Quote of the Day: Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter On Clinton’s Popular Vote Argument (UPDATED)
May 22nd, 2008 by JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief
Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter takes a detailed look at Senator Hillary Clinton’s argument that she is head in the popular vote in detail and the counter arguments and and concludes:
With a big win in Puerto Rico, Clinton could possibly erase that margin (plus several thousand more that Obama is expected to net in Montana and South Dakota). She could then proclaim that with the help of Puerto Rican voters who cannot vote in a general election, she is the popular vote winner.
The shorthand many Clinton supporters are already taking into the summer is that she won the popular vote but had the nomination “taken away” (as Joy Behar said on “The View”) by a man.
What a helpful message for uniting the Democratic Party.
If the Obama people have any sense, they will demand in their negotiations with the Clintonites that Hillary cease and desist in her specious claim to have won the most popular votes.
Given that more than 35 million voters took part in the Democratic primaries and caucuses, the math games on both sides look awfully silly. Everyone should agree to call it a tie.
Alter is correct. More and more this is looking like 1968, and a year where some Democrats are determined to yank defeat from the jaws of victory. Clinton’s argument now is that unless she gets her way in Michigan and Florida whoever gets it (unless it is her, that is) will get a nomination that really is not legitimate. It’s saying Do it my way or I’ll split the party without actually saying those words. Will the Democratic party apparatus and superdelegates agree to that approach?
UPDATE: Josh Marshall echoes my view expressed above:
What she’s doing is not securing her the nomination. Rather, she’s gunning up a lot of her supporters to believe that the nomination was stolen from her — a belief many won’t soon abandon. And that on the basis of rationales and arguments there’s every reason to think she doesn’t even believe in.
UPDATE II: Steve Benen had defended Clinton but now has had enough. Read his ENTIRE post but here is a sampling (these are excerpts only):
By last night, Clinton had made my defense of her efforts look rather foolish. In fact, looking back, I’ve defended Clinton, more than once, when people said she was putting her own interests above those of the party and the nation. But after seeing her tactics yesterday, I’m done defending Hillary Clinton.
….For several weeks, I’ve appreciated the fact that Clinton considers herself the superior candidate, and has kept her campaign going in the hopes, from her perspective, of saving the party from itself. But after yesterday, it’s become impossible for me to consider Clinton’s intentions honorable. Her conduct is not that of a leader.
What’s so striking is the shamelessness of her reversal(s). When Florida and Michigan broke party rules and were punished by the DNC, Clinton not only supported the decision, she honored it and spoke publicly about those votes not counting. One of her own top strategists was responsible for making the decision in the first place. Now, Clinton is saying, “Never mind what I said and did before.
AND:
Instead of trying to help bring the party together — Election Day is 24 weeks away — Clinton went to Florida to argue that if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, his nomination will be illegitimate. And if the DNC plays by the rules Clinton used to support, it’s guilty of vote-suppression — comparable to slavery, Jim Crow, and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe….Many Dems have been waiting for a soft landing, a graceful exit, a classy wrap-up. Clinton, for reasons that I want desperately to understand, has chosen to abandon these norms and instead choose a destructive, divisive path. She’s playing a dangerous game in which the only winner is the Republican Party.
Read it in its entirety.
In other words: Clinton had already lost many of the progressive mainstream journalists and bloggers. She had split the centrists, moderates and independents. Now she’s losing more centrists, moderates and independents NOT because of her policy stances (which centrists, moderates and independents may favor more than they favor Obama’s) but because of her tactics.
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, Quote of the Day, Primaries, Superdelegates, Popular Vote, Democratic Party, Elections, 2008 Elections, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Politics. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
