Hillary Gets Ruled and Bylawed

The Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee decision on Saturday to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations to the Democratic conventions with their voting strength cut in half is a major boost for Barack Obama, and a clear signal that the long and bitter fight for the nomination is on the verge of ending.

With the deck stacked against them, the Clinton forces may have had no choice but to abandon their demand that every Michigan and Florida delegate be seated with a full vote for each. In making the concession, the New York Senator not only settled for a net gain of just 26.5 delegate votes instead of 56, but gave up a crucial issue to take to the August convention in Denver.

"The Clinton campaign lost their biggest rationale for staying in the race," said California-based Democratic consultant Bill Carrick. "Any potential for Senator Clinton to pick up a large block of delegates is gone and the superdelegates will likely move to Senator Obama and end the race."

Jim Jordan, who managed John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid during its preliminary stages, was more explicit. "Even the Clinton folks acknowledged that this was their last gasp. So that's it. Time to turn to what matters, winning in November. And it's time for Senator Clinton herself to start salving the party's wounds."

Officially, the Clinton campaign declared that it was not giving up its right to appeal the decision of the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) to the full convention over a relatively minor issue - four Michigan delegates given to Obama -- but, by accepting the resolution of the Florida seating issue without dissent, the campaign lost its strongest case.

Obama emerged from the RBC proceedings with a grand total of 2,052 delegates, just 66 short of the 2,118 required to win the nomination. Clinton has 1,877.5 delegates, 240.5 short of the number needed to win.

There are still three primaries to go -- in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana. Polling shows Clinton holding a double digit lead in Puerto Rico, while Obama holds a comparable lead in South Dakota and Montana. The three jurisdictions will send a total of 111 delegates to the convention, so that it is possible Obama could reach the magic 2,118 by the end of the day Tuesday, but he is likely to also need additional support from superdelegates who are free to make their own choice of a candidate.

Shortly after the RBC completed deliberations, Clinton's chief strategists on the committee, Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy, declared that they may still fight over four delegates from Michigan:

Today's results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party's nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party's convention. The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly.

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We strongly object to the Committee's decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan's delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan. The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party.

We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan's delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.

A credentials fight over four delegates would be just a blip on the screen compared to what could have been a convention floor battle over the seating of 210 Florida and 156 Michigan delegates.

Robert Bauer, counsel to the Obama campaign, noted that the committee decision "does remove one obstacle. It is not clear she [Clinton] will see it that way."

Jonathan M. Prince, deputy manager of John Edwards' failed presidential bid, said "everything that's going on now is (and should be) about dignified closure....there's no good guy and no bad guy and it's in everyone's interest for both candidates to leave the field with their heads held high - one having run a historic race and winning, ready to unite the party and move on to the real fight, the other having run a historic race and almost winning."

Similarly, Robert Borosage, president of the Institute for America's Future and co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, said "This is all but over." He predicted a scenario of, "the Clintons accept the inevitable. The convention is unified. Hillary Clinton works harder than any other surrogate to elect the ticket."

"There is a new sheriff in town, [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi," said Democratic media specialist James Duffy. "In my mind she is driving the bus, and she will drive it right over the Clintons and if they miss the fact they got run over, she will back up and run over them again."

Comments

[twschaller]

Harold? Mr. Icky?...... What is the weather like over there on that parallel universe you inhabit?

[Dadoodaman]

Excellent DailyKos diaries from RBC:

Donna Brazile: "Mama Said 'Knock you out'"
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/1/0154/43424/352/526448

paraphrase: mama told me to obey they rules and that an attempt to change the rules during the game is cheatin'. Thus, the entire effort of the RBC and the outcome of its deliberations could on be seen as one of political generosity, since it was agreeing to change the rules for unity's sake only.

Legal Analysis: Why Ickes is Wrong & Should Resign
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/1/72643/08080/210/526590
Summary -
1 The Constitution does NOT apply
2 The Rules & Bylaws Committee did NOT determine the delegate allocation
3 Any bias was in Hillary’s favor
4 No votes were "stolen"
5 The Principle of "Flawed Reflection"
6 Credentials Committee Challenge
7 Validity of the Election Sanction by the State of Florida
8 Conflict of Interest

[Dadoodaman]

I would add to Brazile's comment that my mama told me that not following the rules, trying to change the rules during the games, throwing a tantrum to change the rules, and not accepting the outcome is the definition of a "sore loser."

