Texas voters - I'm sorry, but you already don't count.

[Coexist]

"I'd love to carry Texas, but it’s usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee." Hillary Clinton

This statement is odd, because after reading the article and watching the video, this dismissing of Texas seems to come out of nowhere. Texas was not even the subject - she happened to be in an interview in Texas, but that is not what was being discussed.

For those too lazy to pop over, Senator Clinton is triangulating her position re: Florida and Michigan (how she agreed they wouldn't count, and why they should now0, and pops the Texas dis in. Out of the blue.

Now, the gist of this seems to say, she would love to win in Texas, but it really not important to, since its a red state. It is much more important to be concerned with Michigan and Florida.

I'm sorry, but last I checked - Florida is a red state. Believe me, I know, I live here.

Sometimes, I just need to :banghead: .

[damntexdem]

1. Oh, but we'll vote. Actually, many of us already have in the primary.

And we will again in the caucuses. And with any luck, we'll make MI and FL moot.

[w8liftinglady]

5. we have had record democratic turnout in my county

more than Dem and Repub turnouts combined in last 2 elections!

[kikiek]

2. I hope people really watch that. This is a mis characterization of what she said.

The part about Texas is in context with the topic of conversation. She is saying that not seating the delegates in FL and MI could cause the democrats to lose the states in the general election. The Texas reference was that she would love to see Texas also go blue in the general election. Nothing else. Whether you agree with her or not on seating the delegates, she isn't dismissing anyone as not being important. There must be a Hillary hater filter that makes people see things in such a distorted manner.

[Coexist]

7. no, I was reading the article for the info on the Florida delegates

and that sentence popped out at me. I thought it was very strange, so I watched the video for further context, and it occurred to me that Florida would not turn blue this cycle, so what the heck was she getting at. The more I thought about it, the stranger that comment got to me.

So I created this post.

[kikiek]

9. She at no time made it sound like Texas doesn't matter. The other point is that not seating the

delegates in MI and FL will hurt whoever the Democratic nominee is. They need one of the big ones to win the general election no matter who the nominee is. Texas historically isn't going to be going that way, but she hopes it will.

[Coexist]

19. her exact words;

"I'd love to carry Texas, but it’s usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee."

meaning - we will lost Texas in the fall, so a win in Michigan and Florida is more important.

The "doesn't count" is a play on how the Clinton campaign dismisses losses. Maybe they are afraid they will lose Texas at this point, and are preparing to downplay Texas because it may stay red in November, either way - it was odd for her to throw that in.

[kikiek]

23. You don't get it. She is stating a fact. We have to win either Texas, MI, or FL this

election. Our chances are better in FL or MI than Texas. She isn't discounting anything. But you will see what you want to see. Forgot MI sorry Mi. I wasn't dismissing you.

[yourguide]

3. I am buying a very pricey bottle of bubbly

For the night of March 4th to celebrate the end of HRC's campaign.

[IndianaGreen]

6. I am sure that Hillary will find some excuse to continue on to Pennsylvania

She is the Democratic Huckabee.

[madfloridian]

4. Will recommend this...two of her big backers differ with her on FL and MI

I can't post it until my 24 hours is up...I have already posted 3.

You need to post it if you can. It is good to see. I hear some others might come out and differ as well.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-govs24feb24,0,7156076.story

"WASHINGTON -- Two prominent Democratic governors, both supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, voiced doubts Saturday about her argument that her victories in Florida and Michigan should count toward her delegate total.

Pennsylvania's Edward G. Rendell and New Jersey's Jon Corzine suggested that it would be seen as unfair to award those delegates to Clinton, given the Democratic Party's ruling that the vote in those two states would not count."

..."Howard Wolfson, communications director for the New York senator's campaign, said in an interview Saturday night: "We will be urging our delegates to vote to seat the delegations from Michigan and Florida. We believe that their votes should count."

Several Democratic governors interviewed at the winter meeting of the National Governors Assn. here said that would be a mistake."

[Coexist]

8. mad, I still have one post left, but I think that we are not supposed to

post things for people that are out of posts - I remember something about that when GD:Primaries began. Please let me know if I am wrong on that.

[madfloridian]

10. I did not know that.

Will have to wait until this evening.

[stillcool]

28. it's so Gore v Bush

.... or Nevadaish...

