No One Could Have Predicted

This would happen:

Hours before the polls closed Tuesday in the final two Democratic presidential primaries, the Republican National Committee began circulating a video of Hillary Clinton questioning Barack Obama’s qualifications to be commander-in-chief, and acknowledging John McCain has this important presidential credential.

***

“And I think it is imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief threshold. And I believe I have done that. Certainly, Senator McCain has done that. And you will have to ask Senator Obama with respect to his candidacy.”

The RNC posted the video on YouTube early Tuesday afternoon, just as Obama was on the verge of locking up the Democratic nomination and speculation heated up about Clinton being his running mate.

Tonight, South Dakota and Montana Democrats hold the final two contests of the primary season. Obama is expected to secure the support of enough delegates to claim the party’s presidential nomination as early as tonight, and but no later than the end of this week.

An RNC official tells CNN to expect to see more of Republicans highlighting Clinton’s critical comments of Obama as the campaign now turns to the general election phase.

“We will use it repeatedly,” the official said.

Thanks, Hillary!

But then again, she doesn’t care. This is all about her.

▲

Barack Wins

Everyone has called it for Obama, yet I am listening to Hillary deliver her acceptance speech.

It looks like we are going to have to run against McCain and Clinton for the next five months, so donate here:

*** Update ***

To the convention. Fuck her.

*** Update #2 ***

That crowd with Obama is psyched. I am really proud he has won, and I think he is a great candidate.

*** Update #3 ***

Obama is giving mad praise to Hillary. Good thing he is the nominee and not me, because I would wave a giant foam middle finger and then moon her.

▲

Not Everyone Is Insane

Thank goodness for Eugene Robinson, who appears to be the only one to call this nonsense out:

Recall that the Michigan primary, like the Florida contest, was not legitimate. Period. As far as the party was concerned—and as far as Clinton herself was concerned, before she fell behind Barack Obama—the primary never happened. None of the candidates campaigned in Michigan. Obama’s name wasn’t even on the ballot.

Yet, in the interest of party unity, the rules committee came up with a formula that gave Clinton credit for 69 delegates that she “won” running virtually unopposed in a vote that technically never took place. Ickes and the angry Clinton supporters who protested the committee meeting objected to the fact that Obama was awarded Michigan delegates that he didn’t win. But Clinton, too, was awarded delegates she didn’t win, because—remember?—there was no legitimate Michigan primary.

One of the things that is so maddening about the Clinton campaign is their ability to reshape the media narrative, and then have everyone act and react to their alternate reality, rather than to the simple facts. This is yet another example of that- people running around having to react to the hysterical notion that delegates were “stolen” or “hijacked.”

▲

We Need To Clear This Up

A lot of people are linking to this Taylor Marsh freak out over the RBC results for Michigan yesterday, where Taylor unloads with some frosty rhetoric:

Could you be more out of touch? Seriously. Have you not talked to any Hillary Clinton supporters, read their emails in your inbox?

For 4 lousy delegates? How small are you people? Could you not understand what was swirling enough to allow Clinton her due in Michigan? Four lousy delegates?

You have no idea what you’ve done. The fury you have unleashed. Your arrogance is topped only by your ignorance and the sheer stupidity of this “compromise,” which sends a message that you just don’t get it. Oh, and by the way, you’ve also likely just thrown the 2008 election.

Look, it is not my job to walk Taylor Marsh and the rest of the Hillary supporters back from the brink, and I am glad, because it wasn’t me whipping them into a froth for the last few months when it was clear to anyone with more than a 6th grade education that the math simply was not there for Clinton. I can, however, take a moment to ask Taylor and others why they think things played out the way they did:

Was it because the RBC was stacked with Clinton haters?

No, in fact Clinton loyalists outnumbered Obama supporters on the committee.

Was it because the RBC wanted to sabotage the Democratic chances in November?

No, I find that highly implausible.

Was it because they are all insane?

After watching the way Democrats run elections, I am open to discussion on this count.