[Umungus]

Thanks for the link.

[BillyT]

Just saw David Bonior on CNN calling Hillary and Ickes for throwing MI and FL under the bus back in 2007, but now pretend they are the the great gaurdians of "every vote."

O how stupid are those raging Clinton supporters..... they don't (want to) remember any facts, since those would likely show Hillary & Co. to be a bunch of charlatans who think nothing of lying and cheating and especially don't care how their behavior insults our intelligence.

[kevenseven]

"likely"?

[Dadoodaman]

And of course there's also the video of Bill recommending, as recently as April, that a "fair" solution would be to seat half the delegates. But now nothing less than all of the delegates is "fair."

These people are simply amazing.

The only rules they are willing to acknowledge are the ones they make up today, which of course are the only ones that leave them any wiggle room for victory.

Remember these kind of people in the schoolyard growing up?

[AdLib]

Is Harold Ickes voicebox located in his nose? If Elmer Fudd went into politics...

[CocteausTwin]

LOL

[kevenseven]

My God. You punked so many people last night.

I like to think that I helped.

[dhinds]

Clinton Advisor Mandy Grunwald is being interviewed on Face the Nation (CBS) at the moment and maintains that Hillary is the strongest candidate, who has obtained more votes than any other in history.

IOW, the fight will continue.

[ThunderclapNewman]

They're all reciting the talking points.
It's all they have left.

Hillary will be out by Friday, or she will have no career left.

[takeamericanback08]

Well duh...Mandy was using the GOPs talking point...The GOP are afraid to have McCain debate Obama because McCain is exhibiting a loss of cognitive abilities associated with old age. Clinton is a red herring the GOP are hiding behind.

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

Has al Qaeda put down their weapons and turned Bin Laden over to authorities with the news of Obama changing his church?

[CocteausTwin]

Huh???

[TiffanyHusseinBanned]

It was meant to be sarcastic. I assumed that with my pro Obama record on Huffington that people would get it.

[Flagal]

After watching the Clintons in action I am convinced Hillary would be even worse for this country than Mccain.
Her actions and those of her surrogates have me worried for the future of our country, even if she is not on any ticket.
My personal hope is people have seen the Clintons for what they really are...corporatists who will throw anybody under the bus to further their rise to power & money.
My guess is she will be trounced in any election she participates in going forward.

[CaptainSunshine]

Nothing is worse than McCain. People would lose their lives under a McCain presidency. Under a Clinton presidency, we would only lose our integrity.

[speakingtruth2power]

Under either, the Crusade for Muslim Resources would continue.

With Obama, we can at least hope for change from more wars!!!!

[CocteausTwin]

I guess Iranian lives don;t count -- remember her Obliterate Iran Comment?

[eurydice]

Hillary is far worse than McCain.

[IndependentPAVoter]

This my friends is utterly rediculous!!! Hillary supporters keep arguing every vote should count right??? They say Hillary is ahead in the popular vote (which means nothing just ask John Kerry) right? So then why do they insist on tallying there so called popular vote total without any hard or soft for that matter numbers from any caucuses??? Every vote should count as long as there for Clinton huh??Hillary doesnt lead in any metric this race could be measured in. Its time to look beyond the bull and unite around our nominee and not let this spoiled Goldwater Girl tear us apart!!! Fl. and Mi were nothing but popularity contest I new very little of Obama in January and was enthusiastically supporting Dennis Kucinnich. To even imply that those elections were fair and should have meaning is ludicrous.

[CocteausTwin]

Yeah and Ickes said the vote count was based on AP projections -- WTF?

[CaptainSunshine]

Under her popular vote argument, Obama gets 0 votes in Michigan.

[kay]

Clinton and her surrogates have to say that she's going to the convention or her voters won't bother in the remaining primaries.

All politicians do it.

No one ever says "get out there and vote because we are going to LOSE!"

[ChiGuy]

You're absolutely right, kay.

That's why I still maintain that she'll finally concede in the next 10 days after the final votes, and once many of the supers come out for Obama after Tuesday.

[kay]

I think so, too. I'm basing that on my intuitive feel at my State Party convention, though, so it's just a gut feeling. I listened really carefully, and that's what I heard, underneath all the rah-rah.

