Make HuffPost Your HomePage
Get Email Alerts
Clinton's Open Letter To Obama On MI and FL
On a day when it appears that the Michigan controversy may be resolved in a way that's fair to all parties -- but not in a way that gives Hillary Clinton all that state's delegates and Barack Obama none, as her campaign insists -- Clinton has just upped the ante by issuing what seems a hastily penned open letter to Obama, pretending that he is the sole obstacle to a fair resolution of the Michigan and Florida brouhaha and that she has always supported revotes (neither of which is accurate). There's lots to discuss, but the letter itself is more than adequate fodder:
May 8, 2008
Senator Barack ObamaObama for America
P.O. Box 8102
Chicago, IL 60680Dear Senator Obama,
This has been an historic and exciting campaign. Millions of new voters have been brought into the process and their enthusiasm for the Democratic Party and the principles for which you and I have fought and continue to fight is unprecedented.
One of the foremost principles of our party is that citizens be allowed to vote and that those votes be counted. That principle is not currently being applied to the nearly 2.5 million people who voted in primaries in Florida and Michigan. Whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee will be hamstrung in the general election if a fair and quick resolution is not reached that ensures that the voices of these voters are heard. Our commitment now to this goal could be the difference between winning and losing in November.
I have consistently said that the votes cast in Florida and Michigan in January should be counted. We cannot ignore the fact that the people in those states took the time to be a part of this process and to make their preferences known. When efforts were untaken [sic] by leaders in those states to hold revotes to ensure that they had a voice in selecting our nominee, I supported those efforts. In Michigan, I supported a legislative effort to hold a revote that the Democratic National Committee said was in complete compliance with the party's rules. You did not support those efforts and your supporters in Michigan publically [sic] opposed them. In Florida a number of revote options were proposed. I am not aware of any that you supported. In 2000, the Republicans won an election by successfully opposing a fair counting of votes in Florida. As Democrats, we must reject any proposals that would do the same.
Your commitment to the voters of these states must be clearly stated and your support for a fair and quick resolution must be clearly demonstrated.
I am asking you to join me in working with representatives from Florida and Michigan and the Democratic National Committee to arrive at a solution that honors the votes of the millions of people who went to the polls in Florida and Michigan. It is not enough to simply seat their representatives at the convention in Denver. The people of these great states, like the people who have voted and are to vote in other states, must have a voice in selecting our party's nominee.
Sincerely,
Hillary Rodham Clinton
The typo-ridden dashed-off letter seems at least in part a response to Obama's touring Capitol Hill today in the wake of what may turn out to be Tuesday's decisive Democratic primary contests in North Carolina and Indiana. The enthusiastic response he garnered from House Democrats, who CNN reported "surrounded" the senator when he arrived, suggested that many of the Congressional superdelegates believe a turning point has arrived and that at last a sure party nominee for president was moving among them.
Obama claimed he was not on The Hill seeking undecided superdelegate votes, but admitted that he'd "love to have their support" and was happy to respond to any questions they might have for him.
Clinton's Open Letter was released to reporters as the cameras were clicking on Capitol Hill.
In recent weeks, the Clinton camp has made the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegations to the national convention a cornerstone of the campaign, its only real path to the nomination. The Hillary For President website posted a petition this week that supporters could sign to help advance the cause and the campaign has included the Florida delegate numbers in its nomination tallies. Clinton has included them in her stump speeches as well.
Of course not all Clinton supporters agree with the campaign's logic. Mame Reiley, a pro-Clinton superdelegate and a member of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, for example, says she is inclined to seat the Florida delegation as is, due to the full slate of candidates there, but, she says, "it's a whole different ballgame with Michigan," where Hillary's main rivals followed the rules and withdrew their names from the ballot. "My decision there," Reiley said, "might make Hillary not happy with me."
Read M.S. Bellows follow-up piece, Clinton's Hail Mary, at OffTheBus.
Additional reporting contributed by OffTheBus blogger Chip Collis.
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Is she still around?
Someone, please get her a bus ticket back to New York. I think she ran out of money and is stranded in West Virginia. Perhaps her hubby would pick her up or something and take a vacation...(so long as she doesn't come to Hawaii).
Please don't send her back here either...
I thought, that in the 4th quarter wit ten second left and behind by 36 points; and on your own 10 yard line, you would take a knee and avoid injury to your team!
