This Is Just Ironic
By Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy on August 24, 2008 at 3:55 PM in Bamboozling, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Democratic Nomination, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden
I got to thinking about Obama’s “performance” in the Saddleback Forum last week in terms of his new Veep pick (sigh - Biden - great. What a bold move. Hahahaha.). And I remembered something kinda funny. No doubt, you have all seen the following video of Obama’s response when asked about which Supreme Court Justice he would not have nominated. Take another look:
I am not talking about him almost claiming Thomas was too inexperienced. He was. Not only that, he sexually harassed Anita Hill, AND was into pornography, just as claimed. The truth of which came out a few years ago when David Brock (the founder of Media Matters) acknowledged that very thing. (In case you don’t know his story, he was a major insider in the Republican Right Wing Machine. He said they knew Clarence Thomas was into pornography, and that he certainly did sexually harass Anita Hill. For good measure, he threw in that Senator Clinton was right - there WAS a right-wing conspiracy against them. When asked on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart why he was finally coming forward with this information NOW, he said it was because his conscience was killing him, or words to that effect. You can check out his book, Blinded By The Right for all the details.)
But just guess who was the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversaw the Clarence Thomas hearings? Yup - Joe Biden.
Seems I wasn’t the only one thinking about the connections between Joe Biden, Clarence Thomas, and Anita Hill. As I was looking around this morning (and AFTER I started this, I might add), I came across the following NY Times article by Kate Phillips, “Biden and Anita Hill, Revisited.” In it, Ms. Phillips says:
It was another time and another place, but the issues of race, gender and politics intersected in a volatile way that still may hold resonance today, especially given the interplay of those themes (granted in entirely different ways) during the epic primary battle between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Some women, invariably of Senator Clinton’s age, who were actively involved in opposing Mr. Thomas’s confirmation in 1991 recall the narrow vote (52-48 in favor) as “a day of shame for the Senate and a day of shame for women,” as one lawyer said this week. The episode in time evoked strong reactions from women across the country, who viewed the judiciary panel as 14 white men who too easily dismissed Ms. Hill’s accusations and who did not allow the testimony of other women who might have corroborated or helped buttress her account to prove a case of sexual harassment.
An interesting theme, meaning one that resonates with today, was apparent in the Hill/Thomas hearings as well:
Ms. Ross, who was one of the lawyers assisting Ms. Hill, asserts that Mr. Biden treated Mr. Thomas too even-handedly because of the racially charged nature of the hearings. (Remember Justice Thomas’ charge that he had been subjected to a “high-tech lynching.”) Ms. Ross said that Mr. Biden “was accused of being labeled racist, so the Republicans were blackmailing him and he pushed the levers to make the case look like there wasn’t a case when there was.”
From not permitting other witnesses like Angela Wright to testify who would have been favorable to Ms. Hill, to not permitting affidavits from an expert on whether a pattern of behavior needed to be established to prove sexual harassment, Ms. Ross concluded: “He did everything to make it be good for Thomas and to slant it against her.” (Mr. Biden and his staff at times indicated that Ms. Wright and others weren’t willing to testify, but the record and books written since appear contradictory, as these women were held waiting in the wings for days.)
Huh. You don’t say. Since I was subject myself to the insult of being called a racist just this morning for not supporting Obama, no doubt, Biden was reading the tea leaves correctly. But such a threat should not hamper one from speaking out the truth, or seeking the truth, no matter what one is called. It was his JOB to do so, especially since Thomas was up for a lifetime position. IMHO, that is.
As one might expect:
Over the years, Mr. Biden has defended his role in the hearings. In “Strange Justice,” a book about the Clarence Thomas confirmation, authors Jill Abramson (managing editor for news here at The Times) and Jane Mayer, author of “The Dark Side” and a writer for the New Yorker, extensively document the internal and external machinations surrounding the hearings and interviewed Senator Biden several times.
He made decisions, they wrote, based on his views of respect for a person’s privacy about what and wouldn’t (sic) be let into the hearings – including the pornography rentals and Mr. Thomas’s thin legal record. (At Saddleback, Mr. Obama, a former law professor at the University of Chicago said, “I would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. I don’t think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation.”)
