First there was the call for a re-vote in Florida and Michigan. Then there was the statement that pledged delegates didn’t necessarily have to honor that pledge at the convention. Now there’s accusations that her opponent doesn’t want people to vote in the remaining primaries. What is Hillary smoking? Is she honestly that desperate for delegates?
While these tactics may work if she was running for, oh, I don’t know… Prom Queen. But do we really want a prom queen for President?
Presidential candidate Mike Gravel has announced that he’s leaving the Democratic party. In his statement he said that the Democratic party no longer represents his hope for America, so he’s switching to the Libertarian party. He’s apparently in this for the long haul. I can’t say he’s my favorite candidate, but I’ll give him credit for staying in the fight.
Hillary is at it again – or should I say still. She’s still trying to get a revote in Michigan, and is going to what some would say is extreme measures – especially since Florida has already said they won’t hold a revote. She’s changing her schedule today to go beg Michigan lawmakers for a revote, and some of Hillary’s supporters are trying to raise funds for a privately funded revote. There are several issues the Legislators in Lansing must look at: cost, legality, logistics, and possibly some ethical issues.
According to an article in today’s NY Times, the cost of the revote would be approximately $12 million; and a proposed privately funded re-vote just adds to the legal issues. If they want it privately funded, maybe it should come out of Hillary’s personal funds – not government funds or even campaign funds. Let her use the royalties from her book, although that would just give her another reason to whine that it’s unfair even.
Of course the accusations and finger pointing continue too. Hillary’s camp says that Obama is trying to disenfranchise the Michigan voters by not urging them to support a revote, as well as trying to block a revote. They claim he’s saying he doesn’t want a primary in Michigan. I think they need a reality check. There was a primary held in Michigan. As simple as it sounds, just because there will be no delegates from Michigan counted for the nomination doesn’t mean there wasn’t a primary held. But of course Hillary doesn’t see it that way because it offers no advantage to her; and after all she won’t do anything or fight (beg, plead, whine) for anything that doesn’t provide some advantage to her or her campaign.
OK, so is it me or does it seem that Hillary is grasping at straws to build her delegate count? As soon as Obama pulled ahead of her in the count, she started calling for the Michigan and Florida primaries to count. If it’s truly important to her, she should have been calling for it earlier while she was still ahead in the count. Or even better she should have tried to convince the Democratic party in those states to follow the rules so that their votes would count when the primary dates were being set. They all knew going into those primaries that the votes and delegates wouldn’t count, but she couldn’t be bothered with it until she fell behind.
Rudy Giuliani announced this afternoon that he is formally withdrawing from the presidential race. Rudy had spent several months and millions of dollars in Florida, pinning his campaign on a strong showing there. Between his campaign’s financial trouble and last night’s third place finish sealed the deal, there was little chance of a recovery.
During his statement he also endorsed Senator John McCain, but the real news of the day is his withdrawal. Rudy’s endorsement may help McCain in New York, but that’s not a lock by any means and it will likely mean little otherwise.
Florida, you have my sincere gratitude for helping to bring Rudy’s self aggrandizing 9/11 rhetoric to an end.
In other news, Democratic candidate John Edwards also withdrew today.
Now that we’re several weeks into the primary and caucus season and the voters are having their say, candidates are beginning to drop. Within the past week Dennis Kucinich, Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson have each announced their withdrawal from the race. I don’t know enough about Hunter or Kucinich to say anything meaningful, but I was sad to see Thompson drop. I definitely understand, but I like him as a candidate.
Ron Paul seems to be inching upward ever so slowly, though it seems he hasn’t been able to convert his online popularity and fanatical supporters to a victory in the polls. Ever the optimists, Rudy Guiliani and Mike Gravel march on in spite of having three percent or less of the vote. I presume that they’re hoping super Tuesday will breathe life into their campaigns.
The primaries started with a bang, didn’t they? Huckabee winning the Republican side isn’t too surprising, but beating Romney by eleven points is. Iowa was Romney’s strategy, win big early and build from there. The other candidates have already been spending time in the other primary states, so Romney is now playing catch up. This early upset can’t be good for him.
Have you noticed that all of the recent press coverage has been about Obama, Clinton, Romney and Huckabee? The other candidates are getting very little press. Just a moment ago I realized I haven’t come across Rudy Giuliani’s name in almost a week. That’s a nice trend. I know this is a short break, he’s going to be all over the media when the New Hampshire caucus draws near. Still, how awesome is it to have a short break from being constantly reminded of him?
With the primaries approaching competition among the candidates has been heating up. Just as you might expect, the candidates are busy slinging mud at one another in an attempt to swing the polls in their own direction. This is all fine and good, but there have, however, been a few statements made which are pretty alarming. I’m not talking about slinging mud, this is politics so that’s to be expected. I’m talking about campaign promises and stretching the truth.
Not so strange bedfellows
I love living in Austin where you have all kinds of people, most of them just itching to spout off on any topic (and I’m one of them to some degree). The latest topic is the Clinton/Obama debate hosted by CNN on the University of Texas campus on February 21st. At first the TX Democratic Party said attendance would be by invitation only. Personally being a Republican, this didn’t bother me, especially when I can watch it on CNN if so inclined. Plus you can go to the watch party if you have $50 to blow. However, there were a LOT of people, both Democrats & Republicans, who started screaming and yelling, some having an outright hissy fit complete with indignant outrage, that it should be in a larger venue so that the public can attend, claiming a conspiracy with CNN & the Democratic Party. Quite a few posted their opinions on the Austin American Statesman website. Of course some just took the opportunity to rant and rave about other things, but that’s par for the course in these things.
Rantings aside for the moment, I actually like what Susan Binford, Assistant Dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs said about it after they announced the release of 100 general public tickets. She said “First and foremost, this is a television show.” After I got over my self-amusing thoughts of “So does that mean it will be purely entertainment?”, I started looking at their position. I agree that larger venues have more logistical and production problems, i.e. security, audio that isn’t as good as it would be with a smaller venue, etc… All in all, I think it’s being handled the best it can be given the short notice in pulling together a production of this magnitude.
I think one of the biggest problems is that many see the target audience as strictly a Texas audience, or even an Austin audience, when in fact it’s a nationwide audience as are all Presidential Debates in this era of quicker, easier dissemination of information. The candidates are in the news every day for some issue or another, ensuring plenty of access to the candidates views & positions on the issues. People need to look at the larger picture and stop being so self-focused when it comes to this debate.And back to the topic of ranting for a minute, I think that the people who took out their anger and frustration on the people who answer the phones at the Travis County Democratic Party Office were way out of line. It’s not like they made the venue decision, and it’s not their fault, so don’t yell at them.
I’m sure people will continue to bash the TX Democratic Party, CNN, as well as UT and the LBJ School given their involvement, while throwing in the GOP and their candidates just because they can. They’ll also continue claiming some kind of conspiracy to prevent public access to the candidates, but it’s not. That’s all there is to it, and they need to get over it.
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