CLINTON ALLIES SUPPRESS THE VOTE IN NEVADA
On Meet the Press on Sunday, Hillary Clinton said her campaign had nothing to do with a lawsuit--written about by Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel--that threatens to prevent thousands of workers from voting in the Nevada caucus on Saturday.
Back in March, the Nevada Democratic Party agreed to set up caucus locations on the Vegas strip for low-income shift workers, many of them members of the state's influential Culinary Union, who commute long distances to work and wouldn't be able to get home in time to caucus. It was an uncontroversial idea until the Culinary Union endorsed Barack Obama and the Nevada State Education Association, whose top officials support Clinton, sued to shut down the caucus sites.
The Clinton camp played dumb until yesterday, when President Clinton came out in favor of the lawsuit.
Clinton's comments drew a heated response from D. Taylor, the head of Nevada's Culinary Union, on MSNBC's Hardball. "He is in support of disenfranchising thousands upon thousands of workers, not even just our members," Taylor said of Clinton. "The teachers union is just being used here. We understand that This is the Clinton campaign. They tried to disenfranchise students in Iowa. Now they're trying to disenfranchise people here in Nevada, who are union members and people of color and women."
Rank-and-file members of Nevada's teachers union also come out against the lawsuit filed by their leadership. "We never thought our union and Senator Clinton would put politics ahead of what's right for our students, but that's exactly what they're doing," the letter stated. "As teachers, and proud Democrats, we hope they will drop this undemocratic lawsuit and help all Nevadans caucus, no matter which candidate they support."
The lawsuit's opponents make a persuasive point. Creating obstacles to voting is what the GOP does to Democrats, not what Democrats should be doing to other Democrats.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/a-feisty-bill-clinton-defends-nevada-lawsuit/

pdf of the lawsuit:
http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/politics/20080112_nevada_lawsuit.pdf

[K Gardner]

11. Good freakin LORD ! Is this a recent interview??

[redqueen]

12. Wow...

just... wow.

[Freddie Stubbs]

13. Florida is a swing state

We have one Democratic US Senator and one Democratic state constitutional officer. No Democrat has won a state-wide election in Texas since 1994.

[Coexist]

21. Nelson ran against Katherine Harris, not much competition,

Jeb worked hard to not be photographed with her.

And Nelson is a pretty conservative Democrat.

Crist ran the table last election, except for Sink, and that is because even a staunch republican could see that she was the best qualified for the position.

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. Nelson won a state-wide election in 2000 for his first term, and

Al Gore came pretty close to carrying Florida in 2000. He lost Texas by over 20%.

Qualified Democrats can't get elected in Texas. At least they haven't been able to since 1994.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. She's already said they're "second class citizens."

[texastoast]

15. Link? n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

17. ...

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/cecil_andrus_hillary_should_apologize_to_red_state_democrats/C68/L37/

[MonkeyFunk]

20. So she didn't say it

did she?

Did you read the article? Can you figure out WHO said it? Hint: It wasn't Hillary Clinton.

[Johnny__Motown]

16. Pretty soon Ohio won't count either. sad

[HeraldSquare212]

18. They're already trying to change expectations, from winning TX and OH to just winning OH

It used to be, She has to win both to stay in. Now it's, she can't lose both.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

22. It's not usually in the electoral calculation for the Democratic candidate for president

Last I saw even Obama, who is polling higher than Hillary against McCain in the state, was behind McCain by I think 8 points.

Believe me, I don't like that one bit either, but I can't fault what she's saying in the context she said it in.

I don't agree with her in regards to seating FL and MI as they sit, however. That I do have a problem with.

Edit to add: With some work Texas could very well become a future swing state.

[TexasObserver]

24. Hillary NOW knows she is getting a severe ass kicking in Texas, so she's plying this line.

Notice it's in conjunction with her "but we need Florida and Michigan" meme, because she still thinks she can Bogart those delegates. Guess again, HillBill.

[cali]

25. Hey, someone who hasn't run through their allottment of daily posts

please post this:

Texas Democratic Presidential Primary
Texas: Clinton 46% Obama 45%
Monday, February 25, 2008
Advertisment
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in Texas finds Senator Hillary Clinton clinging to a one-point lead over Senator Barack Obama. With just over a week to go, it’s Clinton 46% Obama 45%. Nine percent (9%) of voters remain undecided and another 14% say it’s possible they could still change their mind.

Last week, Clinton led Obama by three percentage points. The week before, she had a sixteen-point advantage.

Although Clinton has held on to a very small lead in Texas polling, Rasmussen Markets shows that Obama is favored to win (current prices: Obama 69.0% Clinton 36.7%).

Clinton now has a five point advantage among women but trails by seven among men. Both those figures are down from the previous survey. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of the sample for this poll are women. That’s up from 52% in the earlier survey, largely because more women



<snip>

http://rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/texas/texas_democratic_presidential_primary

[Coexist]

27. Hey, someone else thinks so too!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/25/193333/826/766/464021

by kos
Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 07:44:12 PM EST

Clinton:

I’d love to carry Texas, but it’s usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee. Florida and Michigan are.

Of all the Clinton mistakes this cycle (and both sides have had plenty of them), this is the one that rankles the most. And really, it's been such a stupid and counterproductive narrative that I can't, for the life of me, fathom why they persist in using it.

Like every other state, Texas will feature more than just the presidential contest. As Texas political expert Paul Burka writes after analyzing the astonishing early turnout numbers (follow the link, you won't be disappointed):

These numbers have made me a believer. Rick Noriega could defeat John Cornyn. The Democrats can win a majority in the Texas House of Representatives. The consummate irony is that George W. Bush, who made Texas a Republican state on his way in to the presidency, may make it a Democratic state on his way out.