Here in North Carolina we didn't break the rules and we ended up knocking HRC out of the race.
If MI and FL had not broken the rules they would have had more influence than they are going to have now.
Hillary sure is looking more like Saddam Hussein every day. She wants to obliterate Iran just like Saddam. Now she wants praise for winning the votes in Michigan, where she was the only candidate on the ticket. When Saddam used to hold elections, he was the only name on Iraq's ticket. When he would win, he'd parade around the country bragging about how all the people loved him. It makes you wonder why she voted to invade Iraq.
Dear Senator Clinton,
There is a delivery point for this letter, but it isn't Chicago, Illinois. Did you forget that you agreed to the rules disqualifying Florida and Michigan if they broke those rules? You must go now. Sure, you love Senator McCain and would rather have him in the WhitePeople's House than that uppity upstart (code: wink, wink), but it would look bad for you to continue this way. You can undermine your enemy in other ways more suited to a devious nature.
Viva Zapata
Those people are Americans, and they want their voices heard, she is helping them to be heard. Would you enjoy not having a vote for the nominee? I know I wouldn't.
I've never yet had a vote for the nominee. If all the primaries were held on the same day then leaving two states out would be a real issue -- but they've always been strung out over time, so that whoever's at the end doesn't have any real voice (since the other states' votes almost always have made the decision already). Michigan and Florida would have had real voices had they left their primaries where they were. When they announced plans to move their primaries earlier than Democratic party rules allowed -- moving the primary season earlier and earlier and trying to get MORE of a voice than other states -- they were warned that doing so would result in disqualification. They did so anyway. The DNC kept its word. I don't get how anyone thinks that's unjust. It bites, but it's not unjust.
If they wanted to be heard, they shouldn't have let their party committees push the primaries so early. You let the rules be broken, you suffer the consequences. Which Sen. Clinton agreed to before she realized she was going to lose.
At the same time that both Clinton and Obama agreed to strip the delegates from FL and MI they both also agreed to the fact that these states could have their delgations seated through either of 2 options
1. revote
2. appeal to the DNC Rules Committee and/or the Convention Credentials Committee
Neither of these options breaks any rule. Neither ofthese options is overridden by the agreement to strip the delegates initially.
Option 1 was tried and thwarted by Obama
Option 2 has now been initiated by each of the two states dem parties and those efforts are being supported by Clinton.
None ofthis breaks any rules.
Except due to breaking the primary rules in an attempt to over power small states in political power the moved their primaries forward against DNC rules. Now as a result the delegates do not count.
-Justice an American principal.
Please provide links? I'm not aware of any agreement by either candidate back at the start that "these states could have their delegates seated", whether by revote or by appeal. In fact, the candidates themselves didn't play any role in the decision to disqualify those states (though Clinton backer Harold Ickes was on the committee that voted to do so).
I don't know of Obama blocking a revote -- in Michigan a revote was blocked by Sen. Carl Levin, and in Florida the party wanted to do a caucus rather than a revote because it was cheaper, and Clinton blocked that. And based on a press conference I attended today, it seems Clinton's the one currently rejecting the Michigan plan, while Obama has agreed to accept it (even though it gives him 10 fewer delegates than it gives her).
But I'm always open to correction, if you can provide links or citations to back up your statements.
Where are Bill and George Herbert Walker Bush cavorting together today?
Doesn't anyone else see that Clinton=Republican lite? Christ, Bill gave away so much
of this nation to NAFTA, started the war in Kosovo and avoided taking Osama Bin Laden to
task...doesn't it shine, bright and clear that the sheep has fangs and a long gray tail?
The wolf is bleating for votes so that the "Other Republican" can get into office.
The charade is working....wake up!
Until W. & Cheney became presidents, I always thought that Clinton was the most republican president ever. even nixon didn't allow the corporations to SO divide the country in two. reagan came close though.
she gives us women a bad name. how can she still have supporters? she's been caught in major lie about military experience in Bosnia, her health reform bombed in 94, she's been throwing a kitchen sink of who knows what each month, she can't run a campaign including it's finances, she's flip flopped on her signed agreement concerning MI and FL.... I could go on and on.
Who she gonna be acting like next month? Last month, she was a Stanton, PA blue collar, beer drinker...
