Sunday, March 09, 2008

Clinton: No "do-over" or any kind of a second run in Florida. The result must stand.

Hillary is now acting as if she is losing her mind. Here she is being questioned here about a possible "do-over" in Florida and Michigan. This is her reply:

I would not accept a caucus. I think that would be a great disservice to the 2 million people who turned out and voted. I think that they want their votes counted. And you know a lot of people would be disenfranchised because of the timing and whatever the particular rules were. This is really going to be a serious challenge for the Democratic Party because the voters in Michigan and Florida are the ones being hurt, and certainly with respect to Florida the Democrats were dragged into doing what they did by a Republican governor and a Republican Legislature. They didn't have any choice whatsoever. And I don't think that there should be any do-over or any kind of a second run in Florida. I think Florida should be seated.
I have always thought that any decision to re-run the elections in Michigan and Florida is essentially changing the rules half way through the game simply because it benefits Hillary, although I can well understand the arguments as to why it's only fair and democratic that the people of Michigan and Florida be allowed to have their say.

However, even that's not good enough for Hillary. She's demanding that the vote that everyone agreed wouldn't count in Florida should suddenly be regarded as valid for the simple reason that she won it.

It's an astonishing demand. I know that Hillary's back is to the wall but she really doesn't help herself when she makes statements like this which only serve to make her look unhinged.

Hillary is currently currently polling in Florida at 55%-39% over Obama. One would think that she would jump at the chance to have a re-run of that election. However, we find that, rather than racing to face Obama again in a state where she has a large lead over him, Hillary would rather make a ludicrous argument which simply isn't going to hold water.

Perhaps, she's realised that - just as happened in Texas - her large leads tend to disappear once Obama starts campaigning in those states. Maybe she has, at last, realised the importance of the delegate count. And perhaps she realises that Obama would severely eat into the amount of delegates she could hope to take from Florida.

I can understand the weakness of her position, which is why many of us are puzzled that she and her supporters keep going; however, asking that an election result, which all agreed in advance would not count, should suddenly be considered valid is simply veering into cloud cuckoo land.

And yet, that is genuinely her position.

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