Clinton Delegates are pissed. The Clinton National Delegate Network, a grassroots movement of delegates is on the streets of Denver collecting signatures from Hillary delegates. This eleventh hour effort is being organized to ensure that delegates who were elected to represent the voters of each state can and will vote for the candidate they were pledged to.
The DNC and Nancy Pelosi, the Chairman of the Democratic Convention, are doing everything in their power to make sure that does not happen. With Obama’s flagging support, according to the polls, running neck and neck with McCain, they are very worried that Hillary will get the nomination if a roll call vote takes place on the convention floor. That is why they are making the delegates have a secret hotel vote, instead of the floor vote that’s been done since forever. The hotel vote will purportedly take place on Wednesday morning, August 27, 2008.
However, there is a DNC rule that says if 20% of a candidate’s delegates sign a petition for a roll call vote, it must happen. This means that Hillary needs 826 of her delegates to sign this petition. I visited their headquarters along with BettyJean, Pagan, Hill08, and BrendaLynn. As we set out on our mission, we got three signatures in less than one block. They headed for the Pepsi Center to collect more, and got about 40 in an hour, and I came back to Puma Headquarters to blog. Last word I got was there were over 400 signatures gathered.
Pagan reports that he talked to a delegate who originally supported Hillary. The delegate declined to sign or divulge the delegation he was from. He said he would vote the way his state party told him to vote and that Terry McAuliffe had instructed them in how to vote. When Pagan asked if he’d mind sharing what that way of voting would be, he also declined, and then just turned his head and refused to engage in the conversation anymore.
Delegates have reported to us that Obama supporters are stationed outside of each delegation’s room with clipboards, ready to make sure that once again, despite their best efforts to represent their constituents (approximately 12,225 voters per delegate in the case of primaries, and 2,110 in the case of caucuses), that Hillary delegates and voters are ROBBED of their democratic rights.
As recently as this afternoon, we knew that the hotel vote would take place in each delegation on Wednesday morning, and that Hillary would have a special luncheon with her delegates at 1pm. Rumor had it that she might release her delegates then.
However, we have an unconfirmed report coming from someone inside the Pepsi Center that Hillary Clinton will make a special announcement tonight during her speech. Although I’m ever the optimist, call me paranoid: Will she try to pre-empt this grassroots effort by releasing her delegates tonight?
I can’t even imagine the pressure she is under by party leadership. We even heard that President Clinton’s speech would not be televised live in prime time.
Oh my, is the DNC running scared or what? We need divine intervention. If you’re a praying person, give it your all.
Please Note: I don’t mean to cut in on LadyBoomer’s brilliant post but Sheri Tag says that NO WE WON’T will be on after Hillary’s speech.
Hey my Conflucians! Waiting for reports from RiverDaughter, who’s at Denver’s Cheesman Park “The Beautiful Protest and Rise 2008” (see flyer on the right hand column), followed by candlelight vigil and from our PUMAmobile Dynamic Duo, Gary and Mawm – stay tuned! In the meantime, add your Conflucian snark by captioning these photos and read post below if you like:
PHOTO 1
PHOTO 2
PUMAs are having a BALL in Denver! “WE are the one no was expecting,” as the lovely Darragh Murphy from PUMA PAc states.
Clinton’s Wishes Don’t Spoil PUMA’s Fun –byJason Horowitz | August 25, 2008
In a flat, windswept part of Denver known, depending who you ask, as LODO, for lower downtown, or RINO, for River North, where the city’s yellow cab company once had their depot and where office and loft space now sit in the middle of parking lots and tall body-dumping grass, the PUMA women, and a smattering of PUMA men, held a premier of the anti-Obama movie, “The Audacity of Democracy.” Under pink and yellow neon lights at the sleek Fuel Café, the group’s organizers offered a respectable spread of sautéed spinach, prosciutto-wrapped dates, seasoned mushrooms, falafel, mushrooms and assorted salads, including one fattened with steak. The party had a cash bar, but it carried all sorts of top-shelf alcohol served by a handsome wait staff dressed seriously in culinary whites. A large contingent of foreign press, nearly outnumbering the Clinton loyalists, gave the proceedings an even greater air of sophistication.
