NBC News: Delegate math puts Obama in strong position

[babylonsister]

Run time: 02:42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIih30bxAEA   Posted on YouTube: March 21, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: March 23, 2008 By DU Member: babylonsister Views on DU: 1375

 

[Clear Blue Sky]

1. Super delegates

The super delegates can trump the popular and pledged delegates. Like "deuces wild" in a card game...

[wordpix]

2. GOBAMA!

[BearSquirrel2]

12. Yes they can but ...

Yes they can. But you have to remember that most of those folks will face a ballot. If your district swings hard for Obama and vote against him, you'll have some explaining to do.

Since Clinton is campaigning in Indiana, I'll tell her this. The entire Western have of the state will go for Obama. Obama get good press out of Illinois and we're all subject to that. Obama will trounce Clinton in NWI.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. The reality is this:

Hilary Clinton is not going to be the Democratic nominee. The best she can hope for, if it is worth it to her and for some unfathomable reason it seems to be, is to deny the nomination to Senator Obama by dragging him down. In that case, we have a brokered convention with neither Senator Obama nor Senator Clinton in serious contention for the nomination. The party bosses will be looking for a compromise candidate, and that, almost by definition, excludes both of them.

Any ideas, my fellow evil DUers? Would Al Gore accept the nomination? Richardson? Biden? Dodd?

The convention is open.

[babylonsister]

4. I hope she runs out of money before that happens myself.

Why should she be able to get away with this? Also, why should anyone who hasn't campaigned, hasn't 'earned' one vote, be the nominee?

[MindMatter]

5. It won't happen

That scenario would create a complete meltdown and certain losses in November. I can't see the party bosses allowing that to happen. It will have to be Obama or Clinton, and the only chance the party has in November is for the great majority of voters to believe the choice was a fair one.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. I'm having trouble wishing her any good fortune right now, too

Nevertheless, we should recognize that the swiftboating of Obmaa has drawn blood. It was apparently manufactured by the right wing noise machine, with the Clinton campaign giving it tacit approval and her supporters passing on the poisoned merchandise (as witness this forum). It could be that by summer Obama will be unelectable.

Your first question (Why should she be able to get away with this?) gives rise for the necessity of finding a candidate acceptable to all. Hillary Clinton would have been a hard pill for many swallow, and now she might be too hard of a pill. Why should she get away with this? I can think of no good reason why and some why she shouldn't. It would be unseemly for her to split the party, smear its presidential front runner, and sacrifice the Democratic Party's chances of victory in November on the alter of her ambitions. The worst consequence of this will be four more years of bloodshed in Iraq, and perhaps some in Iran for good measure. No one's ambition is worth that.

Giving the nomination to Senator Clinton under those circumstances would be unacceptable. And so, under those circumstances, the nomination would necessarily to go some one who didn't campaign and expresses no desire to run for president in the future (Gore) or those who failed to win enough votes to get even this far (Edwards, Biden, Dodd, Richardson).

It's not a pretty thought, but it's one we may have to face. Senator Obama has exceeded my expectations of him as a candidate. If he hadn't by last Monday, he did that day when he gave The Speech. Part of the appeal of that speech was the challenge to look at a particularly nasty, unpleasant thing about American society, the casual racism of Americans both white and black. We would honor the man if we took up that mantle and determined who should get the nomination if the convention must be brokered.

Come. people, let's face reality together and like adults.

[babylonsister]

7. Has there ever been a brokered convention and if so,

is it always decided by electing a third party?
I must say, this primary year has been long, exhausting, and exciting. But I'm tired of getting 'excited'. I so hope some people can make some decisions, like SDs, to end this mess. It is doing nothing imo but hurting the Dem party, and I don't think Clinton has much political capital left. I predict nothing but angry people, maybe angry people who refuse to vote, should she somehow worm her way in. I myself would lose even more respect for her.

[Jack Rabbit]

9. I was less than a year old the last time there was one

The Democratic convention took three ballots to nominate Adlai Stevenson in 1952.

The idea of a compromise candidate is that no single candidate came to the convention with enough support to win the nomination, so the party bosses wheeled and dealed and picked somebody on whom they could all agree, even if he wasn't anybody's first choice. We've had some pretty bad presidents picked that way -- Pierce and Harding come to mind -- and some excellent candidates chosen that way, too (I've just mentioned Stevenson).

I share your anger. I am more angry at Senator Clinton now than I have ever been. There is too much of a cold political calculating machine about and too little human warmth or concern for the consequences of her actions, like the thousands of deaths resulting from her vote for the IWR. Her vote for the IWR was disappointing and her vote for the Kyl-Lieberman resolution even more so. She should know Mr. Bush well enough not to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially on matter of war, but she did it not once but twice, the second time long after it was established that he lied the first time.

What she is doing now is too much. An attack on any Democrat from the GOP noise machine is an attack on all. Rather than call the Rove wannabes on their smears against Obama, she remains silent in the hope that it will damage him and give her an opening. It is selfish, despicable behavior. Such behavior does not suggest leadership qualities. If we want such an ignoble person in the White House, we can either elect Senator Clinton or make Bush president for life.

If she does worm through, I will hold my nose in November and vote for her. Having her in the White House is better than having American troops remain in Iraq. However, like you, I am afraid that that there will many who will be too angry to go to the polls on election day. And then, this time next year and the year after that, we will still be in the streets protesting the war in Iraq, we will still hear the news anchors grimly report higher casualty figures, and we will listen to President McCain say that he had a mandate to continue the war and he will see it through to victory.

[babylonsister]

10. Thanks for that history lesson, Jack Rabbit.

I did learn something today.

[madrchsod]

8. if obama has the votes and the delegates

and clinton takes the nomination then the party will be dead for another generation of voters. i would hope the party would understand this. 1968 was a disaster..bobby was murdered and the democratic convention in chicago we can not afford another 40 years of a crippled democratic party

[aquart]

11. Then why don't they say he's the candidate?

After all, we all know it, don't we? Why are we bothering anymore? Shouldn't we just crown Obama?

Or don't we have crowns for presidential candidates? Yet?

[BearSquirrel2]

13. Yes, we should make it official ...

Hillary needs to get out of the way and make it official. She cannot catch barring something groundshaking. After her little scorched Earth tactic, there can be no unity ticket. It's too bad, she might had made a good running mate.

[Voice for Peace]

14. Experience is very important.

My experience. My experience of her campaign tells me that she is not qualifed to be president.

[BearSquirrel2]

15. Experience tempers wisdom ...

Experience tempers wisdom. But even wise men can be real fools.