(At one point, Senator Biden’s aides (sic) and then he told Ms. Abramson and Ms. Mayer that digging in too deep on Mr. Thomas’s intellectual legal prowess would’ve been a problem. One aide said, “it was a racial thing.” Mr. Biden himself said, “There was in fact a concern about whether or not to make the guy look stupid – what would happen if you embarrassed him.”)
In one interview, the two wrote that Mr. Biden said later that he had tried to be a statesman, to uphold decency standards. In the end, however, he conceded that his motivations might have been “misplaced.” On excluding the pornography issue alone, they quoted Mr. Biden as saying that he acted, “in fairness to Thomas, which in retrospect he didn’t deserve.”
Well, he got THAT right.
The irony of all of this just kills me - Obama and Biden. Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill. Wow.
So, it seems we have not moved all that far forward in the past 17 years. Fear of being called a racist, and treating women as less credible than men, has been demonstrated for all to see over the past 18 months. How sad. Sad that we have not advanced further on women’s issues (though we do have the Sexual Harassment law now - good luck winning one of those cases, but hey - it does exist!), or being able to speak the truth no matter the color of a person’s skin. How sad that so much of this election has been based on those very issues. Seems we haven’t come such a long way, baby…
Spare us the Rabbi sermon on Pornography and reflect on the Torrah and the Telmud about all those bondage games laced throughout the Old Testament. With some creativity you could have a best-seller.
What?
Must be a Gaza strip Obama blogger talking shet.
Ignore that idiot.
Do you recall the Saturday Night Live Skit (SNL)
with Mary Jo Kopechne/ Take a Test for Me Teddy Kennedy and
Plagerizing/ Ole Credit Card Joe Biden et al?
It was hysterical, but only because it was so damn EASY!
I’m too ashamed to tell you who my Reps are as a FORMER Democrat.
Grow up. If you don’t know what my inference to condescension regarding Sexual Violence, Pornography and other backhanded smacks referenced in this thread from the original poster, in relationship to Judaism and the Old Testament, do yourself a favor and abstain from adding commentary.
You clearly haven’t the knowledge to speak about it and to throw in Porno, by the parent poster is a juvenile attempt of moral condescension by a self-condescending Religion.
To be fair, Christianity is just as condescending and being Agnostic it’s easy to observe the hypocrisies.
To classify me as an idiot from the words of a mentally limited mind really holds no merit.
This juvenile cheapshot to add levity and validation to the ticket only weakens the original poster’s commentary.
It’s a non-sequitor amongst and otherwise useful piece.
amongst and …
amongst an …
What I would give for the SysAdmin to deploy rich text session editing.
IT’s FREE!! Your FOSS solution needs to better manage sessiona management and cache pools. Flushing local cache objects all the time to verify submitted content is poor software development.
It’s all there, in the packages. Deploy these features. It’s obvious we’re pluggin’ the hell out of book sales and all the damn flash. Fix the basic php backend.
Dude, you stink of condescention! What the fuck are you talking about hypocrites, and then you act like one. Telling anyone to Grow Up, is condescending. So who the fuck are you to bow up and get all preachy?
And what in this article mentioned the “Torrah” (sic) and “Telmud” (sic)? Rabbi Sermon? Why are you even discussing these religions and your very proud agnostic position?
Dude, you are in the stench of your own fucking ego. Who gives a fuck if you think someone else is “mentally limited”….
you’re a fucking idiot. And I can out debate any religion, condescending comments, and ego with you, so fucking what.
Tyrione, get a fucking life you numbnut.
The point of the article is that indeed Clarence Thomas was who he was accused to be, and he fought it knowing he was guilty of harassment and was into pornography. It’s not a moralistic thing to point it out. I don’t give a fuck if he watched horses jack off. I care if he can be honest, forthright and capable of his job. Because his job requires him to hear cases that involve Sexual Harassment, Pornography, etc…he’ll have to demonstrate his ethical abilities on the topic. If he cannot, then he will be a terrible jurist. And he is…a terrible jurist.
But you, lump of shit, have a lot of nerve bowing up by making up shit. Of course, I hope you keep doing it so we can write you off and see that you are indeed a distracted fucking idiot.
Have a nice day jackhole.
I remember the old skit about the 14 congressional pigs questioning clarence too. In fact I think I have it. I will look.
is there any way we can get that skit from snl
to refresh memories? what fun that would be.