A reporter from Le Monde interviewed Edwin Paytner, a round man who blogs as Texas Hill Country, for more than a half an hour. Two German reporters flanked Darragh Murphy, the founder of PumaPac, who has accused Obama supporters of killing bunnies as a scare tactic, scribbling her every word into notebooks. A glamorous Italian reporter talked sympathetically to a white-haired woman in a white Hillary t-shirt .
Taku Tsuchiya, a Japanese television reporter explained the intense international scrutiny.
“It’s interesting,” he said, “Because Obama’s popularity is declining right now and they might have something to do with it.”
And yes for those viewing – IT’S NOT about Senator Clinton, it’s about DEMOCRACY. We’re not bitter dead-enders. We are about ACTION. We are the Democratic Base. We make things happen in the USA, and we come in every color, size, gender, age, physical ability etc. etc. you can think of. I wrote this yesterday, posting again because – well, it just says what I want to say:
I stand by my Floridian voter’s opinion:
If a bank robber was caught stealing money and at their trial, they made a plea bargain to give most of the money back – it still doesn’t exculpate them from the crime they committed. The robber should be punished regardless. PUMA was formed to protest the DNC’s hijack of Democracy. We want Democracy back in the Democratic Party, and you will not get our support and votes until our Democratic leaders start acting Democratically again.
In Florida, our votes are used like toilet paper since 2000, and since the DNC’s leadership mostly ignores its voter base, they thought the best way they can win an election is by copying the Rove playbook. How about counting our votes and LISTENING to your voters for a change? Everytime they do listen, Democrats win the General election. Had Ted Kennedy been the 1980 DNC candidate, Reagan would have never won nor started the Neo-Conservative movement. I still resent that the Democratic leadership did not fight for Al Gore’s votes in 2000, had they fought like their Democratic voter base asked and pleaded them to, we would not have 8 years of the most destructive presidential administration in this country’s history.
We put our trust in a party that we thought valued and represented Democracy and that would fight for our votes and for clean and transparent elections processes. But since they won’t fight for Democracy, we will.
As far as I’m concerned, this changes nothing. We still have an illegitimate candidate that won through illegitimate means. And PUMA will continue to be a consciousness that lives in all of us here at this little corner of the blogosphere until Democracy is back in the Democratic Party
Our brave Conflucians are on the road to Denver! Riverdaughter made it safe to PUMA headquarters with Darragh Murphy, see post below!
Our Infantry Co-Commanders made their first stop in Virginia at Conflucian Commenter Supreme, Miss IndigoGirl, who Conflucian-ly donated time & materials from her graphics workshop to decorate the PUMAmobile! Let’s give a round of applause and a BIG Conflucian Fuzzybear hug to IndigoGirl for her time, materials & effort, who’s now promoted to Infantry PUMA Colonel for her extraordinary efforts to the PUMA cause! Three cheers for IndigoGirl!
Satire on a Budget moments made it on the PUMAmobile – plus some new graphics too! Gary, Mawm and yours truly worked on it last night. IndigoGirl gave the ok and they made it on the PUMAmobile! Order your drink with Rico, check in nasty words with Flo and lets celebrate with Gary, Mawm & IndigoGirl and ultra PUMATized PUMAmobile, please check out the photos below!
Entertainment, her Madgesty herself, for all of our PUMAs traveling to Denver who are the “Ray of Light” before “Macaca” Biden and the Obaminator take the DNC’s MTV Downtown Julie Brown stage. (No offense to Downtown Julie Brown, who I think is a fab diva!)
First Pink PUMA on the house to celebrate Hillary’s not the VP!!
More photos here:
Attack of the PUMAs!
Goddess of Democracy!
Full size (long blue section is the Confluence banner!)
Another "attack" side look
ConflucianMobile!
PUMA HAKA, for the rear view mirrors!
