Thursday, May 22, 2008
Obama’s pretend milestone
Pretend you are a candidate for the Democratic nomination and you just lost the Kentucky primary by 35 points. What do you do? If you are Barack Obama, you fly to Iowa and announce that you have just achieved a pretend milestone. You announce that you have won an absolute majority of pledged delegates.
Think of it as Barack Obama’s very own MISSION ACCOMPLISHED moment. The only thing lacking was a flight suit and an aircraft carrier.
From Larry Johnson’s superb blog NO QUARTER:
How does winning a majority of pledged delegates qualify as a “major milestone”? It doesn’t, because winning the majority of pledged delegates does not make Obama the nominee. Period.
Under the Democratic Party’s un-democratic rules, super-delegates can vote for whomever they want (and they can switch), regardless of the pledged-delegate totals or popular-vote count.
Facts aside, some media have given air time to Obama’s surrogates to create potentially misleading headlines and sound bites about the pretend “milestone.”
I often wonder if Obama supporters even know that superdelegates don’t actually cast their superdelegate vote until the Democratic National Convention in August. From reading many of their posts on Daily Kos or Democratic Underground, I’m guessing not. Otherwise I’m not sure they would be so visceral and arrogant about their favorite candidate.
The superdelegates will have a choice to make in August. Will they simply go with the candidate that has a slight lead in the pledged delegates or will they go with the candidate that has a slight lead in the popular vote?
Obama might regain his lead in the popular vote in the remaining contests, but he seems to have all but decided to start campaigning for the general election against John McCain. He seems confident that he will be given the nomination no matter what happens in the remaining contests.
I’d do the same if the only obstacle between myself and nomination were a sore loser and her “I view politics like a football rivalry” fan club. When she’s done having her cake and eating it too, she gonna be one obese old lady.
Of course, since Obama has in fact actually won a majority of pledged delegates, his claim is absolutely true and your whining is pointless. Get the fuck over it.
Winning a majority of pledged delegates doesn’t mean anything. Winning a majority of all delegates — pledged and nonpledged — is what earns the nomination. That’s something he hasn’t done yet.
Maybe if Obama had more experience, he would know that.
Winning a majority of pledged delegates means far, far more than the “popular vote” nonsense you keep harping on (especially since it requires ignoring four states). Get the fuck over it.
Popular vote nonsense? Been a Democrat long?
Is someone from the Obama campaign paying you a nickel every time you go to someone’s blog that isn’t supporting Obama to write “Get the fuck over it” in their comment section? You are starting to sound like a broken record.
It’s nonsense because she HASN’T won the popular vote (since the dishonest metric you and she use excludes four states) and because delegates, not the popular vote, determine the nomination.
The four states you refer to have no total vote count to factor in. They don’t hold a primary, they caucus.
More Americans have gone to the polls and voted for Hillary then voted for Obama.
You can’t pretend to care about the popular vote (which is meaningless, as you yourself fail to realize you acknowledged in yesterday’s whine) and exclude four states, Rick. Your candidate couldn’t close the deal. Get over it.
I’m not pretending to care about the popular vote. Far from it. I care deeply for the popular vote. I always have. What I said yesterday was that it doesn’t matter RIGHT NOW who is leading in the popular vote because the nomination process is still ongoing. There are still people who have not voted.
The four states you refer to as being excluded from the popular vote don’t have primaries. People there don’t vote, they caucus. People who caucus are often forced to choose one candidate after another. If their choice is determined to be unviable, they are forced to pick someone else. There’s nothing democratic about a caucus.
As far as “not closing the deal” is concerned, the same can be said about Obama. For all the support he enjoys from the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic power elite, the blogosphere, and the mainstream news media you would think he could do more then just pretend to have reached a fake milestone. You would think he could have won enough pledged delegates to lock up the nomination.
BS as usual, Rick. A “popular vote” count that excludes Democrats in four states is inherently dishonest and worthless, particularly since it’s quite simple to count the preferences expressed by the votes of caucus participants. As for closing the deal, Clinton came into the race with the most popular last name in modern Democratic party politics, a massive lead in the polls, a huge fundraising base, and commitments from, what, 100? 150? 200? superdelegates before a single vote was even cast — and she’s still losing. That’s what not being able to close the deal looks like. Get over it.
How would you propose counting the popular vote of caucus goers? Do you count their first choice? What about their second choice? Third? You can’t count something that’s not there.
More Americans have gone to the polls and voted for Hillary then voted for Obama.
Interesting of you to stick with your lame defense of the indefensible “popular vote” whining (and I note that the Democratic Party has no problem counting caucusgoers, since many states use caucuses) and completely ignore Clinton’s inability to close the deal.
Counting caucus goers is not the same thing as counting their choice. It’s easy to count how many people participate in a caucus. It’s impossible to keep track of just who they selected. Many caucus goers had to change their choice more then once.
I am not ignoring Hillary’s problem with “closing the deal”. Obama is a very formidable opponent. He has a lot of money. He has the support of the DNC. He has the support of the Democratic power elite. He has the support of the Democratic blogosphere. The mainstream news media is in the tank for him.