What?
PUMA
uhhhhhhh……
I remember Anita and that pig Clarence well. He pulled an Obama. He pulled the Race Card and told the senate they were after him because he was an ‘Uppity black man”. Most of those guys shriveled right after that, because after all, the race card is important but talking about pubic hairs in your coke to a lady is no big deal. Besides, some of these 14 guys were just as big a bunch of pigs as Clarence.
Yeah, I remember this so well. I can’t believe it was 17 years ago. Thomas told Hill he was “Long Dong Silver.”
I’ll never forget that,
SNL Skit transcript, Clarence Thomas Hearings.
Warning: Close to X rated, considering it’s a skit of 14 pigs questioning another pig.
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/91/91cthomas.phtml
I remember it too, VERY WELL INDEED, and I don’t know any women of a certain age and then some who weren’t furious at the way Anita was treated.
She’s put her life back together, she’s last I heard teaching at Brandeis, but talk about a gut slicing experience….if anyone was “high tech lynched” it was her.
If I remember correctly it was Daddy Bush that started it all. The race card I mean. He had sent - I can’t remember one or two nominees - for a vacancy on the Supreme Court and the Dems rejected them. So……he sent an unqualified black man and he, the Republicans, and the RNC sat back and watched the games ensue. They knew the Dems would be in a quandry about a black candidate. This was Bush’s and the Republican’s way of getting a really strong conservative on the bench even though the Dems controlled the Senate. Dems were a bunch of wusses even way back then! Also proving they were more sexist than racist in a preview of this year’s Dem primary.
Maybe the dems are returning the favor.
Yes, I did read Blinded by the Right and I recommend it to everyone. it still is a who’s who in the VRWC. It makes Bidens words even more disgusting:
http://people.virginia.edu/~ybf2u/Thomas-Hill/bide2.html
You know, Obama was OLD ENOUGH to remember that shit. He can’t play the “I was a child when that guy was putting pubic hairs on the coke can” like he did with Ayres.
WHY the fuck did he pick Biden?
This IS an avenue for discussion. This goes to JUDGMENT.
While those Obots are whining about Cindy McCain’s homes (and face it, she’s Miss Moneybags, he’s along for the ride), we’ve got a Presidential candidate who –apparently without THINKING, or if he did think, without GIVING A SHIT–picked as his running mate a guy who permitted a respected, hardworking, damn-she-pounded-on-that-glass-ceiling legal professional named Anita Hill, who was a woman and black, to be dragged through the mud, called horrible names, excoriated, and slandered.
Damn.
DAY-YUM.
I swear, this asshole thinks that there’s no one over thirty going to the polls, or something.
Or he’s signalling all of the Democratic women voters with brains to just fuck the hell off.
He is a Very Stupid Man, this Obama.
Very Stupid Indeed.
Obama has no foreign policy experience and Biden does. Biden is also more appealing (so some say) to the independents- a group Obama is trying to court. So that seems to be why he was “chosen” to be Obama’s mentor. He could care less about the 18 million Hillary supporters as we are all expected to “fall in line” like a bunch of cows. In his view- Where will they go? Well I guess Mr Obama will find out in November where they will go won’t he?
Because apparently Biden II got Biden III to solve a little problem re Larry Sinclair for Obama, and that put him deeply in Biden’s debt.
I don’t know what was disgusting? He was saying don’t call Anita crazy, she’s as entitled not to be lynched as Thomas.
watch live in Denver:
http://news.politicswest.com/livecam
Someone on this site recommended reading thecityedition.com story “Obama’s October Surprise” by Pat Racimora. I just finished it. It is full of details we all know, but I did not connect. Racimora links Donna Brazile’s connection to Karl Rove, continuing through the election cycle and the fraudulent caucauses to the DNC meeting in June to Hillary’s suspension of her campaign. It fits tightly with Biden and Obama and the story above.
When/if anyone reads it, would you please respond at NO Quarter, writing your assessment of the article.
One aspect that I link was Susan Unper telling of the caucaus in Washington state and how ugly it was. The article discusses that.
Sorry, I meant Susan Unpc
‘The more things CHANGE the more they stay the same.’
ObotKids just don’t understand stuff like that- us old folks do.