UPDATE: Images on the side of PUMAmobile for better viewing
[I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair, Rodgers and Hammerstein]
How true are the words to this song when applied to our current “situation”!!! And how prescient are my old time heroes, Rodgers and Hammerstein in their 1949 broadway musical, South Pacific. Here’s a South Park-inspired version. This post was inspired by myiq2xu’s: http://myiq2xu.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/how-to-turn-win-into-whine/
The most difficult part about writing this was deciding which line to use as the title, because there are a plethora of appropriate choices. I began with the oh-so-eraser-friendly Denver ballot analogy: “rub him out of the roll call.” However, I carefully reconsidered in case it might be misconstrued in Soprano-like terms.
Read the lyrics and see for yourself. What a choice for l’il ole Libra me to have to make! I did it, but pick a line, any line in the song, and you’ve got a winner — I mean a winner about a loser. As for the two pinup men at the end: not up on these things and haven’t a clue — unless they’re the current or ex-boyfriends of the video producer. If they’re famous or sports stars, oops, sorry.
Personally, I’ve got the man I want to wash out of my hair clearly focused in my mind. Oh, no, guess not, he’s gone. Washed up and washed out! From my lips. . . .
I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair
from South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein
I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair,
I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair,
I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair,
And send him on his way.
I’m gonna wave that man right outta my arms,
I’m gonna wave that man right outta my arms,
I’m gonna wave that man right outta my arms,
And send him on his way.
Don’t try to patch it up
Tear it up, tear it up!
Wash him out, dry him out,
Push him out, fly him out,
Cancel him and let him go!
Yea, sister!
I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair,
I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair,
I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair,
And send him on his way.
If a man don’t understand you,
If you fly on separate beams,
Waste no time, make a change,
Ride that man right off your range.
Rub him out of the roll call
And drum him out of your dreams.
Oho!
If you laugh at different comics,
If you root for different teams,
Waste no time, weep no more,
Show him what the door is for.
Rub him out of the roll call
And drum him out of your dreams.
You can’t light a fire when the woods are wet,
No!
You can’t make a butterfly strong,
Hmm, hmm!
You can’t fix an egg when it ain’t quite good,
And you can’t fix a man when he’s wrong!
You can’t put back a petal when it falls from a flower,
Or sweeten up a fellow when he starts turnin’ sour
Oh no! Oh no!
If his eyes get dull and fishy,
When you look for glints and gleams,
Waste no time,
Make a switch,
Drop him in the nearest ditch!
Rub him out of the roll call,
And drum him out of your dreams
Oho! Oho!
I went and washed that man right outta my hair,
I went and washed that man right outta my hair,
I went and washed that man right outta my hair,
And sent him on his way.
She went and washed that man right outta her hair,
She went and washed that man right outta her hair,
She went and washed that man right outta her hair,
And sent him on his way!
And if you haven’t had enough, here’s a karaoke, slightly off-key version from Pequinito. Appropriate, ain’t it? Sing along, enjoy yourself. I hate to be redundant, but this wash bears repeating. In fact, my hair is so dirty from all this DNC, Nobama, Pelosi, Dean grime, that I’ll have to shampoo it twice in order to get it clean.
Besides PUMAs, Just Say No Deal Coalition members, and those who have been paying close attention to the 2008 primary process, everyone in the US and some people abroad think that: Obama won the Democratic Primary; therefore, he secured the nomination; and he is being gracious by allowing Clinton’s name to be placed in nomination at the Democratic Convention.
In fact, the Obama and Clinton campaigns issued a joint statement on August 14, 2008 about it, and we have achieved a small victory. Or as Heidi Li Feldman puts it, we’re where we were in the first place. (Oh, forgive me: as Barbra WaWa might say: Were where we whah in the furst pwace.) The MSM is all over the story, asking if we disgruntled old ladies, gays, and republicrats are satisfied now? They claim that we’re just sore losers, and that we want Clinton’s name on the ballot because of her historic win as a woman. They’re touting it as symbolic. It’s not symbolic; it’s normal!