Remember when Karl Rove said he had "secret polls" in '06? He had to. I sympathized. He can't announce it's over before the voting. That's crazy.

[Nyland8]

Plus, there are still any number of fools in total denial who'll continue to send her campaign money - and she's deep in debt.

8

[Midnightrain]

8 -
What do you make of the two women (shown on CNN and MSNBC) outraged and in tears after yesterday's decision?

Just curious.

[olivia]

They still have that T-shirt contest under way. They are voting on the 5 final designs. I like the one with the empty pantsuit. Fewer people will pay $20.08 for a T-shirt if she quits.

The threat of Denver is good for business. I hope Pelosi will not let it happen.

Clinton is waiting like a vulture for Obama's murder, or a further smearing of his wife.

[PAposter]

Is anybody watching the clips of Clinton fans on CNN? Saying things, like the RBC made up the results. Wow! Unbelievable!

[kay]

They're trying to damage the presumptive nominee, and will succeed, to a certain extent.

I think it's a little bigger than the Clinton's ego. Most of Hillary Clinton's surrogates are Clinton I retreads. Obama doesn't fawn over the Clinton Years.

He's really hitting all of them.

[SCG]

I think it's more a matter of blackmail to be on the ticket. they are already taking (Ickes comments on Meet the Press) this concession as a sign of weakness and culpablity for counting Mich & Fla.

[ThunderclapNewman]

It's interesting that so many of the Hillary troops see Obama's candidacy as a total repudiation of the 90s and the Clinton administration.

I think he just sees the 90s as part of the past.
We don't repudiate it, but we don't want to try going back to it either.

Obama focuses on the future.
Hillary focuses on the past.

[111]

So they are totally disregarding the challengers who presented the solutions for FL and MI? They are totally disregarding the fact that the two states came up with their own solutions and that the RBC voted to accept them?

[Midnightrain]

My husband and I could hardly contain our chuckles. That made for some good tv. Sort of reminded me of pastor Flagger's (sp)? recent comdey show at Trinity.

[billrott]

Hillary is not winning the popular vote. Obama is winning it. I am sick of Hillary's lies.

[Gina322]

But she wasn't referring to the popular votes on EARTH! Many of you may not be aware of this, but MARS holds their primary season in conjunction with the one on EARTH. She is winning the popular vote on MARS! Get it right!

[trollslayer]

She and her supporters are starting to remind me of conspiracy theorists with their weird alternate universe of unreality.

[LongBeachDave]

Jeez, can we stop with the popular vote crap? Each state has different criteria for selecting a nominee of the party. Some states are caucus states, which usually bring out only the party activists and diehards. Some states allow cross-over voting no matter the registration of the voter. Some states allow only party members to vote. The determining factor is the number of delegates won, that is the way it has always been, and that is the criteria for this year as well. Get over the popular vote myth. Get over the RBC ruling...they were fair in allocating ANYTHING to Florida and Michigan for their violation of the rules. Obama will be the nominee, he will be the President, and every American will be the beneficiary.

[masterself]

Hillary said back in 2007 that she predict that the dem. nomination
will be over by Feb, she also said back in Jan. that she thought that the
Mich. vote wasn't going to count because of them breaking the rule.
Fast forward tp 2008 everything has changed, The only reason Hillary
and her supporters are crying the blues is because she wants Obama
to make her VP, and people i want u to know that wil never happen.
You can pretend that you won't vote for Obama because Hillary lost,
Obama will still win because Mccain don't have a CHANCE even with
the help of Hillary so-called supporters

[olivia]

I am sick of the media not calling Hillary on her popular vote lie.

I am sick of the media not pointing out that her electoral map argument is predicated on NO Hillary supporters voting for Obama in November.

The math is funny, the maps are spinning. The media lets it pass.

No wonder her supporters believe lies are facts.

[hcbuck]

WWJD2 - "No--Obama asked people in Mi to vote for him by voting "uncommitted""

Really? How did I happen to miss that since I live in Michigan?

Probably because it NEVER HAPPENED.

There were other candidates who were still in the race. He couldn't have people vote Uncommitted because John Edwards was still in the race at that time. (I'm not sure if JB and BR had dropped out at that point.)

