The BIG BIG Lie - Clinton was against disenfranchising Florida and Michigan

[grantcart]

The crocodile tears that are now being shed about Florida and Michigan are the latest and most disingenuous of the Clinton campaign. The fact is that the idea of drawing a line in the sand so that you would end up with a de facto national primary was from page one of the Clinton playbook.

Having twenty or thirty states vote on the same day, the theory went, would favor the candidate with the most money, the most experience and the most organizational support with connections with many local governors and mayors already on board.

This strategy would only work if, repeat if, there was a draconian line in the sand. If the line was too weak - like 50% representation then states would be tempted to be in the head of the line and settle for half of the delegates. Even with the draconian line two states called the bluff (and as Madfloridian has proved they did it laughing at the DNC).

This is what their representatives wanted and Harold Ickes was on the committee and voted for it. Clinton's strongest base of support is not with the elected super delegates but the DNC delegates that control the party machinery where she locked up 140 early endorsements.

By November everything looked great for the Clintons. They got the ironclad rule with the draconian penalty that they needed. Twenty Four primaries and caucuses took the bait and jumped to the front of the line for Super Super Tuesday on Feb 5th. The other element that they hoped for was a big field of candidates. As long as there was a big field then the Clinton had a solid 40% the other candidates would split the rest and the Clintons would win big.

And then the plan began to unravel. The field ended up being only three candidates. In the first contest, Iowa Clinton finished third place. By the time Super Super Tuesday came that 40%+ ended up being not just a floor but also a ceiling. The Clinton campaign had banked everything on February 5th. They had no real plan for the caucus states and low on money. The junior senator from Illinois won in delegates and popular votes and then launched 12 straight victories.


Now as the last 15% of the primary season is upon us and being irretrievably behind the Clinton camp will bang the drum of injustice for the exclusion of Michigan and Florida. The big lie is that they are now painting themselves as having been absolutely against the injustice. The truth was having a draconian penalty was key to making sure that a huge number of states would line up one a single date. It looked like a good idea up to Feb 4th.

Now as the dust settles over the non snipers and the shameless self promotion we are treated to a really skilled prevaricator. As the falsehood of the Clinton position is heaped on an unsuspecting public day after day, as the Clintons beat the drum of Florida and Michigan you only can admire such professional deception - too bad we don't have a youtube of the DNC meetings.




(edit to change Lanny Davis to Harold Ickes as per kind reminder of poster down thread)