We should all be really concerned with election reform. The Democratic Party has made a mess out of this election: stop thinking about infighting with party officials and start thinking about one National Democratic primary. As it stands they have devised an elaborate plan to pick a candidate and it's not working, no one has reached the magic number so the #2 candidate is supposed to bail out the stupid party officials who concocted this mess and bow out herself and not follow the party plan. 2000 Florida was a Constitutional Disaster, 2004 was a Swiftboat Fantasy which the President wouldn't stand up against and 2008 we have a candidate with no apparent qualifications, other than his ability to give sermons, being picked for us by movie stars and an inarguably biased, dishonest and unprofessional media. You are either for integrity in elections or against it. All American's should be scared to death at how diabolically unfair our election process has become. So what if we leave out a state or two? No problem unless next time it is your state. I say sit out this election, let McCain win and have to deal with the mess in Iraq. Then in four years our country will be on the verge of collapse and this process will become more than a game for Obamacrats and Arianna's millionaire salon. Maybe a candidate with credentials, whom the press doesn't hate because of her gender, will emerge and save your elitist butts.
Anyone who buys the line that Obama's candidacy is the result of our (obviously) flawed system, isn't paying adequate attention. The Powers that Be don't want Obama, they want Clinton; that's why Obama's success is giving them conniptions. Obama doesn't have credentials? He has much more experience as a legislator (state and fed) than Clinton has, and being the wife of the President doesn't make you Presidential any more than being the wife of a doctor enables you to do surgery. And are you really resurrecting the tired claim that opposition to Clinton is sexist, but opposition to Obama isn't racist?
Oppose Obama on the merits if you like, though the game's over already -- but give the factless spin a rest, please.
You guys must be those elitists us hillbillies have heard about. Now I understand why not all Democrats should be included in selecting the presidential candidate. Because you said so. Because idiots like you will make any rationalization for your zombie-like devotion to the the Senator from Illinois who has no apparent credentials. It's because a bunch of people said so and don't care what the people think. Just like 2000, we really don't need two parties anymore now that we've got the Obamacrats. Debate and logic are a sign of female weakness and working class ignorance. I feel much better now.
thanks betsy for the great solutions!
I am from Mi, and I did not vote in my primary because all the candidates were not on the ballot, there was no point.
Hillary is establishing grounds for a law suit in
the US Supreme Court:
Here's the gist of her case:
It is not enough to simply seat their
representatives at the convention in
Denver . . .the people who have voted and
are to vote in other states, must have a
voice in selecting our party's nominee.
Never mind that she signed affadavits agreeing
not to abide by the outcome of the elections.
Of course it's a winner, the Republican
majority only has to write 'this ruling applies
only to Hillary Rodham Clinton.'
Do the Clintons never run out of ideas to
alienate the super delegates?
alienate: arouse hostility or indifference
where there had formerly been love,
affection, or friendliness
I'm not so worried about that, only because this is a primary. There's a ton of precedent about courts generally staying out of primaries. In general elections, there is at least real government action instead of the government simply assisting the private clubs we call "political parties", which gives them the excuse to meddle.
I hope I'm right.
These folks voted so weather she gets the delegates or not she still gets their votes which in the end more folks will have voted for her than OBama so now what are those Super delegates to do.
neither Hillary nor obama will reach the magic total of 2005 or 2235 whichever so as it turns out the pledge delegates have no bearing and all those folks who voted in all 50 states really have no say the party hacks will beside for one or the other making the winner a loser like Bush who was picked by the Supreme Court
Isn't it amazing that people can't figure out that MANY people in both FL and MI did exactly as you did because they were told their votes would not count, nor your delegates be seated, AND because BOTH Democratic candidates (left in the race) PUBLICLY agreed to those rules? Yet now Clinton wants to blame it on Obama. Talk about Flip-Flopping! And it's truly sad that so many Clinton supporters can't read, or they'd know the impressive accomplishments Obama has and quit parroting the falsehood that he has "no apparent qualifications". Or that he's Muslim. Or that he's an elitist just because he has an education and is brilliant. Do they have a CLUE how multimillionaire Hillary was raised in comparison to the average upbringing Obama had? I know many Americans want a president who knocks back boilermakers to get their vote, but look what the last 8 years of that kind of thinking has given us. It's time for INTELLIGENT leadership, not phony pandering, broken agreements, and lies. Vote Obama for change!
you do kow Hillary went to Yale and was a very influential speaker and leader during her student movement, and also that her and Bill paid off their own school loans too, like most. I know its hard to pay attention to the good stuff with all that mud you all are slingin on the Clintons, but they are very intelligent people, you are ignorant to say otherwise. She wants every American no matter the race, religion, culture or whatever, to have the chances and opprtunities she had, what is so wrong with that? That is what we want right?!?
