Delegates, Not Popular Votes, Decide

02 June 2008 |permalink | email article

Clinton claimed “another great victory” in a big win over Obama in Puerto Rico Sunday but it may be her last in the historic battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But math matters and the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee on Saturday granted her less than half the delegates she hoped to claim from Florida and Michigan, making it impossible for her to pass Obama on the votes that count.

So Clinton, passionately convinced she can still win, is down to her final argument. It is that with over 17 million votes she’ll be leading in the popular vote by the end of the primaries, and will appeal to uncommitted superdelegates on the theory that Obama cannot defeat McCain.

Last night Politico reported the word was that Clinton might even try to woo already committed Obama superdelegates, a sign of certain desperation and unlikely to succeed.

At this point, the relentless strategies of Terry McAuliffe and Harold Ickes are what keep her fighting, short of a possible battle before the credentials committee next month on the way to the convention.

McAuliffe, an eternal optimist and a virtual part of the Clinton family, insists “we’re still fighting hard to be the nominee.”

Ickes, the veteran numbers cruncher, is adamant that the popular vote “is very, very important,” adding that not since 1972 have Democrats nominated a candidate who was not leading in the popular vote.

But this is last century’s rhetoric. The popular vote in 2008 is both semantic and symbolic because the nominee is selected by delegates and Obama appears virtually certain to get the magic number of 2,118 soon.

Obama, in an aggressive and preemptive strike, plans a surprise kickoff to the general election on Tuesday night after the last primaries in Montana and South Dakota.

He’ll address a huge victory rally in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, a swing state and the site of the Republican National Convention in September.

The advance word is he’ll deliver a tough speech to make the case against his opponent in the same hall that McCain will accept his party’s nomination.

Quote of the Day

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘How can that be?’” Scott McClellan, disbelieving President Bush’s claim that he “honestly” couldn’t remember whether he’d ever used cocaine. (Ed. Note: It makes you wonder about the extent of the amnesia.)

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