pledge was not to PARTICIPATE. Sorry Senator, but claiming any delegates from the FL or MI primaries most definitely constitutes participation.

I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want a president who won't stand by a pledge they signed. We've already got a whole crop of elected officials who can't seem to understand how to uphold the constitution they swore to protect and defend. If we haven't learned our lesson by now, there's no hope.

[ajax2]

It all depends on what the meaning of participate is.

[ndnndpendent]

A voting right is a federal right....the FL federal courts will render a decision, one party will not like the decision, it will travel through the appellate process, and all the way to the Supreme Ct. Guess who will be sitting there smiling like the cheshire cat? Roberts with his henchmen, Alito, Thomas, Scalia....get the picture......Holy shitake mushrooms.......yeah democracy is alive and well.

[evekendall]

A voting right IS a federal right, and we all cherish. . . picking a Democratic Party nominee, however, is not a federal right. Those are the rules of the Democratic Party, and they can make any rule they want. She signed the agreement. But most of all, all other people who did not vote AND the candidates (eight of them) who were not allowed to campaign there, are the ones who are being disenfranchised because they were all told the primary would not count.

[borderorder]

The DCCC sent their weekly email for a contribution. The spokesman for this request? James Carville. This HRC thing has riled me to the point that I quit my membership and the requested reason why? Aside from never, ever wanting to hear or see Carville's name again on anything sponsored by the Democratic Party, until the party gets off its duff and puts an end to this debacle they're not getting another dime from me. If this is allowed to go on it will ruin the party anyway. Why waste the money.

[booksnmore4you]

The most ironic part of all this is that if Hillary gets her way, then the U.S. actually will be following the example of third world countries who change the agreed upon rules of democracy after the contest has begun.

[justobserve]

HILLARY: if your are really a voter rights' champion (without tricks , OK?), why don't you stand up for voters' rights in the caucus states where delegates, not popular votes, are counted. Your popular vote numbers are WRONG and you DISENFRANCHISED caucus states' voters. Stand up for them as a true champion should. Don't mislead MI&FL voters with your bogus numbers. They don't look at the fine prints like you and your surrogates to know what the "popular votes" include or EXCLUDE.

[Tropiholic]

Hillary you are a Saint and a martyr!

[McPander]

and Bill is John the Baptist......ask Monica....he just doesn't use water...wink.wink

[whitey7]

And a racist egomaniac who has no faith in the American people.

[McPander]

I do not believe she is a racist, she just plays on on TV.

"Hard Working AMericans, White AMericans"

[Actionmac]

To all female clinton supporters that say you will vote for mcsame if Obama is nominee, I say GOOD. This action will forever seal the deal that we will never see another woman WIN or in power position again with out a man standing over them. This is what clinton is doing to the woman's movement.

You all may think that your saying something to scare into position nominee or VP, but what you are doing is solidifying the thought that women think irrationally and can not be trusted to manage high profile positions of power.

Call it sexism if you want but it will be the undisputed truth, it will become the "clinton factor". Whining and using the sexism card will be the factor looked at... I know, as a AA male if I make a complaint about not being selected for any position because I am black, and the first thing said is I am using the race card. Ladies, it's a fight you don't want to have, once you have to explain why your not using the sexist card, the issue becomes secondary or lost.

[whitey7]

I don't know about all that.but this election is a chance to tell racists that their votes don't matter to the rest of the country. Hillary needs to step up and denounce and repudiate the 25 percent of her supporters in KY who admitted - admitted! that their vote was determined by race.

[McPander]

To late....

She actively race baited prior to the campaigns in West Virginia.
"Hard Working AMericans, White Americans"

She should be drummed out of the party

[jackstpaul]

I've been dumbfounded at Hillary's hypocrisy and blatant opportunism on this stuff.

Do any of you supporters believe she would be pushing for FL. and MI were she and Obama's situations reversed?

Then she started to play the victim-role re:s exism.

Now she's comparing Zimbabwe--a country where people have been getting killed as part of the election fraud.

Instead of being the first female president, she will go down in history as a laughingstock for the extent of her desperation.

[ndnndpendent]

I just wish her and Bill would go home to Chappaqua and make angry love.

[SOOKOOYAH GURL]

Y'all think this is racist? What about when she kept saying "I have the support of WHITE working class Americans"?? WTF?? I would be insulted as a white person that she feels entitled to my voite because she knows that the state is predominently white and has had racial problems in the past.

Barack Obama never came out and cried that people were racist against him, even though in many counties in some states, his volunteers were treated like garbage and were verbally pelted with racial epithats

[McPander]

Please when quoting it is "Hard Working Americans, White AMericans"

Race Baiter

[steamboat]

When Obama ran for congressman (1st dist, Illinois) he was indeed defeated by racism. The opponent , Rep. Bobby Rush, ran his entire campaign on the fact Obama was half-white, It worked. The predominately Black district re-elected Rush 80-20%

[borderorder]

Chernobyl is what she should be comparing her campaign to, a total nuclear meltdown.

[steamboat]

If she's picked as his running-mate for November, you same people will be bragging about her.