And So, It Ends

[Prophet 451]

With the decision by the Rules & Bylaws Committee, Hillary now has three options:

1) Bow out gracefully. Well, for a given value of "graceful" anyway. No-one would blame her at this point, it's been a bruising fight and she gave it everything she had but lost to teh better contender. No shame in that.

2) Hang around until the convention. I'd call this the Huckabee approach but I don't want to insult Hillary. If she wants to stay in to steer the debate or for the sake of her supporters or even just for the sake of going the distance and she does so without tearing down Obama, I don't think anyone would begrudge her that. It would help if she endorses Obama when the time comes.

3) Keep campaigning. This is the worst case scenario and really, there would be no excuse for it. The RBC compromise was more than generous, the superdelegates won't back her (and a great many of them now publically back Obama). Campaigning in the manner she has been all the way to the convention (or even after) would be nothing more than kneecapping Obama and we would have a right to call it what it would be, sabotage.

[Syrinx]

1. take option number one, Hillary, I beg you

And option number two is an insult to Huckabee, not to Hillary.

[FrenchieCat]

2. "It would help if she endorses Obama when the time comes"?

and when would that be? After that gigantic ass Kitchen Sink?

Should be, like....tommorrow.

[flor de jasmim]

3. Somehow I'm on the campaign mailing list - I got this message:

Hillary has consistently stood up for the voters of Michigan and Florida. She, like you, has insisted that the voice of all Americans be heard. Today, the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee announced their decision on seating Florida and Michigan's delegations. In recent days, almost 350,000 of Hillary's supporters wrote in to the committee to make clear what an important principle it is for our party to count every vote.

Our campaign has released an official statement about the results of the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting and I'd like to share it with blogHillary readers. I know how passionate Hillary's supporters are about the importance of counting every vote cast in Florida and Michigan and I hope that they continue to express their feelings with the respect and thoughtfulness they've shown during the course of this campaign.

Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy made the following statement:

Today’s results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party’s nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party’s convention. The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly.

We strongly object to the Committee’s decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan’s delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan.

The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party.
We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan’s delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.

[Prophet 451]

4. Well, we'll see

If they do appeal it, it's sabotage, plain and simple.

[scarletwoman]

8. They have no standing to make a challenge. The challenge has to come from

the Michigan delegates themselves.

There were at least two threads earlier that explained this in great detail, my apologies that I'm too tired to find them right now.

But from what I've read, it's hogwash, they have no standing. Plus, they're delusional.

sw

[Gore1FL]

10. Not real classy IMO

She picked up 23 delegates on Saturday, and she got them for free. If anyone should be complaining about the outcome, it should be Obama. The rules were bent in her favor. To complain that she wasn't given the whole pie rather than a sizable majority of it is a little on the poor behavior side of things.

[quaker bill]

13. Michigan and FL

had no delegates. At the beginning of the meeting, Senator Clinton had no MI delegates, now she has some. The RBC agreed to settlements that give these states and the candidates some delegates.

There is no way to accurately reflect the will of voters who did not vote on the basis that the contest "did not count".

The Michigan Democratic Party did the best it could with this mess. BTW most polling indicates that if a contest were held today, which would count under the rules, Hillary would lose it. Most analysis indicates if the Michigan primary were held early within the approved window, it would have been a 2 or 3 percent race that could have gone either way.

No matter how one dices it, Hillary benefitted from the timing violation, but not enough to make any difference in the outcome.

[Ashy Larry]

5. Hey, you never know.

She only needs 83% of the remaining delegates. She could still pull this thing out!


:sarcasm: :rofl:

[VolcanoJen]

6. There's always the Third Party option.

Hillary and Bill and the Lanny Davis-types have spent a lot of energy building the necessary "Founding Myth" for a third-party (should I call it "third way"?) stab at this.

There are a lot of folks out there who have bought into every victim, sexist, popular-vote scam they've been sold.

[Prophet 451]

7. I thought about that

But in all honesty, I think that would come later. If Obama loses the GE, Obama supporters will blame Hillary cutting him down right up to the convention (and, in my view, they'd be right). The Hillary zealots, meanwhile, who have brought into the whole idea that Hillary lost entirely due to sexism, ran an entirely clean campaign, etc, would shout "told you so" and accept zero responsibility. I'm sure you've seen them around here just as I have and if Obama loses, I honestly think the party may split. The progressives go off in one direction, led by Obama; the DLC faction go in the other, under the Clintons.

[melody]

12. And the few remaining moderate GOP could split off with McCain

And fuse with the Clintons and presto, a new third party where Clinton is king.

Sounds terrifyingly possible.

[scarletwoman]

9. Don't you mean, "turd party"? You know, Lieberman's party.

:P

[GoesTo11]

11. Sabateuse

People keep giving her the benefit of the doubt, or acting as if she's just trying to win.
Maybe they just can't believe she's actually doing it. Maybe they still think if they're really, really
nice she will stop sabotaging the party.

But it has become clear,

Clinton's goal is to make Obama lose to McCain, she is no longer trying to win for herself.

It's shocking, but it's true and it's time to treat her like the sabateuse she is.