What Will Hillary Do At The Convention? |
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 August 4, 2008 |
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My Top 3 |
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It doesn’t seem possible, but the Democratic National Convention is already happening this month. And very early next month is the Republican convention. It seems to me that summer just started, but here we are already, staring into the approaching election abyss.
You may have heard a rumor that Hillary Clinton will put her name on the ballot for the first vote for consideration as nominee for the Democrats, despite what she has said in the past. Well, look at it this way. This video explains it very well, and as you watch it, the thing to focus on is that Hillary Clinton intends to support Barack Obama for president. What she wants for every one of her supporters is a catharsis, otherwise known as “closure”. She feels she can accomplish this by letting her delegates vote for her at the convention.
Remember closure? It was the word of the 80’s, maybe the 90’s, I forget, but everyone used it constantly, (like people use “surge” and “robust” now for everything under the sun.) CLOSURE: In this case it means let her supporters tie up these loose ends, get recognition for their accomplishments, and publicly recognize and thank the 18 million who voted for Hillary Clinton for president in the primaries. Then, as she says in the video, she will bring everyone together to support the nominee, and her delegates will feel they did their job and got legitimate, fair treatment for their efforts.
That’s great, except two weird things happened in the last two days. One, Obama called for the voting rights of all the delegates in Michigan and Florida. My guess is that this is one of the points being hammered out in his ongoing negotiations with Hillary and her campaign. She is not getting the money she needs to retire her campaign debt, so she is pressuring Obama for things she wants for herself and her supporters. My guess is also that he’s scared she might fight him for the nomination and maybe even win. His poll numbers are not as “robust” as they were two months ago and she has not formally released her delegates. Think that’s an oversight? Nothing in these two campaigns is an oversight. Everything is being coordinated very carefully and I think Hillary, even at this point, has an awful lot of power. (I wish she’d use it to convince Obama to stop self-swiftboating and stick to his principles, whatever they are). I don’t completely understand that a convention nomination for Hillary would be a “showing of unity” but I can see how they get to that somewhat bent conclusion. As posted by a Hillary supporter:
” Hillary said that the best way to re-unify our party is to make sure people feel heard and are given a real choice when the vote comes up. I loved this quote of Sue’s…
People say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Well the way to a Hillary’s supporter’s heart is through the
It’s probably true that some serious convention respect from Obama supporters especially would really help Hillary supporters find a way to get to supporting Obama, if that’s what they want to do. If they don’t, I think the Obama campaign needs to realize that some people who supported Hillary will now be supporting Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader, and that might not change no matter what they do at the convention. Changing those minds will rely only on what Obama says and does between now and November. He needs to explain his FISA vote, first and foremost, and then explain what he will do with climate change and how fast. Enough of this drilling talk. Now the delegates for Hillary have announced a petition drive for Hillary. This is very strange because it looks like they are making a serious push towards nominating Hillary at the convention, despite what she has clearly stated are her wishes to support Obama. Honestly, I wish she would quit emphasizing that in order to keep him more honest than he has been lately. No matter how you look at it, Obama has been all over the map and into the solar system lately with his moving around on issues and not being able to decide what it is he stands for on civil rights, the war, and drilling. It’s pissing me and a lot of people off. Hillary pressure could help keep him on track, theoretically. I think she has been doing that, but she should ramp it up and one way she can do that is stop telling the world every bit of her convention strategy. A little mystery might be good for moving him a little farther left. Here is a bit of the petition drive statement: I. UNITY AFTER THE CONVENTION DEPENDS ON HAVING A TWO-NAME BALLOT A. Whether the Democratic Convention ends with the party united depends on whether the name “Hillary Clinton” appears on the nominating election ballot. B. As many as a thousand additional Clinton-pledged delegates are expected to swing behind Obama, if he is elected the party’s nominee after a genuine election with both his and Clinton’s name appearing on the ballot. C. This same thousand are expected to remain aloof from the Obama general election campaign, effectively dividing and weakening the party, if Obama is simply given the nomination without a real election, without a two-name ballot. D. The thousand Clinton delegates who remain in play feel that an Obama election “victory” resulting from a one-name ballot would be hollow, illegitimate, undemocratic, disenfranchising of eighteen million primary and caucus voters, and, therefore, insupportable. E. The key to a unified Democratic Party after the Convention is a genuine nominating election, with two names on the ballot, such that the losing side will be able to accept their defeat, knowing that they and their electors have at least had their voices heard. II. HOW DO WE GET A TWO-NAME BALLOT? WHAT ROLE DOES A PETITION PLAY? A. Clinton’s name will appear on the ballot only if a petition of 300 to 600 delegates is lodged in support of the Senator’s name being placed on the ballot. B. In addition to lodging the petition, the Senator must also request in writing that her name appear on the ballot. Read the rest of it here. It’s very interesting that the corporate broadcast media is ignoring this completely (so far) because this could really provide some good prime-time entertainment for them when the convention starts. But then they’d have to talk about Hillary again, and we all know how hard it is for them to talk about her or any woman candidate seriously, without getting back into accusing Hillary Clinton of bitch-factor politics. Maybe it’s better if this all surprises them. I think Hillary Clinton should go for it and put it to a vote in the first round at the Convention. After all, that’s what many of her primary candidate predecessors have done, as she explains in the above video. Have CNN or MSNBC interviewed Cynthia McKinney yet? I don’t think so, and they need to, while trying really hard not to patronize her. My support is still for her at this point, and I would give the job of placing her in front of the American People on corporate TV media to Lou Dobbs or Christiane Amanpour. Technorati Tags: Democratic National Convention, Cynthia McKinney, Hillary, Clinton, Petition Drive, Delegates, Obama, candidate, election 2008
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