Regardless, the reason the Michigan compromise was agreed to by 19 of RBC was because of how god damned outrageous the original Clinton proposal was. Taylor and others think that four delegates were “stolen” or that they were “hijacked” because they are operating from the completely flawed premise that the election counted. It didn’t. In fact, Sen. Levin had to point that out to Ickes partially through the hearings (“You are calling for full recognition of a flawed primary,” etc.).

The election did not count. There were no legitimate delegates to “steal.” And I am not just trying to throw Hillary’s words back in her face when she herself said it would not count, that was the consensus opinion of the DNC (who agreed to hear to the dispute yesterday- had they felt it did count they would have seated the delegates as is), the Michigan Democratic party, which worked for months to arrange a “real” election or caucus, and all the candidates, who took their names off the ballot. There was, according to all parties except for the Clinton campaign, no election (and even then, the Clinton position “evolved.” It was only after they needed the delegates from Michigan did they decide the contest was somehow legit and “counted.”).

Once you realize the consensus view on the Michigan beauty contest, that it was not a legitimate election and did not provide a fair reflection of voters intent, you realize how truly brazen the Clinton proposal was- they went in demanding that they receive every delegate that Hillary “received” in the beauty contest, and that none should go to Obama:

Clinton’s camp insisted Obama shouldn’t get any pledged delegates in Michigan since he chose not to put his name on the ballot, and she should get 73 pledged delegates with 55 uncommitted. Obama’s team insisted the only fair solution was to split the pledged delegates in half between the two campaigns, with 64 each.

Seriously. That was their position.

They were asserting that not one person in the great state of Michigan would vote for Obama, and all the delegates were for Hillary. Despite all the talk about heavy African-American turnout for Obama in this election, the Clinton position before the RBC was that not one single precinct in Detroit would have gone for Sen. Obama. Not one vote in all the big Michigan university towns.

That was honestly their position.

It was absurd, it was outrageous, and to try to pretend that “fair reflection” somehow required that this was truly the intent of the Michigan electorate is the height of Clintonian bullshit. Of all the things they have asserted this campaign, this was the tops. This was, by a wide margin, the most absurd thing they have claimed.

What the Clinton campaign wanted was more net delegates than they would have had from 3-4 Pennsylvania and Ohio’s combined. That is why the committee had enough votes to seat it 50-50. That is why they instead they voted to seat the delegates they way they did- to reflect what they felt was a fair assessment, and they felt it was a compromise with the Clinton campaign. That is why the Michigan Democratic party was the one who offered the compromise- they knew the Clinton offer was bullshit, and the Michigan Democratic party would be held accountable to their voters if they let the Clinton “plan” pass.

And in return, they were accused of “vote-stealing,” and “hijacking” votes by the Clinton surrogates. What happened yesterday was not that the Clinton campaign was robbed of 4 delegates by the DNC, but what happened was an attempt to steal dozens of delegates by the Clinton campaign was stopped.

So please cut the crap. Clinton didn’t get screwed- what happened is that the RBC and the Michigan Democratic Party stopped the Clinton campaign from screwing Michigan voters by stealing every delegate and pretending it was a “fair reflection” of the voters. The Obama campaign won’t mention this because they are trying to be magnanimous and trying to win the support of irate Clinton voters. I have no such obligation.

▲

To The Convention

Anyone who thinks this is over has not seen the snarling and sneering Harold Ickes on Meet The Press.

This ain’t over, and they are going to push and do everything they can to lose this election for Obama. Russert, to his credit, is laughing at Ickes.

*** Update ***

The other thing that drives me insane is the notion that the RBC determined the Michigan split. Unless I am wholly mistaken, didn’t the Michigan Democratic party decide on the split? The RBC just voted on their petition.

▲

To The Convention

Ickes just gave the signal- to the convention and the credentials committee. Apparently fair reflection means that North Korean style elections that give Clinton all the delegates are what democracy is all about in Camp Clinton.

I told you. She is not going to give up, she will not concede, and we will spend all summer with Clinton and McCain attacking Obama while Clinton and her crazed supporters scream “unelectable” and “we wuz robbed!”

I look forward to four years of McCain. Thanks, Clintons.

That video above should be the companion video to Geraldine Ferraro’s outburst the other day.