No Hopey Changey with O- just words.
Pelosi and other guests briefly left the hotel during the Saturday incident but were never in danger, Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/24/man-arrested-with-weapons-at-pelosis-denver-hotel/
This is Colorado. Concealed weapons permits are readily available for most Colorado citizens. The guy may have thought he was within his rights to carry a gun if he had a concealed weapons permit.
Welcome to the West.
Excellent commentary, RRRA. The parallels between the Thomas hearing & the recent primary are striking. I think this is one of your best pieces, I wish it could get more coverage. Why can’t regular, decent people see that they’ve been played by Obama & his thugs during this campaign? Just like back then, they think they’ll look racist if they ask questions or seek the truth. So sad for all of us.
Wow, thank you! I appreciate that. ANd yes it is sad that people are so afraid of being called a racist that they will allow blatant sexism/misogyny to go unchecked.
Uppity and Clinton Fan - great comments, as always.
I have to say that every thing depends on Hillary. She should stand up herself while millions of her supporters have tried very hard since her suspension. How could she leave her supporters in a Mess like this by simply supporting Hussein Obama??? Those who have contributed their money to her compaign before and after her suspension will be very agry not at Obama, but at herself. That is the fact?
Gore wimped when the election was gamed. Kerry wimped when the election was gamed. We all saw it and despised them for their lack of spine. Hillary must stand up for all of us who believe in her. There is no other option for her. She is not a spineless brat like Gore and Kerry. Hillary you must do the right thing for country and true democrats. Stand up and break pattern with this
shit-fest that has become the democratic leadership.
It’s not Gore and it’s not Hillary and it wasn’t Bill.
Have you been in the position of trying to get a message across in the face of media onslaught?
Then you have no idea.
You can’t buck a tidal wave.
All we can do is help and have their backs. We have to be part of the SOLUTION.
The bottom line is that Obama is going to blame the Clinton’s for not becoming the next POTUS.
Who cares? He’ll lose, become a marginal Senator and with his continued “present” voting history will be ousted by his own district, in future primaries.
And what? Obama will be removed from the Ballot and Jailed, I believe, before the GE. Who is going to be blaimed for this then?
probably TexasDarlin!
One of these days — Obama’s crimes will catch up with him and he will end up in jail.
Rezko is in jail — and although he is certainly a bad guy and a crook — he was NOT elected. Obama WAS elected and that makes his involvement worse. Without Obama in the legislature clearing the way for Rezko to loot the public treasury — Rezko would not have been able to loot as much as he did — he had HELP.
The Chicago machine needs to be shut down — a.s.a.p.
PUMA
Exactly my thoughts. Obama will be irrelevant as soon as he loses 40+ states. In many ways he is irrelevant now. This is not about him. It is about keeping Hillary from the White House. Any stooge would do. and he’s likable enough. If he mattered, he would have been vetted better.
The Democratic Party didn’t have to go with this dirt. There is a major clean-up needed.
Senator Clinton is the only person I’ve ever donated to [$150] for any election and as a former Democrat turned Classical Libertarian will forever defend her solutions, both from a political stance and an engineering stance.
When I first saw the cues from the Mass Media that the Educated Sector is for Obama I knew the fix was in.
I voted for Bill during my Engineering undergrad and I voted for his wife as a Professional.
I sure as hell have never nor will I ever consider Social Scientists as Scientists. They are an insult to us Hard Science Fields.
The blatant misuse of Probability and Statistics, Distribution analysis, Complex Analysis and more shows me these people should be just what they are: Sociologists without the Science. Political Science is an Oxymoron just as much as Military Intelligence, except that Military Intelligence is a Science of extremely complex variables so it always looks like they are Morons.
The only way he will lose is if the people who say “I’m sitting out this one” get off their asses and go vote for McCain. Because for every idiot who says they’ll sit out, there are probably at least a dozen or so AA folk (and a few guilty whites/dumb young idiots) who’ve never had the initiative to vote before who will vote for him. He will win if the people bitching about him don’t vote.
So if the SDs don’t wake up and pick Hillary, you all need to go out and vote for McCain/Whoever he picks. Please. Just suck it up and do it. That’s what I am willing to do, and I love Bill & Hill.
