Honestly, this is just ridiculous. That it’s being pushed by people like the
usually astute Rachel Maddow is equally frustrating. On “Race for the White
House” yesterday, Maddow basically said that the rules are the rules, screw
Florida and Michigan because they ran rogue primaries. Today Charlie
Cook takes it one more step saying that Clinton has “pretty much lost.”
The trouble is that he uses the 2000 general election to help make his argument.
First, this is an awful argument, not to mention lazy. Cook is also smarter
than this.
At the end of the day, the popular vote for the Democratic nomination means
nothing. I doubt that having won the popular vote in the 2000 general election
is of much solace to Al Gore. Many a football team gains more yards than its
opponent in a game yet loses on that important technicality called points.
Democrats can’t control the general election, but we absolutely control the
means by which our nominee is selected. That’s the whole point, which people
like Maddow, though she’s certainly not alone, are missing. Maddow also fell
for the sports analogy yesterday, too. None of it holds water.
What this really does is relegate the Democrat party to purgatory, not Hillary
Clinton. It also further illustrates why Democrats continue to lose big elections.
Many in our party don’t have the steel to make the decisions that will put us
in the winning column. Brazile’s hedging in 2000 on a full recount in Florida
doomed Gore. Kerry’s abysmal decision to let the Swiftboat Vets eviscerate him
while he went off windsurfing helped kill his candidacy because it further framed
him as weak.
Now superdelegates and the Democratic elite have a choice to make about who
can actually win in November. With Obama getting hit on every weak point by
Republicans, it should be dawning on the superdelegates that Clinton’s baggage,
which she readily admits exists, is old news, while Obama’s treasure trove of
associations are just now being mined. The above This video is just one example, which Rush blasted at the start of his show today.
There are rules. Michigan and Florida have been exiled. Delegate count now
rules. Popular vote doesn’t matter.
But what if this formula dooms our party into nominating the weaker general election candidate? After Pennsylvania, there can be no doubt which one that is.
Comments are closed.