Hillary Clinton continues to defy the agreements not to campaign in Michigan and Florida after the two states broke party rules by moving up their primaries. Clinton left her name on the Michigan ballot after other candidates including Obama and Richardson had their names removed. She has been claiming a victory despite running unopposed, and has been seeking to have the delegates seated despite. Clinton has repeatedly been making public statements to court the Florida vote and will be appearing at a fund raiser in Florida tonight. Signs promoting Clinton such as the one above are appearing in the state.
It is possible Clinton isn’t breaking the letter of the agreement but she is certainly breaking the spirit of the agreement. Clinton fails to realize that character has become a major issue in this election. Americans are getting tired of political leaders who skirt the rules in such manners.
As with the dishonesty seen in many of her recent statements, this type of action raises the question of how she would behave if elected president. We have experienced a president who also takes liberties with the truth and pushes to increase presidential power at every opportunity. Hillary Clinton might sincerely she is acting to do good, but I fear that she will be unable to resist using, and even expanding upon, the increased powers available to the next president. We need a president who can be trusted to resist these temptations and play entirely within the rules.
While I agree that it does appear that Hillary is violating the agreement, I also find it absurd that only 2 elections after the Democrats went to court to get invalid votes counted, out of a fear that Florida residents were being disenfranchised due to their inability to read the ballot, that they now think it is acceptable to strip all the citizens of the state from the chance to participate in the selection of the presidential candidate because of something as petty as the date of the primary.
It was actually the Republicans who went to court two elections ago to prevent a recount which might have prevented their candidate from winning. Still, I do agree the Democrats handled the situation in Florida and Michigan poorly–which still does not excuse Clinton for violating their agreement.
I think just about all of us have grown somewhat weery , leery and, for the most part, just plain tired of both Clintons in this contest. I know for me personally, as more time continues to march on in the campaign, I’m feeling that I can trust either of them less and less. This isn’t about Bill Clinton’s 3rd term in the Oval Office. What it is about is, dividing the Democratic Party and, by doing that, playing right into the Republicans hands. Some of the comments expressed by former President Bill over the past 2 weeks have done exactly that. He has forced people to look elsewhere and choose another candidate other than his wife, a lifelong bureucrat in a pantsuit. With Hillary, we are also getting more of the same that we have had and have right now. With Obama, we seem to be at least getting hope of change. If it’s real or not really doesn’t matter at the moment. Most of us on this end of the table know and feel like we’ve had more than enough of the past 8 years and, that we really don’t want anymore of it so, we seek and hope for real change. To me, it’s looking more and more these days like a ballot for the Clintons smothers that fire of hope for us all, and also for our most important asset, our children.
I think the Democratic Party acted harshly with regard to the Florida primary, but:
1. Florida delegates voted for the primary calendar at the DNC meeting, did they not?
2. The date of the primary was determined by the GOP members of the FL legislature.
3. The FL Democratic Party could have changed the date of the primary if they wanted to…certainly the campaigns and the DNC would’ve made that accommodation (and private donors probably would’ve paid for it). They made the judgment not to do so because they wanted high turnout of the tax referendum that’s on the ballot today.
THE CLINTONS HAVE HIJACKED AND SPLIT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY – THE ARE NEO-DEMOCRATICS. WE SAW THE SAME MODUS OPERANDI THAT SPLIT THE REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATS. INDEPENDENTS, RETURN TO YOUR PARTY AND TAKE IT BACK! WE ARE ALL GOOD AMERICANS; WE CAN NOT LET THIS EVIL PREVAIL. HILLARY HAS EXPERIENCE OK, VIOLATING THE CONSTITUTION AND HELPING HER EVIL MINIONS GET AWAY WITH IT. THE REASON SHE GETS AWAY WITH IT IS BECAUSE THE CLINTONS ARE LINKED TO THE BUSHES…IT GOES ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE COCAINE SMUGGLING INTO MENA, ARKANSAS.
THE BUSHES AND THE CLINTONS HAS SOLD US OUT TO THE CHINA. GOOGLE IRAQ OIL + CHINA. CHINA HAS BOUGHT UNOCAL – THE OIL PIPELINE IN AFGHANISTAN. REMEMBER SHU AND CHINAGATE. ADD IT UP!
I am a senior citizen resident of Florida. I have seen ads on TV by Obama and heard on Chris Mathews show that he could not stop them because they were national ads. They can stop a NFL game on TV but not political ads. Seems to be a big lie. Obama did run political ads in Florida.
Jim,
There is no comparison between NFL games and political ads on cable channels.
The contract with the NFL includes blacking out local games. A broadcaster must be able and willing to abide by this in order to get an NFL contract. Plus the games are frequently on local channels so there is no problem in selecting what is shown in any given area.
Cable ads are only sold on a national basis on cable channels which are shown nationally. This is quite a different situation from local channels. Obama did try to have the ads removed in Florida but was not able to.
This is quite different from Clinton’s actions which included specific acts to attract votes in Florida. She was even more blatant in Michigan where she double crossed the other candidates in not taking her name off the ballot as agreed when the others did. (The ballot situation is different between Michigan and Florida. In Michigan a candidate could specifically request that their name be removed from the ballot in Michigan alone. In Florida a candidate cannot remove their name without dropping out of the race nationally.)