You are exactly right, if you sit back and not vote, you are allowing this to happen. Our future, country is at stake. It is our duty to fight this corruption, to stand up for our freedom, or are you going to play right into their hands and do what they really want you to do by staying home.
Wake Up America
Stand Up America
Fight for America
NOBAMA
Yep. Obamites always blame someone else for their screw-ups.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4HrSQySus8
ditto. who f-ing cares? Obama will go down in flames and most deservedly so.
“The bottom line is that Obama is going to blame the Clinton’s for not becoming the next POTUS.”
Fabulous, I hope they do because once the country gets to know Obama, they will be grateful that he did not become president. Blame her and she can transform that into being the one that tried to warn everybody.
They can blame her all they want.
That just shows she loves her country and wants the best for American and backtrack barack ain’t it.
At the confluence site they are saying that the delicates have to vote before it goes to the floor.
The NEW democratic party at work.
They now use Stalin Rules:
The people can go to the polls to vote for who they want, we give the votes to who we want.
COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,THOSE PEOPLE AND HILLARY’S HARRIDANS RULE
The bottom line is that Obama is going to blame the Clinton’s for not becoming the next POTUS.
And what? Obama will be removed from the Ballot and Jailed, I believe, before the GE.
Every single Seantor knew that Clarence Thomas was a chronic sexual harasser. The problem - they just didn’t think it was a big deal.
Hell I knew it. In 1984 I wrote a paper on the EEOC while in graduate school. Everyone I interviewed personally told me that Thomas (head of the EEOC) was the biggest sexual harasser in the country. The irony is overwhelming.
spelling correction - Senator not Seantor
At the time, I had a discrimination charge for none promotion pending and EEOC sat on it. Everyone was saying that the EEOC was a joke under Thomas’s leadership. They were always in the pockets of the business people who were screwing people with legitimate claims. I watched the Anita Hill hearing and I knew he was lying. Women in the house of rep took the lead to push for the hearing (especially Pat Schroeder0 because there were either no women or only one woman in the senate. During the following elections outraged women (republicans and democrats) stood up and gave us the first black female senator, Carol Moseley who ironically was from Illinois Obama’s state. During the ensuring years about 8 women came to the senate.
[...] as Rabble Rouser reverend Amy says at No Quarter, we know for a fact from David Brock’s Blinded by the Right that Thomas was committing [...]
when i heard obama answer this question on saddleback, my first thought was he was going to answer he did not like thomas because of the sexual harrasment thing and all the messiness that came with it. but, never did he mention any of this except thomas was conservative. so that tells me what his priorities are.
Good point. I too noticed that Obama missed yet another opportunity to speak out for women during that question at Saddleback. That’s because he really doesn’t give a crap.
Thanks, RRRAmy. Just reading the comments above and going to Biden’s original comments are bad flashbacks. I even remember where I was watching tv when these were made and how angry I was at the injustice. I know women who also remember what Biden said, better than I. Unity schmunity. Obviously, pigs can now time fly.
The Obama nomination is highly unlikely Denver news says.
where? link?
WHAT????? Do you have a link?
PUMA
http://news.politicswest.com/livecam
There showing demostraters at the convention,and lots of swearing going on,and the message isn’t getting out…Hope these are not the Puma’s because people want to hear the messages,not bleeps,every two seconds,.We need a clean fights with a strong message.
Clinton’s name is coming alot on Fox News..
We need Hillary back as the nominee..
floor fight, floor fight!!!!
The demonstrators are those Recreate68 people. Old radicals from 68 got kids all riled up about how romantic all that war demonstrating was. What they forgot to tell them is they can get their heads cracked. Some old hippy still on the bong will start something and it will turn into a brawl. Has nothing to do with PUMA, although they will probably blame us. Recreate68 has been brewing all summer. A bunch of old hippy wannabees. I’m thrilled. That’s how the dems got whacked in 68. It was horrible. Keep going, guys! Hope nobody’s ipod gets cracked, it might be the end of it.
Here’s a bit about them.
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/05/11/recreate68s-bodyhammer-tactics-self-defense-manual/
Obama’s inexperience gives me that tingling feeling that makes my face whiter than McCain.
The Obamabots now have Daddy to help them drive out of the ditch.
Good luck with that!
