Just when you thought that the Democratic primary couldn’t get any better for John McCain, it does! Alarmed by Nancy Pelosi’s subtle efforts in trying to push Hillary out of the race (by saying that the super delegates should vote with the leader in pledged votes), Hillary’s top donors have written a letter to Pelosi urging her to “clarify” her position. Awesome:
During your appearance, you suggested super-delegates have an obligation to support the candidate who leads in the pledged delegate count as of June 3rd , whether that lead be by 500 delegates or 2. This is an untenable position that runs counter to the party’s intent in establishing super-delegates in 1984 as well as your own comments recorded in The Hill ten days earlier:
“I believe super-delegates have to use their own judgment and there will be many equities that they have to weigh when they make the decision. Their own belief and who they think will be the best president, who they think can win, how their own region voted, and their own responsibility.’”
Super-delegates, like all delegates, have an obligation to make an informed, individual decision about whom to support and who would be the party’s strongest nominee. Both campaigns agree that at the end of the primary contests neither will have enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination. In that situation, super-delegates must look to not one criterion but to the full panoply of factors that will help them assess who will be the party’s strongest nominee in the general election.
We have been strong supporters of the DCCC. We therefore urge you to clarify your position on super-delegates and reflect in your comments a more open view to the optional independent actions of each of the delegates at the National Convention in August. We appreciate your activities in support of the Democratic Party and your leadership role in the Party and hope you will be responsive to some of your major enthusiastic supporters.
The question now is whether this letter causes Pelosi to back off her comments or continue to quietly back Obama behind the scenes? If she backs off then it would show that she has no backbone and is easily pushed around. If she stands her ground, she risks the wrath of millions of Hillary supporters who won’t take to kindly to Hillary being pushed out of the race.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Off thread How big is this trip, the three democrats took to Iraq before the war, that Sadam paid for?
March 26th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Good God, I hadn’t heard about that. Who was it?
March 26th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Jonathan — the link is here.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080326/D8VLDCNG0.html
Much as I would like to believe otherwise, I doubt that this is more than a short-term embarrassment for the Dems (unless there’s evidence they knew the money was coming from Saddam).
March 26th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
It would be McDermott. He is such a radical leftist that I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew about it and didn’t care.
March 26th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Something of note the AP article conveniently failed to mention is that one of the congressmen who went on this Saddam-financed trip, David Bonior, was John Edwards’ campaign manager.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:25 am
Gyah… what’s Baghdad Jim doing back in the news…
March 27th, 2008 at 4:25 am
Too bad we could not send Baghdad Jim to Cuba.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:25 am
Shock poll that I haven’t seen mentioned was the one by Rasmussen (?) that 22% of Dems want Hillary to drop out immediately, and 22% of Dems want Obama to drop out immediately! I can understand the Hillary reaction, but Obama? He is only leading the nomination battle in pledged delegates and primary votes. That is a shocking number to me, and makes one wonder what happens to the Dems in November.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:14 am
The Bubba show came to town yesterday. As usual, I avoided it, choosing to remain above the fray.
My Dem-leaning Ma went, after expressing her misgivings about Clintonian BS artistry and loose carnal self-control. She came away rather convinced that Bubba has a speaking talent that would enable him to sell sand in a desert, iceboxes to Eskimos, etc.
I’m still guessing that — long-shot though it seems — Billary come-back-kids the Dem nomination. She’ll be very hard to defeat in the general election.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Hehe – the Clintons aren’t going anywhere,
Here’s what Bubba had to say yesterday.
“If a politician doesn’t wanna get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office,” he said. “If a politician doesn’t wanna get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office. If a football player doesn’t want to get tackled or want the risk of an a occasional clip he shouldn’t put the pads on.”
Clinton then alluded to the resignations and calls for resignations that have been traded back and forth between the campaigns.
“I don’t think any of these people oughta be asked to resign,” he said. “All these guys that say bad things about any other campaign, they say, ‘Should they resign?’ My answer is no; they’re repeating party line. They oughta stay right where they are. Let’s just saddle up and have an argument. What’s the matter with that? That’s what America’s about, right?”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/03/26/813659.aspx
March 27th, 2008 at 8:25 am
i think republicans are getting over excited over the dem fight. this won’t hurt them in my opinion. it will make them stronger. all the attention and excitement is on them.
for the first time in some time the money and excited is with the dems. they have two candidates that many love and get extremely excited about. they will join on a ticket and in the end the party will unite.
March 27th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
#11, The troubling thing is, that with all that fighting the polls still do not show McCain necessarily winning this thing. If the Dems get their act together, McCain will need all the help he can get, and right now there truly are millions who will sit this one out or vote third party. If he proves himself too stupid, or too stubborn, and puts a liberal/moderate on the ticket, it will be dooms day for him. He will not only get beat, but he will get beat bad. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want either of those other turkeys to win, but neither do I want a Republican candidate to get by with thumbing his nose at the conservatives and get by with it.