It is Obama's fault his name wasn't on the ballot, it was his choice. Those Americans want their voices heard, and they deserve it.
Do you have any clue why Michelle Obama got a 200,000 raise when her hubby got elected senate? Aren't they now multimillionaires? Im sure after this they will get a lot richer, especially with friends like Tony Rezko and the dirty and antiAmerican politics that are the roots of Obama.
Hillary is running now for president in 2012. She wants to damage Obama as much as she can so he loses. Grampa McSame would be a really old and easy target in 2012. This is just a gambit to draw 2008 out so she can take more shots at Obama.
If had a whistle I would blow it!!!!
I just cannot believe how ill informed many here are of how their Country really works.
Your right to vote and have it counted supersedes any National Political Party period.
No National Political Party has the right of a Governor and State Legislature to decide when
a Primary Election should be held.
None period.
Party rules, in this case, Don't apply.
The United States Constitution does!
Both Michigan & Florida changed their primary dates (legally done by their Governors and State Legislatures) and their people, those who chose to, voted.
Ethically, Morally and Legally, their Delegates should be seated in the fashion that they were elected.
Sorry, but to do otherwise is to act in as much an unethical and immoral and Unconstitutional manner as The Republican Party and The Supreme Court did when they stopped the recount in November of 2000 and proclaimed George W. Bush President.
Now I know most of the Obama people may disagree.
But you are sadly mistaken...
And we will all pay dearly for that price come November for many good patriotic Americans, who deserve much better, will either decide not to vote or possibly vote for McCain.
And if Mr. Obama, chooses Not to seat the Delegates in the fashion they were chosen, he is guilty of a character flaw...and he has many and most sadly, quite a number of democrats don't see them:(
Hillary! I thought you were busy in Oregon!?
The law has nothing to do with seating primary delegates.
The state set the primary, they had their primary. Nothing and no one prevented people from going out and voting.
However, as the supreme court has ruled several times over, the party as such, has no requirement to seat or adhere to anything that's decided in the state primaries.
There is no law about political parties, US government was set up without their consideration.
There is NO law about this. There is NOTHING in the Constitution about this, there is NOTHING the government of the United States or the states of Florida or Michigan can do to force the DNC to do anything.
As far as morally and ethically; rules were set up by the national party to recognize delegates selected by the states. Michigan and Florida violated those rules. Obama AND Clinton both signed off on those rules. It is Clinton that is now violating her oath and pledge. It is now Clinton that is throwing all ethics about rules of the system to the wind for her political gain.
This is NOT about everyone having a voice. In 9 out of 10 primaries most states get NO voice. Look at the Republican primaries, McCain already has the nomination, so their votes mean NOTHING for the overall campaign.
You misunderstand both the nature of primaries and the role of Obama in this case.
Primary elections are held by private clubs called "parties." Those clubs can be exclusive or inclusive, letting everyone vote or just club members. They can have elections with all their members voting, or smaller meetings where those members that really care get together and actually talk back and forth and try to educate and persuade each other before they vote. They don't have to have primaries at all (the Greens aren't on every state's primary ballot, but they still pick a Presidential nominee!). Get it? They're clubs. They make their own rules. They're not the government.
Obama's role: the Democratic Party's Rules & Bylaws Committee warned MI and FL not to advance their primaries. MI and FL said, "we think you're bluffing, so screw you." The DNC, to its credit, wasn't bluffing and responded to a direct, intentional violation of party rules by doing what it said it would do. The R&BC voted UNANIMOUSLY to disqualify those states. Longtime Clinton supporter/strategist/bundler/lackey Harold Ickes was on the RBC and voted to disqualify. Hillary herself signed a pledge backing it up.
There's a lot more to the story, too, but this is (1) not the same as Bush v Gore, because the parties can pick their own candidates however they damn well please, they're not the government; and (2) Obama has had almost nothing to do with MI and FL .
Bellows: What are you trying to do ???
Explaining the matter with facts !!!
How silly, when all one has to do, is squeeze their uninformed emotions and misinformed understandings right into the computer keyboard and it will create a blog reply.
It doesn't matter if the strong points of the emotional discussion have nothing to do with the facts - it doesn't matter whether they are logical - and most of all - it doesn't have to be even remotely true.
