2008 Primary Pushing and Petition Passing
posted by on February 12 at 9:45 AM
I woke up this morning to an email from a local Democratic source who’d seen all the Slog talk yesterday about Clinton dissing caucuses:
Just saw your post on activist caucuses. I have it on good authority: The Clinton people have made Wash calls and are trying to push their supporters big time to vote in the primary—hoping for a different outcome to diminish caucus blow out. This also gives the super delegates cover.
And here’s another email I woke up to, this one concerning those superdelegates who might be in need of cover:
Please read and sign this petition calling on Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to follow the lead of their Washington constituents and endorse Senator Obama for the Democratic Presidential nominee.
Wow - the Clintons really trying everything, aren't they? I'm going to guess the primaries will have a lot less turnout than the caucuses. If she wins a primary with less than 50% of the participants that the caucuses had, I'm guessing she won't have much of an argument.
And if she loses the primary, she should drop out..
A petition to change a senators mind on their endorsement? Classy. Pretty sure neither of them have put any thought into their decision, and nothing says "you're wrong" like a bunch of signatures.
Was the creator of the petition the same fuckhead who was telling people at the SCC not to forget to put Obama in their vote box?
You know, I like Obama but can deal/cope with Hillary if she gets the nomination. But if this candidate bickering keeps going the Democrats will effectively have shot any chance of winning in November. The GOP is now preparing for November and we are no where near ready.
Is anyone else worried at this point?
While I don't think superdelegates like Maria and Patty should be required to change their committment to Obama from Clinton merely because every single county in their state voted for Obama, I don't think it hurts to remind them of this fact. Encouragement, petitions, emails and phone calls to your senator is part of the democratic process, folks, and nothing to be ashamed of.
The GOP's not preparing for November; they're preparing for civil war. You think this mild, civilized sniping between Obama and Clinton is bitter? You must be very young. And you should see what the Republicans are saying about each other. Seriously, they're getting ready to spill some blood, and I couldn't be happier.
I think it's funny it's happening over Washington State, too -- bellwether of both old-fashioned moderate Dan Evans Republicanism and modern kook Kristian Ellen Craswell Republicanism. We're national leaders, baybee! Knives out!
Last night on CNN they actually discussed the WA primary while discussing upcoming Dem constests. I don't know why they did this but maybe Hillary is going to try to make it into something.
Couldn’t the Senators keep their personal endorsement of Clinton and yet respect the wishes of the caucuses at the convention by voting for Obama? The wording on that petition asking them to change their endorsement threw me. Maybe I’m missing something here, but it seems perfectly reasonable to me for them to say, we think Clinton is better, but we’re deferring to the citizens of our state.
Andrew (@4) - I'm not worried, and neither should you be. There's a reason the general election is some 10 months away. This is the exact time when we should be bickering about the nominee. And as it is, all this Huckabee crap shows that the GOP has some internal problems as well.
If this crap is still going on in June, I'll be worried. But I'm not worried at all now.
As for the Cantwell/Murray thing - let's ditch the petition and wait a few more weeks. As the NY Times piece at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/us/politics/12clinton.html?hp explains, we have ample reason to believe that if Obama keeps winning big, the superdelegates will follow.
If Hillary wins I am going to vote for a third party... along with many many other people.
Yes, I have no doubt that some third party will arise and secure HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of votes. Good luck!
I know lots of people who didn't know about the caucus or thought that they could just vote in the primary. And I'll be voting Clinton, and I wasn't able to caucus.
So I will be interested in the Primary results.
@12, just enough to keep Hillary out of the White House...
You guys, seriously, don't participate in the D primary. That will only demonstrate that Washingtonians are dumb. Vote Huckabee!
I remain hopeful that there will be a huge floor fight/riot in Denver. Something that will make 1968 in Chicago look mild and downright friendly.
THAT would be GREAT television!
they should not tally the democratic primary votes. what end does it serve? it is not official, so many people will not vote. to speculate that some/most people think it is real is not valid. to use a big clinton win to say that the caucuses were wrong, or disenfranchised voters, is also unfounded. there is no reason for an obama supporter to vote in the primary. it will just create more unnecessary division in the party.
Vote for Kucinich in the primary. You know you want to.
Can anyone tell me... if I caucused on Saturday for the Dems, does that legally prevent me from voting in the Rep primary?
@19, Yes, officially speaking, you sign an oath on the primary ballot that you won't/haven't done such a thing.
Also, I believe that the Republican Party has access to all voter information on those who choose to vote Republican in the primary.
But I can't imagine the two parties are going to get together and share their lists with each other, do you?
@19 - yes. Legally you could even go to jail. Or, if lucky, be fined a few hundred dollars.
Sorry.
Since the primary ballot doesn't matter, I chose to vote for the candidate I really want. I wrote in Al Gore.
that would be hilarious if gore won the dem primary vote!
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