Obama/Daddy 08
DENVER - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, hoping to united the Democratic Party and cement her future in it, will gather her hard-won primary delegates Wednesday at a reception where she is expected to formally release them to Barack Obama.
Clinton has invited her pledged delegates to a reception at the Colorado Convention Center, not far from the main Democratic National Convention arena.
The high-profile gathering of political regulars who once fought against Obama serves a dual purpose for Clinton: Show fellow Democrats that she can be a team player, and display her still formidable political strengths for the future. Many of her supporters want her to run for president again.
A Democratic official told The Associated Press Sunday, a day before the convention begins, that she is expected to release her delegates at the Wednesday event. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss details publicly.
Asked about Clinton’s plans for the event, her spokesman Philippe Reines said it will be “an opportunity for Senator Clinton to see her delegates — many for the first time since the primaries ended, thank them for their hard work and support, and most importantly to encourage them to support and work for Senator Obama as strongly as she has in order to elect him in November.”
The New York senator has support among key voting groups that Obama has yet to win over, particularly women, older voters, and working-class voters.
Coming into the convention, many Democrats have wondered exactly how and when Clinton would throw her delegates to Obama, and if that would be a messy, contentious affair.
Republicans are already trying to take advantage of such potential fissures.
John McCain’s campaign launched a television ad suggesting rival Barack Obama snubbed Clinton because of her criticism during the Democratic primary fight.
The ad features clips of Clinton, including one in which she accused him of negative campaigning, and a voiceover announcer says: “She won millions of votes but isn’t on the ticket. Why? For speaking the truth.”
Clinton aides responded that she clearly supports Obama and agrees with him on important issues like health care and the Iraq war, and doesn’t agree with McCain on those issues.
So what if she releases her delegates to Obama, it just shows how confident she is about him losing in November. I like Biden, he has experience but BO is just using him. I still won’t vote for him… McCain might have 7 homes or however many he actually has I don’t care. I bet he doesn’t have slum’s in his district like Obama does. What a great AD for McCain…
It’s not a convention - it’s a coup!
Oblowme/Plugs: the New DNC = no Democrats
Funny. Pelousy never came out swinging in defense of the horrible sexist lies against Hillary..
Pelosi: Newest GOP ad “insults our intelligence”
DENVER — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came out swinging at the first official convention event on Sunday, calling John McCain “bankrupt” of ideas after Republicans unveiled a new ad questioning why Hillary Rodham Clinton is not on the Democratic ticket.
On Saturday, Republicans unveiled a new ad insinuating that Barack Obama did not choose Clinton because the New York senator criticized him too harshly, an obvious attempt to drive a wedge within the Democratic Party.
“I think the American people are going to tire of that,” Pelosi said at a press briefing Sunday morning. “Please don’t insult our intelligence, they are saying to politicians. We want answers, we don’t want gimmicks.”
Great point. And I’m “plagerizing/Bidenizing your Pelousy.
Pelousy just didn’t want people to compare those natural looking hicks from Arkansas to her botched plastic surgery!
Pelousy even looks like a corporate puppet.
I would be happy to insult Pelosi’s intelligence if I could find any evidence of it.
Finally the truth is coming out. But they shut Larry’s site down again. Isn’t it amazing how hard they try to shut him up???? NOw why would that be??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%20D4X7ehB9kN0&fmt=18
BREAKING NEWS DENVER - Democratic delegates from Michigan and Florida were awarded full voting rights at the national convention Sunday, despite holding early primaries against party rules.
ADVERTISEMENT
The convention credentials committee voted unanimously to restore the voting privileges at the behest of Barack Obama, the party’s presumptive nominee for president. The states were initially stripped of delegates for holding primaries before Feb. 5. The party’s rules committee restored the delegates in May, but gave them only half votes.
Democrats hope the gesture will strengthen their standing in two important battleground states while ending a contentious chapter of the nominating process.
“The only way we will be successful is if we are unified as a party and all Democrats know we are full partners,” said Chris Edley Jr., a committee member from California who introduced the resolution to restore Florida’s votes.
The party’s move raises questions about whether it will be able to control its primary calendar in the future. A commission will work on the issue over the next two years.