It's simple take
1 part campaign rhetoric
2 parts gross misunderstanding of what one is talking about.
1 part righteous indignation
3 parts disregard for truth
Then blow a whistle for up to 1 hour.
Reserve spittle in whistle - set aside to cool for 30 mins
Add 1/2 cup Alligator tears
Remember that whistle spittle? Add to tears , lightly whisk and pour into computer keyboard - and immediately post. It's easy .. it's fun ... it doesn't even require a stream of consciousness.
Then threaten people around you that if you don't get your way - you have no intention of compromising, just like the Republican Congress you've been creamed by for years, and then work in a counterproductive way to further pass on bad information encouraged by the Republicans, and willingly complied by the HRC Campaign.
I'm amazed how you remained composed !
Binx101
The Almost Daily Binx
http://binx101.wordpress.com
Hee hee.
Dream on.
DNC is there for a reason. It is called rules. Don't like the rules. Change them. Ignore the rules and suffer the consequences.
The only price following rules imposes is listening to dribble from those who cry when the rules they agreed to are enforced.
Cry baby cry.
Everyone will be seated.
All your crying is so dreadful.
Anyone who doesn't vote or votes for McCain are not really democrats and should not be counted as such!!!
Hillary will vote for ... ???
Fill in the blank and take it for what it is worth.
Billy boy will vote for ...???
Fill in the blank and take it for what it is worth.
You will vote for ... ???
Best to you and yours.
Obama 08
Naive. you talk about acting unethical and immoral. I believe the candidates should honor their original agreement and all state democrats honor the rules of DNC as agreed. There's no honor in trying to change the rules or renege on your word to suit your benefit.
All three candidates should morally honor their agreement. Only someone with a lack of ethics would go back on their word after signing an agreement. MI and FL state leaders messed up and frankly if my state knowing changed it's dates resulting in no votes, so be it. I'd get mad at the right people-- my state leaders.
thing is, those people want to vote! They are Americans, this is a big deal and a close race and they deserve a say. This is our Presidential nominee, for ALL our people.
A person who cannot write a basic business letter cannot be the president of this country. Period.
Obama should have sent Hillary's letter back with "Insufficient Postage" stamped on the envelope.
Oh your so mature!
I wonder if Hillary would be complaining about counting Fla. and Mich. votes counting if things was the other way around. She would be telling everyone that they agreed that Fla. and Mich. shouldn't be allowed. She will stoop to any level to win.
We're in America, everyones votes should count. No exceptions.
well she didn't seem to think so until she realized that she desperately needed those votes, talk about character.
What exactly did you do to protest when the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee warned them that they wouldn't count if they moved their primary up, and they said "you wouldn't dare?" Did you write to all the Democrats in the Fla Leg who voted with the Republicans to move it up anyway, telling them not to? How about when the RBC unanimously said, OK, we're following through on the consequences we warned you about -- can you show me a link to your blog post decrying that? How mad are you at Hillary for signing a pledge to ignore Michigan and Florida? How mad are you at Hillary backer Harold Ickes for supporting the disqualification before Super Tuesday (though he switched afterward)?
Nothing?
Everyone doesn't vote in America. If you're in jail, you don't vote. If you engage in voter fraud, your vote is disqualified. Lots of people who break the rules can't vote. Florida and Michigan thought the DNC was bluffing. It wasn't. Their voters lost. That sucks. It's not Obama's fault.
Everyone's vote will count in the general election but were talking about the primaries and in the primaries everyone doesn't vote.
The DNC set the rules and Mi an FL agree to those rules and then decided to screw the rules and do what they wanted to do so Mi and Fl has to pay. Hillary and Obama agreed to the DNC ruling about not seating the delegates from Mi and Fl because they BROKE THE RULES but now since Hillary is losing she wants to CHEAT and have Mi and Fl delegates seated and she doesn't want Obama to get not one delegate from Mi because Obama followed the rules and had his name removed from the Michigan ballot, she's such a crook.
Yeah, we're in America and everyone SHOULD be able to use the English language properly, putting apostrophes where they belong. Right, Mriverdance?
Did she not once utter, when once referring to the working class, back in Billy's days: ''Screw them!''. Is that not elitist.
Why does America have a 15 minute memory?
Loading comments…
Posted May 8, 2008 | 03:30 PM (EST)