In fact, we are sore winners! Neither candidate won the requisite number of pledged delegates. Instead (rolling eyes, PUMAs repeating themselves, ad infinitum), Nancy Nine Percent Pelosi and Harry Reticent Reed pressured the Democratic Superdelegates to endorse a candidate prior to Denver. This act in turn defies their true purpose: to nominate the candidate who can win POTUS in November. In 2008, there are 855 Superdelegates with FL and MI according to Connect-the-Dots. CNN says it’s 825. Over 200 are uncommitted. Any SD can change their vote through the first ballot in Denver, no matter who they or their state or district endorsed.
Didn’t Hillary run on the assertion that she was the only Democratic candidate who could win the Electoral College in November? The virtual Nobama/McCain dead heat in the polls proves that she wasn’t lyin’, despite Obamamoneys-raised, European jaunts, and a vacay away from the barely investigative, mostly fawning MSM spotlight.
The Obama/DNC presumption is that it’s all a done deal. To dispel any doubts, Invesco Field/Mile High Stadium was booked as the site for what our movement, (and back in the day, Jesse Jackson) calls a coronation. Let’s be clear:
From CNN’s count, we see that neither candidate had the requisite 2,118 pledged delegates as of June 3 to clinch the nomination. Obama had 1763, Clinton had 1640, a 123 delegate lead for BO. It is difficult to find an accurate vote count that shows Hillary Clinton won the most popular votes of any primary candidate in history. Why? Real Clear Politics has Clinton at 18,046,007, Obama at 17,869,542, including MI and FL, with estimates for IA, NV, ME, and WA. There, Clinton nets +176,465 votes.
1. Why does popular vote matter when everyone keeps hammering on the delegate totals? Delegate counts are inconsistent, uneven reflections of the will of the voters, because they include caucuses. Caucuses represent far fewer voters than primaries, yet delegates selected in that process carry more weight.
Worse yet is the impact on the delegate count. While [as of 5/31/08] 2549 delegates earned in the primaries represent an average of 12,225 voters, in the caucuses each of the 515 delegates elected represents a mere 2,110 votes. Each caucus vote, then, is weighted 5.8 times greater than each primary vote when it comes to allocating delegates.
2. Why don’t PUMAs admit that Obama won more caucuses, which is why he won and Hillary lost, and stop changing the rules? In 2008, there are substantiated reports of caucus fraud. Please read Dr. Lynette Long’s research who concludes: “the Obama campaign willfully and intentionally defrauded the American public by systematically undermining the caucus process.”
3. If Obama now has enough delegates when SDs are included, why isn’t he simply the nominee? Superdelegates are party officials — both elected and un-elected. They can vote for whomever they wish at their Convention, regardless of their states’ vote, to make sure the most-electable Democrat becomes the nominee.
4. Why am I still writing about this, when Obama and Clinton agreed on 8/14/08 that Hillary’s name will be placed on the Convention ballot and up for a roll call vote? Because, it should have been automatic, as in every election since 1884. None of the other candidates came anywhere near Clinton, yet it’s a “negotiation”? Look at all these guys who were nominated, without even coming close to their opponents in delegate count. Courtesy of EdgeOfForever:
1972: Ted Kennedy – 12 votes on first ballot
Kennedy had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.
1976: Ted Kennedy – 1 vote on first ballot
Kennedy had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.
1980: Jimmy Carter – 1981 delegates
Ted Kennedy – 1225 delegates
Uncommitted – 122
Kennedy had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.
1984: Jesse Jackson – 465 votes
Jackson had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.
1988: Jesse Jackson – 1218 votes
Jackson had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.
2004: John Kerry: 2192.5 Pledged delegates
Howard Dean: 114.5 Pledged delegates
Dean had already dropped out, with no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.
5. Who are the delegates, and why shouldn’t they just go along with the DNC’s choice, Barack Obama? Delegates are elected by their grassroots supporters to go to the Democratic convention as representatives of the total votes cast in their state’s districts. Although they each may represent thousands of HRC voters, they can just change their votes as if we, the US voters, are not even in the picture! According to CNN,
Pledged delegates are not actually bound to vote for the candidate. Consequently, candidates are allowed on a state-by-state basis to review lists of delegates who have pledged their support and can delete anyone whose support they consider unreliable.