Representatives from Florida and Michigan said they were penalized enough. None of the major candidates campaigned in the states before the primaries, and the delegates’ votes weren’t restored until after the nomination was decided.
“We realize that mistakes have been made, but we’re excited in Florida,” said Scott Maddox, a former Florida Democratic chairman and a member of the credentials committee. “We have suffered enough.”
Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan called Sunday’s vote “a victory for change in the system.”
Levin has been working to challenge the early voting status of Iowa and New Hampshire.
“We had the guts to take the system on, and we made progress this year,” he said.
Obama’s former Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, won both primaries. Obama’s name was not on the Michigan ballot and neither candidate campaigned in Florida.
Some of Clinton’s supporters were outraged that the delegates were not fully reinstated in May. They were also angry that Obama claimed some of the delegates won by Clinton in Michigan.
Obama clinched the Democratic nomination June 3 and he has been working to win over Clinton’s supporters ever since.
The credentials committee’s work is expected to win ratification by the whole convention Monday.
Florida has 211 delegates, including superdelegates, and Michigan has 157. Both states are expected to be battlegrounds in the November election.
Restoring their voting rights increases the total number of delegate votes at the convention to 4,419. It will take 2,210 delegates to win the nomination.
Obama ended the primaries with a 365-delegate lead over Clinton. Reinstating the Florida and Michigan delegates will not affect that lead because Obama has more endorsements from the states’ superdelegates.
Both parties struggled to control their primary calendars this year as states jockeyed to increase their influence by moving their nominating contests earlier. The Republicans penalized five states for holding contests before Feb. 5, stripping them of half their delegates: Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, Wyoming and South Carolina.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has not publicly pressed for their reinstatement, though many GOP insiders expect them to have full voting rights as well.
The news is all lies.
Obama has a 125 or 130 pledged delegate lead not 365. That statement is counting FL and MI as 1/2 votes, giving pledged delegates to him from MI when he was not on the ballot and taking 4 of Hillary’s pledged MI delegates. That 365 number includes bought and paid for superdelegates many of which came from states that Hillary won. The as*hole didn’t win anything!! He has buffaloed the superdelegates just as Clarence Thomas did to the democratic lead congress during the Anita Hill hearing, especially Biden.
Particularly this part:
Such a big fat lie it’s not even funny.
Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan called Sunday’s vote “a victory for change in the system.” Levin has been working to challenge the early voting status of Iowa and New Hampshire. “We had the guts to take the system on, and we made progress this year,” he said.
What? That cracked me up. McCain and whomever 08!
I’m from Michiganistan and I’m voting STRAIGHT REPUBLICAN. Obama and the DNC stole my vote, now they want to continue with the HOAX and pretend everything is normal. The DEMS no longer value DEMOCRACY.
The blantant stealing of this election has me sick to my stomach. Lost without a party.
The blatant stealing of this election has me sick to my stomach. Lost without a party.
Amen!
PUMA
Impeach, expel Barack Obama
http://obamaimpeachment.org/
Well, it seems to tie in with Biden also not wanting to look to closely into Mr. Soetoro’s closet. No wonder he had no problem getting his son, Attorney General for Delaware to issue arrest warrent for a Mr. Larry Sinclair, issues of privacy my foot!
Can we get this on fox:
This is unconfirmed. I have only heard it second hand. Apparently, Delegates have been told that they must indicate their choice for President and Vice President in writing by 4:00pm Wednesday and turned over to their state chairmen.
Now, what possible reason could there be for pressuring delegates to do this before the actual nomination and role call vote. Hmmmm, think, think, think….
Well, if you are planning to vote for Hillary, they can strong arm you and make your life miserable. And if you try to fake them out by *saying* you are going to vote for Obama, you will be assigned a bathroom monitor to make absolutely certain you don’t backslide. I can just imagine them chasing the hapless delegate around, waving the paper around, “You promised. You PROMISED!!!”, like persistent, bratty kids.
Your DNC at work. It wasn’t enough to rig the caucuses. They have to rig the convention as well. But isn’t it interesting that they feel they have to go to such lengths to keep Obama from being replaced by the more qualified candidate. The Superdelegates must be getting restless. Bwahahahahahahhhh!
http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/
No surprise here.
Me thinks it is time for the Democrats to come up with a new name for your party as there seems to be no Democracy…;)