Yet another lie passed along in the Clinton camp.

[orle8050]

I agree. I am from MI and all of my family still lives there and that is not what they told me happened.

Obama never said vote uncommitted for him. Neither did John Edwards.

[PAposter]

All they know how to do is make sh*t up as they go along. So stupid!

[k6007]

Stupid is, as stupid says.....mirror much.

[k6007]

oops.

[ObamaLover]

The state’s Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer, also a committee member, offered a proposal today for a full seating of the delegation with a full vote–but to split the delegates with 69 for Sen. Hillary Clinton and 59 for Obama. Clinton won the primary.

Brewer bases his count on the hard vote of about 594,000 ballots cast, plus a metric involving exit polls and uncounted write-in ballots to rationalize the split. Of the ballots cast, Brewer argued that “uncommitted” votes should go to Obama because “every bit of evidence, scientific, anecdotal,” suggests those votes were cast for either Obama or former candidate John Edwards, who has endorsed Obama

[k6007]

I live in MI, also. His surrogates in my state, said exactly that. "Go and vote uncommitted, and those delegates will be seated for Sen. Obama, at the convention."

[111]

Actually there was an active campaign to get voters to vote uncommitted because if 15% (I think that was the number) of the vote went to uncommitted then delegates would go to the convention as uncommitted delegates. All of the MI presenters made that clear yesterday. The problems were that there were a number of write in votes that were not counted because of a MI law and people in MI were told that their votes would not count. It was argued that people believing their vote would not count 1) suppressed the voters and 2) caused some voters to vote for who they thought would be the weakest Republican candidate to help the Dems in November.
MI said that the vote was fatally flawed so they tossed it out and the MI party leaders pulled information from exit polls, interviews and write in candidates and came up with a compromise.

[Lycaos]

Oh MY GOD...

Look at the videos recorded of racist Hillary supporters!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/31/91456/6724/836/525972

This is something EVERYONE should watch!

[PAposter]

"Do you know what a pessimist is?" "A man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it." - George Bernard Shaw

Where the f*ck am I living?

[keiran]

That old woman was almost certainly drunk. How disgraceful.

[naschkatze]

Just remember that they bragged that 10,000 protesters were going to be there, but there were only 200-300 at most. (John Aravosis of AmBlog said, "Call me when the other 9700 arrive". I am not worried about this diehard contingent and don't think that they are going to help John McCain. Some people it's just not worth wasting your breath over. That first one was certifiable.

[CocteausTwin]

What a bunch of ultra maroons those "voters" are.

[xmw]

Why does Clinton supporter keep saying Obama took his name off the ballot for stratigic and selfish reasons? Do we forget that there were four other names that were removed from the ballot in Michigan. Obama was not the only one. he is just now the only one left They took their names off because they were told it was an illegal contest. i don't want my name on anything illegal. Figures Hilaary didn't have a problem with it. Her plan all along was to double back and collect her ace in the hole if needed.

[NoMercy]

yep. hit the proverbial nail on the head.

[billrott]

The fact is that the majority of candidates took their names off to respect the pledge they signed. Many in Iowa and New Hampshire openly stated they felt Hillary's decision to keep her name was a strategic one in which she would go back on her word. Guess they were right.

[PAposter]

That's right, xmw, not ignoring several states seems to have been a better plan.

[xmw]

Yeah, you're are so right but aren't we glad she did. I can't imagine Hillary being at the help with her bad management skills and her band of thugs. I am a female and I am will ing to wait as long as it takes for the right female POTUS!

[CocteausTwin]

I have seen the face of a troll, and it belongs to Ickes!

[trollslayer]

He does that lowered eyelid thing like Hillary does. I wonder if it's contagious?

[ThunderclapNewman]

It's his "tell"---just as it is hers.

That's when they're lying through their teeth.

[xmw]

Yeah Ick face is a real mess. Today Wolf Blitzer of Late Edition tkept pointing out JIm Roosevelt from the RBC how unhappy Ickes is with their decision to split Michigan and he had a priceless response. "I kept waiting to Ickes to come up with a better idea whole meeting and he never offered anything." I couldn't belive someone as unprofessional and biased as Ickes and that Hartina Flournoy woman are even members. She looked like she was going catch fire the whole time. I sent her an email and said she should review the tape. She was scary.