▲

Rules Committee

If Michigan tries this crap again in 2012, I suggest that not only are their delegates not seated, but we move to kick them from the United States. I would prefer if we just give Florida to Cuba.

Also, I would like to thank the Clinton campaign for their bullshit and duplicity in this whole affair.

*** Update ***

A preview of what we can expect from the Clinton protestors:

*** Update #2 ***

The only thing I disagree with regarding this HuffPo piece is that I don’t think it matters what happens at the RBC. Hillary Clinton is not quitting. She is pushing to the convention, and if she does not get the nomination, she is running again in 2012, and she will spend the remainder of the election cycle making her voters think she has been shafted, raising questions about Obama’s legitimacy, fomenting discontent, so that she makes sure her avenue to run in 2012 is clear.

This is all about the Clintons. This isn’t about anything else. Not sure why people have not figured that out yet.

*** Update #3 ***

It looks like Florida is a done deal at half a vote- this looked like theatre. Michigan will be the big fight.

*** Update #4 ***

Ickes is setting the stage to allow Clinton to beg/borrow/steal “uncommitted” delegates.

The election shouldn’t count. Period.

▲

Thank The FLYING Spaghetti Monster

that Mondale/Ferraro lost:

As for Reagan Democrats, how Clinton was treated is not their issue. They are more concerned with how they have been treated. Since March, when I was accused of being racist for a statement I made about the influence of blacks on Obama’s historic campaign, people have been stopping me to express a common sentiment: If you’re white you can’t open your mouth without being accused of being racist. They see Obama’s playing the race card throughout the campaign and no one calling him for it as frightening. They’re not upset with Obama because he’s black; they’re upset because they don’t expect to be treated fairly because they’re white. It’s not racism that is driving them, it’s racial resentment. And that is enforced because they don’t believe he understands them and their problems. That when he said in South Carolina after his victory “Our Time Has Come” they believe he is telling them that their time has passed.

Whom he chooses for his vice president makes no difference to them. That he is pro-choice means little. Learning more about his bio doesn’t do it. They don’t identify with someone who has gone to Columbia and Harvard Law School and is married to a Princeton-Harvard Law graduate. His experience with an educated single mother and being raised by middle class grandparents is not something they can empathize with. They may lack a formal higher education, but they’re not stupid. What they’re waiting for is assurance that an Obama administration won’t leave them behind.

Go back to your cushy post at Fox news, you big victim, you.

I was only 14 at the time when she ran in 84- was she always this damned stupid?

▲

The Wrong Take

The AP reports the DNC lawyers have come to a conclusion:

A Democratic Party rules committee has the authority to seat some delegates from Michigan and Florida but not fully restore the two states as Hillary Rodham Clinton wants, according to party lawyers.
ADVERTISEMENT

Democratic National Committee rules require that the two states lose at least half of their convention delegates for holding elections too early, the party’s legal experts wrote in a 38-page memo.

The memo was sent late Tuesday to the 30 members of the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, which plans to meet Saturday at a Washington hotel. The committee is considering ways to include the two important general election battlegrounds at the nominating convention in August, and the staff analysis says seating half the delegates is “as far as it legally can” go.

John Aravosis says that it is time to stop playing games, the Poliblog claims her route to the nomination became more improbable, Jazz Shaw at the Moderate Voice says things are “not looking good” for the Clinton camp, and the Political Machine claims this is a “Clinton Setback.”

And each and every one of them is wrong, because this is precisely the kind of ruling the Clinton camp wants. Seating only half the delegations per DNC rules will provide those in the fantasy land that is the Clinton camp the opportunity to file appeals, turn this into a credential fight, and allow them to fight bitterly all the way to the convention. Rather than ending this, this will assure us we will get more Florida 2000/Zimbabwe/Civil Rights gibberish from team Clinton over the next few months, as the Clinton team prepares to wrestle away the nomination somehow, anyway they can, at the convention. Or hope that “something happens” in between now and then and the supers will abandon Obama.

