It’s touching – or it would be if there was anything genuine about it – to hear Hillary Clinton drone on about how anti-democratic it would be if the Democratic primary election results in Florida and Michigan are not counted.
Clinton, who has been singing this song since she “won” those primaries, is now ramping up the volume, as part of a last, desperate effort to derail what seems to be Barack Obama’s inevitable nomination. Although, who knows what, or when, her last effort will be. She’ll probably be out there hectoring her followers about the “ultimate glass ceiling” while Obama’s taking the oath of office, if he’s elected.
If you listen to Hillary, it’s all about the voters. “I say that not counting Florida and Michigan is changing a central governing rule of this country, that whenever we can understand the clear intent of the voters, their votes should be counted,” she said.
But, I can’t help but ask, “Where were you and your campaign when your party – the party of the people, the Democratic party – set down a schedule for the primaries and said it would not count the results of any state that violated that schedule? Where were you when the party made a rule, and said exactly what would happen to those who broke the rule?”
The answer is, she was there, and she assented to the rule, just as Obama did. It is only now that the rule is seen as hurting her chances, that she is filled with concern for allegedly disenfranchised voters.
Nobody is being disenfranchised. Voters in Florida and Michigan will be able to cast their votes for president. Primaries are creations of the parties, not the government.
And if the party caves, as appears likely, and agrees to seat the delegates of those states, good luck the next time around. They can make a schedule, but it is doubtful that the party leaders of any state will be stupid enough to abide by it.