Surprise you? This could account for the DNC’s treatment of Clinton delegate, Sacha Millstone, or even what happened in Florida right after June 3, when Obama’s campaign began replacing his elected delegates with their own. I’m still not getting how someone who represents your, or my, or anyone’s vote could be intimidated into changing it and have that be part of the deal. Our deal. You know, the one we get as citizens. The deal, the one true thing we’ve got in this country that our guys and all those Iraqis are supposedly dying for and about. That democracy one person one vote representative thing.
6. How can the DNC represent the will of the people, if the delegates are pressured to support Obama as if he is the nominee, and they are afraid to publicly declare otherwise? How can there be “unity” if Hillary Clinton is allowed to be booed unchecked at even one of his events? DNC chairs and party officials, and delegates are being intimidated and threatened to not cast THEIR votes for Hillary Clinton. These are not THEIR votes. These votes are OURS. The delegates are merely our proxies. If not us, who DO they represent? How is this representative government?
Whether you agree or disagree, please learn about the process. Watch this three-part series, Democrats ’08: CONNECT-THE-DOTS, with Host Leslie Stevens. The program is sponsored by The Educational Foundation for the Integrity of the Democratic Process, Asheville, North Carolina. Bloggers, please post it! Readers, email it to friends and family.
[Connect-the-Dots Part 1]
[Connect-the-Dots Part 2]
[Connect-the-Dots Part 3]
Have you connected the dots? That’s why we’re not satisfied. It’s about the process being fair and reflecting the will of the voters. And, you can help!!! Call or email your delegates or any that you know TODAY. Ask them to sign the 300 delegate petition to ensure that Hillary’s name is placed in nomination. This petition was created by and for delegates. Email: hrc300delegates@yahoo.com.
Still, we’re not ready to make nice. . . .
[160 Years and Still Waiting — Rise Hillary Rise by DemocracyDame]
h/t to DemocracyDame for “Connect-the-Dots” lead and her video above.
WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton’s name will be placed in nomination along with nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, an emblematic move intended to unite the party after a divisive primary.
During the Denver gathering, Democrats will officially choose Obama to run against Republican John McCain this fall, but the state delegations will do a traditional roll call for their nominee’s vanquished primary opponent as well.
….
While Democrats say the mechanics of how that will play out still are being determined, Clinton — herself a superdelegate who gets a vote — is expected to release her delegates to Obama, announce her support for him and ask her backers to do the same.
So the “emblematic” move for the “vanquished” opponent is still expected to “release” her delegates, in a “move intended to unite the party?” How is that Democracy in action? Is that the type of “Unity” that the Neo-Republicanized DNC is pushing? I say M_Fing ditto with whipped cream and a cherry on top to what Riverdaughter said here:
F**k Unity! We’ll have unity after Howard Dean tells the Obama crew to back off the threats and intimidation of the delegates. We’ll have unity when Hillary’s name is put in nomination with no conditions. We’ll have unity when all of the superdelegates hear us say that Obama will lose if this convention is not fair, transparent and open. We’ll have unity when they take their responsibilities to their voters seriously. We’ll have unity when all the speeches and arguments are heard for *both* candidates and the roll call proceeds without twisted arms and ruined lives. Then, when we know who the real People’s Choice is, we’ll have Unity. Until then, we got nothing.
Why is the DNC asking the candidate who has the popular vote lead, who demographically and geographically has the widest voter spread and has the greatest chances of defeating John McCain in November asked to release her delegates after her speech? Well guess what, DNC, I want my Floridian 1/2 vote counted, and until the Credentials meeting on Aug 24, it’s still a 1/2 vote. I want my Florida delegates to argue and discuss and VOTE on the roll call and on the Nomination Ballot according to Democratic Convention traditions. But if the Neo-Republicanized DNC wants to twist Democracy out of the hands of its voters by not allowing Senator Clinton to have her delegates vote for her on a NOMINATION BALLOT as well as the traditional roll call, there will be no Democrat in the White House this November. Not because we’re bitter holdouts, but because you silenced our voices and our votes to push ahead an illegitimate candidate that you chose to scoot across the finish line by stealing 4 delegates and 600,000 “uncommitted” votes, thus breaking the DNC charter rule of Fair Reflection at the RBC meeting on May 31st, 2008.