The only thing that will stop this is if the supers immediately swarm to Obama after the last vote on June 3rd, but I have seen nothing to indicate that will happen- they have indulged Hillary’s bullshit to date, why stop now? And even if they do rush over and put Obama over whatever new number the Clintons dream up, they still will not concede. They will continue campaigning, continue to make statements and raise money and tour the country and take potshots at Obama and suck oxygen out of the room and make her supporters more antagonistic towards Obama until he is officially the nominee at the convention. They don’t care what the outcome is, this is about Hillary becoming President in 2008, and if that fails, in 2012.

And you are fooling yourself if you think anything else will happen, regardless of the result at the Rules Committee on May 31st. This is who the Clintons are, and it would be nice if some of you figured that out sooner rather than too late. Apparently only Rachel Maddow and I have figured this out.

*** Update ***

By the way, I hope I am super awful wrong and she will knock it all off after the June 3rd vote and all you Hillary supporters can come tell me how awful and terrible I am and that I have CDS (without remembering who accused people of BDS and why they did it) and I can go back to my busy schedule of ignoring the Clintons, which kept me very happy and content from 2001-2007.

▲

Some Other Proposals

It is Wednesday, so you know what that means- another opportunity for Lanny Davis to make a contorted and stupid argument about delegates and humiliate himself before the general public. To save him some time, I have come up with a few arguments for him. Here are some arguments he should advance before the Rules Committee this weekend:

1. The Gender Gap apportion: As we know, Clinton often cites the statistic that women only earn 69-77% of what men. Due to the rampant sexism and misogyny of the media, the Rules Committee should level the playing field and punish Obama (hey- Hillary’s supporters are going to punish Obama in the fall for the media’s behavior, why can’t the DNC?). To level the playing field, Obama should only get 77% of the pledged delegates that he earned, the other 23% should be awarded to Hillary.

2. The Legacy Vote: States that Bill Clinton won in 1992 and 1996 and that Hillary won in 2008 shouldhave their delegates count twice. Why? Because they really, really, really like the Clintons. And after all, since we are no longer paying attention to delegates and are making all sorts of other stupid arguments about why Clinton should win, isn’t that as good a reason as anything?

3. A Michigan Plan: To solve the Michigan crisis, I propose we award Hillary all the delegates she “won” in the primary she said would not count, and then give her the majority of the delegates who voted against her in the primary she said would not count. That sounds fair. {Oops. My bad. Lanny actually already proposed this. -ed.}

4. Count all the votes!: All of them. Every vote for dogcatcher, judge, state Houses and Senates, and everything should count- against Obama. Because, let’s face it, if they were not voting for Obama, we might as well count it as a vote for Hillary.

5. Seat ALL the Delegates: Everybody keeps talking about seating the delegates from Florida and Michigan, but for some reason are missing the real elephant in the room- what about all the Republican delegates from the fifty states. As of right now, none of them are being seated at the DNC, and that is a damned outrage. Everyone knows there is no way we can win in the fall without Republican votes, so I don’t know why we want to risk alienating millions of Republican voters in all fifty states. Since Hillary is clearly more popular with conservatives, Fox News, and Republicans, and since the Republicans run winner-take-all primaries, all of the delegates should be seated for Senator Clinton.

I think Lanny should test drive some of these proposals, because, as you all know, if we can not unify the party behind Senator Clinton’s inevitable nomination, we may lose to McCain in the fall.

▲

This Should Go Well

Death throes of a campaign can be ugly:

The Democratic National Committee is bracing itself for protests outside its Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting on Saturday in Washington, where the fates of the Florida and Michigan primaries could finally be decided.

Supporters of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton are organizing to march and then gather on the street outside the panel’s meeting, scheduled for Saturday morning at a hotel in Northwest Washington.

“They’re coming up on buses, they’re taking the train, they’re Metro-ing, they’re coming up with friends,” said Allida Black, a professor at George Washington University and an event organizer. “We’re trying to flood it.”

Really, though- I am told this is being done in the name of party unity. You know, you have to break a few eggs and all that.

Also, Lanny Davis informs us that this is Obama’s fault.

*** Update ***

Meanwhile, Lanny Davis informs us that Hillary supporters are pissed off at Obama because… he is winning:

1. Couldn’t resist waiting one day after Sen. Clinton won West Virginia by 41 points to announce John Edwards endorsement.

