Cocky

[Inuca]

Clinton defends role of superdelegates http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/09/clinton-defends-role-of-super-delegates/

THE choice bit

Senator Hillary Clinton took issue Saturday with the notion put forward by the Obama campaign that party superdelegates should vote the way of their states and districts.

“Superdelegates are by design supposed to exercise independent judgment, that is the way the system works,” she told reporters after a town hall in Orono, Maine. “If Sen. Obama and his campaign continue to push this position which is really contrary to what the definition of a super delegate has historically been then I look forward to receiving the support of Sen. Kennedy and Sen. Kerry.”

Orwell

“He has increasingly relied on big endorsements and celebrities to sort of attach himself to to get the kind of validation that comes from that sort of endorsement,” Clinton said. “He has increasingly, in my view, really tailored his positions so that they are more establishment oriented, like giving up on universal health care.”

[ray of light]

1. Oh shoot. you beat me.

[JI7]

2. he had the nerve to run against her

to actually try to win rather than a token run where he kisses ass to try to get vp as Bill Richardson did.

they seriously thought they were going to easily win on super tuesday and Obama would have lost badly and dropped out. it makes them angry that it didn't.

[Mass]

3. Did Obama actually say that. If he did, this is a stupid statement and she answered accordingly.

However, I think she is distorting what he said. Do you have the correct wording?

[sandnsea]

5. No, he didn't say that

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/06/obama-calls-out-super-del_n_85339.html

"If this contest comes down to superdelegates, we are going to be able to say we have more pledged delegates, which means the Democratic voters have spoken. Those superdelegates, those party insiders would have to think long and hard how they would approach the nomination," he said.

"The argument we would be making to superdelegates is, if we come into the convention with more pledged delegates then i think we can make a very strong argument that our constituencies have spoken and I think that's going to be pretty improtant when it comes to the general election," he says.

[Inuca]

6. Thank you for the quote

I did not know it, and I also thought it was not the smartest think for Obama to say. What you quoted above on the other hand, makes perfect sense, and is just suggesting, not claiming.

[MBS]

4. interesting that she specifically mentioned Kerry and Kennedy

methinks a bit of a personal beef with their endorsement choice, perhaps?. :evilgrin:

[Inuca]

7. Methinks the same

I assume, though I do not know for sure, that it was an on the spot retort. Snarky and freudian. Well... if it comes to that, we will have to give up K&K for Murray and Cantwell, among others. Joking aside though, the whole situation IS messy, and the MI and FL party establishment could not have picked a worse year to play their power games. And I hope that the "dream ticket" that the media keeps talking about, and which in my view is a nightmare ticket, will not be pushed onto them/him.

[MBS]

8. this is spot-on comment!

"the MI and FL party establishment could not have picked a worse year to play their power games. And I hope that the "dream ticket" that the media keeps talking about, and which in my view is a nightmare ticket, will not be pushed onto them/him."
I agree that this would be a nightmare ticket. . only one Talking Head (forgot who it was, unfortunately, but it was a woman. . )had the sense to state the obvious. ."that these two are done with each other" and that there is absolutely no chance this would happen.

[karynnj]

10. Here's something that may be a good response

Here is Kerry's comment on it - that ... sounds like classic Kerry - who plays fair, actually believes in democracy and has integrity. This should be the answer of EVERY Obama supporter. It would be a HUGE contrast to the Governor of Maryland - who when pushed by George S that the reason for the superdelegates was "to insure we got a candidate who could win going forward." -quote from memory, but meaning is correct. (It's not only the right thing - but there is no downside to Obama. There is no way that he will have more superdelegates if HRC wins the pledged count.)

"My personal opinion is it would be a mistake and disastrous either way for the superdelegates — insiders, establishment politicians — to come along and overturn the expressed view of those pledged delegates,” Mr. Kerry said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/us/politics/10superdelegates.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[karynnj]

9. The tone was also interesting in its intensity at that point

Methinks you are right - she is not happy with your Senators. It really is a sign of their significance that no one on DU questioned Menendez, Schumer of McGaskill and many others on endorsing - both groups did.

There is more anger on her part to them than on Kerry's part when Gore endorsed. (Leiberman's anger was heard, but Kerry and Kennedy had helped Gore in 2000 when they endorsed him before NH when Bradley was closer to both of them - and NH was very close. Had Bradley won, the nomination would still likey have gone to Gore, but there would have been a real race.)

Two interesting comments on MSNBC yesterday may indicate that things are changing. Chuck Todd, speaking of how McCain may have some trouble putting Huckabee away quickly, spoke of the 1992 race and how Clinton after knocking off some tougher opponents had a bad stretch where Jerry Brown won enough of the vote that he did not clinch the nomination until June. He commented that it was lucky that Perot was there or it would have gotten more negative attention. (This is the FIRST mention in the last several years that I have heard that counters the myth that Clinton had the best run, flawless campaign that defused every attack immediately. That IS the myth HRC has relied on to say that she is the only one who can win. The fact is ANY Democrat would have won once they had the nomination - Bush was never above 40% and at 33% in November.)

Here's what was not said: For all the ABB nonsense, Kerry's race was not like McCain's (or Bill Clinton's) - if the ABB stuff was true, it would look like McCain's as a substantial number of people would have continued to vote for the candidate from the disaffected block (Dean) - that did not happen. Kerry won all but SC, OK, VT, and NC. In all of them, he won convincingly. (Iowa and Wisconsin were the closest and in each case he had over 15% more votes than Edwards. Most other states he won by over 20 points!)

The second interesting comment was Norah O'Donnell's comment on Kerry getting 83 % of the black vote in 2004. This is a rare time where obliquely they are challanging the myth that Kerry did not connect with anyone but the NE elite.