Hillary’s Voice

The Democratic Party, especially after 2000 when Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election, should stand up for the rights of voters. The caucus system, which is largely responsible for Obama’s pledged delegate lead, is unrepresentative and it disenfranchises voters, as would not seating the delegates from Michigan and Florida. Not representing voters (caucus states), disenfranchising them (FL & MI), calling them racist(?!), and ignoring them (choosing Obama) will lead to massive negative repercussions for the Democratic Party. This is why Hillary must fight on, and why she must win the nomination.

I support Hillary’s continued fight for the nomination in this late stage, with only three more primaries to go, because I think she is the more qualified candidate. She has served longer in the U.S. Senate, sitting and chairing important committees such as the Arms Services Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee and the Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health. She has sponsored over 350 bills—everything from added protection for children in vehicles to protection of a watershed, to added benefits for public safety officers. Hillary also helped create the SCHIP health insurance program that now covers over six million hildren. Additionally, Hillary Clinton has been a diplomat for over a decade who has traveled to over 80 countries representing the United States with dignity and courage, which has included speaking forcibly on Chinese soil about human rights and women’s rights.

I also support Hillary because I think she can win in the general election against John McCain.

“About 80 percent of Obama’s lead — between 130 and 140 delegates — came in caucuses,”(Michael Barone, RealClearPolitics, 5/17/2008) which are not only undemocratic as they discriminate against those who cannot afford to spend the hours needed to participate in them, such as working class voters, shift workers, mothers, and the elderly, but caucuses are also undemocratic because they result in these types of numbers:

Clinton wins Ohio by 203,851 votes and
wins 9 more delegates than Obama

Clinton wins Pennsylvania by 214,115 votes and
wins 12 more delegates than Obama

Clinton wins Texas by 100,000 votes and
wins 5 LESS delegates than Obama

Obama wins Kansas by 17,710 votes and
wins 9 more delegates than Clinton

Obama wins Hawaii by 19,512 votes and
wins 8 more delegates than Clinton

Obama wins Minnesota by 73,115 votes and
wins 24 more delegates than Clinton

Source:
New York Times and RealClearPolitics:

Obama won far more delegates than correspond to the votes he won by. This is not only unfair representation, it strongly suggests that Obama is the weaker general election candidate. Exit poll data from states like West Virginia and Kentucky also reveal that large blocks of Hillary’s supporters will not vote for Obama if he is chosen as the nominee.

Furthermore, Hillary’s right to take her case to the convention is not unusual, indeed it is supposed to be part of the process. What has been unusual is the vile chorus from the Obama campaign, and his media enablers, that Hillary should drop out of the race, and that she has no chance of winning the nomination so her only motivation to continue the race must be a sinister one.

She does have a chance to win the nomination if the superdelegates, who were created in the 1980s to counterbalance the enthusiasm of left-wing caucus-goers, follow the rules and choose independently, which suggests that they should not just ratify the results of the caucuses and the paper-thin delegate edge Obama won in the primary states, or to choose Obama for the sake of “party unity,” or the “need” to have a nominee now rather than later. Obama will not win enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination without the superdelegates, this means his support is not a majority or a plurality. The superdelegates are free to choose based on their assessment of who is the most electable candidate, the one with the most support from core Democrats, in the fall election. That candidate is Hillary Clinton, and this is the reason she continues to fight for the nomination.

Indeed, Democratic nominees have emerged from bitter convention floor fights and have succeeded in becoming President:

Woodrow Wilson was nominated on the 146 ballot and went on to become President

Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated in 1932 in a contentious convention after 4 ballots and went on to become President.

Hence, I pose the same question that Daniel A. Cirucci asks,

“In 1980, Kennedy came into the Democratic convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City with 1,225 delegates to President Carter’s 1,981, with 122 delegates uncommitted.

Kennedy stood on principle and people admired him for fighting the good fight.

If Kennedy could take it to the convention when he trailed by 756 delegates, why can’t Hillary go to the convention trailing by far less?”

My answer is Sexism, and this will not stand. We supporters of Hillary will not accept the superdelegates undermining her candidacy with bogus claims that they are following the “will of the people” when we know how unrepresentative the caucus states are. If Hillary additionally wins the popular vote, which should count Florida and Michigan because real people voted for her in these states, but the superdelegates still move to crown Obama, then we will have no choice but to reject Obama as the nominee.

The superdelegates should do the job they were given, which was NOT to rubber stamp the pledged delegates, but to choose the stronger candidate when it is a close race: Hillary Rodham Clinton.