2. Couldn’t resist waiting to win majority of ALL delegates (not just pledged delegates) to do victory lap speech in Iowa the night Hillary won Kentucky by 36 points.

The horror an unmitigated all- attempting to control the news cycle, during an election? The bastards! Announcing he had won a majority of delegates? Unbelievable! What other grave insults are in store for us? I bet that bastard Obama even announces he accepts the nomination at the Convention in August! When will the slights end?

*** Update #2 ***

The Obama campaign will be staging a sort of “counter-event,” of sorts. They will be registering voters in Virginia, and have asked people to refrain from turning the Rules Committee meeting into a circus.

Which event do you think will do more good for the party?

▲

FiveThirtyEight Deep Sixes Lanny

Adventures in Lannyland is one of those posts that is just too good to quote any single part, and completely, totally, and relentlessly shreds to pieces the idiotic Lanny Davis modest proposal for Michigan.

Go read it.

▲

We WUZ ROBBED!

The most mentally and physically exhausting couple in American politics double down:

Former President Bill Clinton said that Democrats were more likely to lose in November if Hillary Clinton is not the nominee, and suggested some were trying to “push and pressure and bully” superdelegates to make up their minds prematurely.

Bill Clinton did not explain who he was accusing of “covering up” Sen. Clinton’s chances.

“I can’t believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out,” Clinton said at a South Dakota campaign stop Sunday, in remarks first reported by ABC News.

Clinton also suggested some were trying to “cover up” Sen. Clinton’s chances of winning in key states that Democrats will have to win in the general election.

” ‘Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up.’ “

I am worn down, beaten, broken, and drowning in their never-ending stream of bullshit, so I just don’t have anything to add, as this nonsense speaks for itself. They are, quite simply, trying to poison the well. Feel free to add your own commentary in the comments.

I will, however, point out that for those of you who watched Recount last night, and are wondering why so many normally reasonable Republicans fought so hard and were so bitter and were so ready to assume that the Gore campaign was going to somehow steal the election and manufacture votes in their selected county hand recounts, all I have to say is- this. This is why. Almost nine years of being on the receiving end of Clintonian bullshit is enough to drive anyone insane. They have quite clearly driven me to madness again in just a few months.

That doesn’t, of course, excuse the right-wing bullshit the Clinton’s endured, but it does go a long way to explain why normal Republicans would be driven to exasperation. I can’t imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to deal with this irritating duo, who truly live in their own reality, again.

*** Update ***

Leave it to Lanny Davis to come up with the dumbest plan for the Michigan delegates. Seriously, this sort of crap is what the Clinton bloggers are FIGHTING to return to? This plan is such a non-starter it should have been called a modest proposal.

▲

The Fighter With A Glass Jaw

I see the new meme circulating in the Anti-Obama/Pro-Clinton blogosphere is that the Obama campaign “inflamed” the RFK remarks and created a media firestorm, which unfairly attacked our Lady of Inevitability:

But even as both sides tried to tamp down the flap, some Clinton supporters pointed out that the Obama campaign had responded quickly on Friday after the New York senator had made the remarks to an editorial board in South Dakota.

McAuliffe accused the Obama group of “inflaming” the issue by issuing that response and then the “hyped-up press” took her comments out of context.

Clinton’s supporters said Robert Kennedy’s son understood what she meant and her words were not about Obama.

“They had nothing to do with Senator Obama,” Clinton campaign adviser Howard Wolfson said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And so there would be no reason for her to apologize to Senator Obama.”

Imagine that! Politics is being played! Surely we all remember this:

A political tempest over Barack Obama’s comments about bitter voters in small towns has given rival Hillary Rodham Clinton a new opening to court working class Democrats 10 days before Pennsylvanians hold a primary that she must win to keep her presidential campaign alive.

Obama tried to quell the furor Saturday, explaining his remarks while also conceding he had chosen his words poorly.

But the Clinton campaign fueled the controversy in every place and every way it could, hoping charges that Obama is elitist and arrogant will resonate with the swing voters the candidates are vying for not only in Pennsylvania, but in upcoming primaries in Indiana and North Carolina as well.