How can the DNC demand Democracy in November for the General Election, yet won’t allow it in August among members of its own party? A traditional phrase says that “respect must be given in order for it to be attained.” I say the same goes for Democracy.
Despite the DNC stealing and appropriating Clinton delegates just so the DNC can cushion their selected-and-not-elected presumptive candidate’s delegate pile, they still can’t risk the chance that pledged delegates and superdelegates having Obama buyer’s remorse. And as a result of it, Democracy itself is collateral damage just because the Neo-Republicanized DNC suffers from Clenis envy and CDS.
Harold Ickes, PLEASE live up to your word! We want a floor fight!
Back in the days when we old fogeys were still young, energetic and idealistic, there was a Democratic Convention in Chicago. I can hardly believe that that it took place nearly 40 years ago, from August 26 to August 30, 1968. It had been a bitter, tumultuous primary campaign, and the convention was to be even more bitter and tumultuous.
In September, 1967, Allard Lowenstein and Curtis Gans, leaders of the National Student Association, had begun a formal movement to dump President Lyndon Johnson from the Democratic ticket. In September, Lowenstein approached Senator Robert Kennedy of NY, and asked him to run against President Johnson for the nomination. When Kennedy refused, Lowenstein turned to Senator Eugene McCarthy of MN, who agreed to run.
On March 12, 1968, McCarthy nearly upset Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, winning 40% of the vote. A few days later, Bobby Kennedy changed his mind and announced his intention to seek the nomination. On March 31, President Johnson announced that he would no longer seek nor accept his party’s nomination to run for a second term. Continue reading →
There are only two paths to the Democratic nomination now. One path, for Clinton, is based on her maintaining a tie or a narrow lead among pledged delegates, thus allowing her to seal the deal through a rules and bylaws engine that focuses on superdelegates and the Michigan / Florida delegate seating process. The other path, for Obama, is based on him taking a narrow pledged delegate lead, and then slowly building that lead through a string of victories that will eventually make Clinton’s super delegate lead a democratic farce, and her Michigan / Florida claims irrelevant. Which situation are we in now? Well, unless one is simply incapable of counting pledged delegates and simultaneously blind to Obama’s gaping caucus advantage and resource advantage, you simply have to conclude that the latter scenario is more likely now.
Really?
Like California and NY and NJ and MA, FL and MI voters are just going to cry uncle when Obama has them in a choke hold. “Ok, Ok, we give in. You can be the nominee. We didn’t know what we were thinking. We just let that most densely populated, most diverse, most tech savvy states status thingy go to our heads. Oh, and women forgot to check with their husbands before they pushed the buttons. We’re sorry, sorry, SORRY! Ow, ow, ow, you’re hurting us.”
Chris, if you and the rest of the big blog stores and the media keep this up, there is going to be a backlash and it isn’t going to be pretty. Obama is not going to be the nominee by the big states graciously conceding our delegates to him because he won more Utahs and Alaskas. Nah gah happen. It has nothing to do with superdelegates or party establishment. The voters of the largest Democratic states in the nation have spoken- decisively. I don’t think that Obama is going to want to piss us off.
Last night, Clinton proved conclusively that despite all of the vicious media and blogger attacks, she is an admired and viable candidate for president. It can only go up from here. Please don’t bore us with this stupid cognitive dissonant zealotry. Obama gets VP if he’s nice. Hillary tops the ticket.
Deal with it.
Oh, and one other thing: I’ll be campaigning for Clinton throughout April in PA, which is right over the border and I’m going to recruit my sister and mother to do the same since they live there. In fact, since there won’t be much else for we NY and NJ people to do before the convention, we will have lots of time on our hands during the weekends to help out.
The Confluence 