***

The Clinton campaign handed out “I’m not bitter” stickers in North Carolina, and held a conference call of Pennsylvania mayors to denounce the Illinois senator. In Indiana, Clinton did the work herself, telling plant workers in Indianapolis that Obama’s comments were “elitist and out of touch.”

Campaigning in Muncie, Ind., Obama addressed the issue at length. “I didn’t say it as well as I should have,” he said at Ball State University.

***

Clinton attacked Obama’s remarks much more harshly Saturday than she had the night before, calling them “demeaning.” Her aides feel Obama has given them a big opening, pulling the spotlight away from troublesome stories such as former President Clinton’s recent revisiting of his wife’s misstatements about an airport landing in Bosnia 10 years ago.

Obama is trying to focus attention narrowly on his remarks, arguing there’s no question that some working class families are anxious and bitter. The Clinton campaign is parsing every word, focusing on what Obama said about religion, guns, immigration and trade.

Clinton hit all those themes in lengthy comments to manufacturing workers in Indianapolis.

“I was raised with Midwestern values and an unshakable faith in America and its policies,” she said. “Now, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it’s a matter of constitutional right. Americans who believe in God believe it’s a matter of personal faith.”

“I grew up in a churchgoing family…,” she continued. “The people of faith I know don’t ‘cling’ to religion because they’re bitter. People embrace faith not because they are materially poor, but because they are spiritually rich …

“I also disagree with Senator Obama’s assertion that people in this country ‘cling to guns’ and have certain attitudes about immigration or trade simply out of frustration,” she said.

If I use Hillary’s own words, will I be called a misogynist? I sure hope not:

“If you can’t stand the heat, don’t run for president because it’s a really hot kitchen in the White House, I’ll tell you that much,” she said.

No doubt. And if there are any Balloon Juice readers in Montana, South Dakota, or Puerto Rico, I sure would love one of those “I AM NOT AN ASSASSIN” bumperstickers or buttons the Obama campaign no doubt is handing out right now.

*** Update ***

Brutal.

▲

So Predictable

Hillary, in the NY Daily News, always the victim:

This past Friday, during a meeting with a newspaper editorial board, I was asked about whether I was going to continue in the presidential race.

I made clear that I was – and that I thought the urgency to end the 2008 primary process was unprecedented. I pointed out, as I have before, that both my husband’s primary campaign, and Sen. Robert Kennedy’s, had continued into June.

Almost immediately, some took my comments entirely out of context and interpreted them to mean something completely different – and completely unthinkable.

I want to set the record straight: I was making the simple point that given our history, the length of this year’s primary contest is nothing unusual. Both the executive editor of the newspaper where I made the remarks, and Sen. Kennedy’s son, Bobby Kennedy Jr., put out statements confirming that this was the clear meaning of my remarks. Bobby stated, “I understand how highly charged the atmosphere is, but I think it is a mistake for people to take offense.”

I realize that any reference to that traumatic moment for our nation can be deeply painful – particularly for members of the Kennedy family, who have been in my heart and prayers over this past week. And I expressed regret right away for any pain I caused.

But I was deeply dismayed and disturbed that my comment would be construed in a way that flies in the face of everything I stand for – and everything I am fighting for in this election.

Like I said the other day- “PS- In pure Clintonian fashion, expect her to play the victim tomorrow. Why, she just made an innocuous statement about the election timeline and all these Obama supporters are trying to push the little woman out.”

She is Hillary, she is the victim, and that really is all she has left. She has now turned her stupid and insensitive remarks into a speech why you SHOULD vote for her. Pathetic.

*** Update ***

Heh:

Barack Obama has just retired Hillary Clinton in the top half of the ninth inning of the seventh game of the American League Championship Series.

He’s the home team, and he’s leading 9-7, so he’s already won, not just the game, but also the series.

But Clinton is insisting on taking the field to play out the final meaningless frame. It’s never been done before in the history of baseball, but Obama, being a gentleman, is obliging.

Strangely, the umpires don’t do anything to stop the game from continuing, even though it’s completely under their control.

It gets funnier.

▲