Hillary: "elected delegates ARE NOT REQUIRED TO STAY with whomever they are pledged to." !!!!!

[npincus]

says Hillary to Newwsweek.

I have to admire her nerve; yesterday she invites the winning candidate to be her subordinate on a spilt ticket, and now she's letting pledged Obama delegates know they're free to jump aboard! Oh, my. Chutzpah is the word.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/10/hillary-clinton-pledged-_n_90697.html
"It doesn't look bleak at all. I have a very close race with Senator Obama. There are elected delegates, caucus delegates and superdelegates, all for different reasons, and they're all equal in their ability to cast their vote for whomever they choose. Even elected and caucus delegates are not required to stay with whomever they are pledged to. This is a very carefully constructed process that goes back years, and we're going to follow the process.'

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

1. Very generous of her to offer her pledged delegates to Obama like that

:eyes:

What incredible hubris.

[Cassandra]

Yes, amazing that she doesn't realize that's a...

two-way can of worms, to mix metaphors.

[dkf]

2. Because nobody's word is worth anything in Hillaryland.

Betraying those you are supposed to represent is just another day at the office.

[Fredda Weinberg]

3. It's truth ... what betrayal? n/t

[oviedodem]

8. Do you understand that Hillary would KILL Obama if the roles were

reversed and He was the one saying this?

[Fredda Weinberg]

12. Please stop demonizing your opponent. Facts are facts. These

are delegates to a convention. Nothing more or less.

[RaleighNCDUer]

17. So you will be perfectly OK when half of Hillary's elected delegates

jump to Obama's camp, in defiance of the will of those who elected them?

[Fredda Weinberg]

24. Somebody's going to prevail. You think I haven't seen this all before? n/t

[PoliticalOne65]

45. It could happen

After the first vote at the convention the pledged delegates are free to vote for who they want to. She is already planning on more than one vote happening at the convention. Then it becomes one giant caucus. Where votes will be jumping back and forth. On the first day of the convention during the state roll call someone needs to motion that the voting start, or else it could go on for ever. Do away with all the speeches and meandering, and get down to business.

[shaniqua6392]

48. That is what the SD's are for.

They are not committed to vote the will of the people. They are there to defy the will of the people if the national party thinks that the people did not vote for the candidate that the party thinks will win. SD's are similar to the electoral college. It is a stupid system, but it is what we have. We really do not know what the SD's will do at this point. Even some who have already pledged may change their minds, and there are plenty who have not even committed yet. There were some who were going to go into the Obama camp the day after the Texas and Ohio primaries who changed their minds and did not commit at all yet.

[dkf]

14. When you are selected to be an Obama delegate you are representing

all the other Obama people who sent you to the national convention. Hillary wants Obama delegates to vote for her instead. That is wrong and a betrayal of the people who elected to send Obama delegates.

[Fredda Weinberg]

26. You are selecting a delegate who pledged to your candidate.

Once at the convention, don't expect anything past the first ballot. That's the nature of the beast.

[backscatter712]

36. Some of us...

unlike Hillary, and unlike yourself, actually have a sense of honor and go out of our way to keep promises.

[dkf]

40. Well if you go to the convention as an Obama delegate in the anticipation you will get a second

vote and you plan to vote for Hillary, and you are running for Obama delegate on that basis, then you will probably be X'd in favor of someone else who wants to represent for Obama.

[SoCalDem]

38. I think after the first vote, you "may" change your vote

but I don't remember where I heard that :shrug:

[JackORoses]

53. Why even have the Primaries if Hillary is just going to steal all the Pledged delegates?

Your candidate has lost.
What she is doing now is totally egocentric.

What would she have to do to turn you off?
I think she could piss on you and you would insist that it's just raining.

[tyne]

4. Keep crossing

that fine line, Hillary. Expose, to the American public, who you really are.

I love it.

[BlackVelvet04]

5. They aren't....

that's the truth of the matter. And all of the temper tantrums in the world won't change that fact.

[npincus]

7. so you won't compalin if HRC delegates flee en masse

to Obama?

[Hatchling]

13. Well, I wouldn't be happy about it.

But that's democracy in action. If Hillary delgates have buyers' remorse on the second ballot at the convention then that is what will happen. But conversely, if Obama delegates have a change of mind that's also fair.

[BlackVelvet04]

25. Would it do any good?

No.

[JuniperLea]

49. It makes no sense to waste the energy...

This is part of the process. It is nothing new. It has been this way for a very long time. There are no rules broken in this process.

[SoonerPride]

9. Another one hiding behind "the rules say so"

Even if it stinks and is un-Democratic.

Sure, lets just open up the wallets and pay the delegates to vote for us.

Nice system.

Except for those who like to think we live in a Democracy.

[BzaDem]

23. Obama supporters are the ones hiding behind the rules.

Obama supporters are the ones that claim FL and MI voters shouldn't be heard at all, even in a revote, because of the "rules."

Obama supporters are the ones that support the pledged delegate system, where one WY delegate represents 666 votes and a TX delegate represents 22,000 votes. (As opposed to SuperDs going to the winner of the popular vote.)

Obama supporters are the ones saying Obama "won TX", simply because more of his supporters voted TWICE.

[SoCalDem]

41. "...hiding behind the rules..."

:rofl:

[BlackVelvet04]

27. Oh, please, all the outrage and drama is really

wearying. It's the way it is and if you don't like it work to change it but not because it might favor your candidate. You guys are the ones wanting to change the rules in the middle of the game.

[qazplm]

34. so I take it then

you dont support seating the FL and MI delegations based on the past vote. AFter all we wouldnt want to change rules in the middle of the game.

[BlackVelvet04]

46. I'll leave it up to the party to figure it out......

the whole situation will come back to bite the Dems in the butt in the G.E. No matter what is done about the delegations the whole thing is perfectly disgraceful. The state leaders should have known better, the national party leaders should have worked with them on a compromise when this first came up instead of taking a hard line, and now it's a clusterfuck that's an embarrassment to the party. I have no idea what the solution is and I have not taken a stand one way or the other because the whole thing is so friggin' ridiculous.

[helderheid]

6. Ah, the smell of desparation in the morning.

[bowens43]

10. Hillary is ethically bankrupt.

She is exactly what we don't need.

[Skidmore]

28. You got it. Or possessed or taking some really potent drugs.

Sometimes the things that come out of that woman's mouth are unbelievable. I know the delegates selected by us better damned well cast votes that represent us. I'll be in the streets if they don't.

[Barack_America]

11. Looks like we'll have to make a trip to Denver...

To make sure that they do.

[flor de jasmim]

15. She passed chutzpah ages ago! We need a word for outrageous chutzpah!

[Adelante]

16. Didn't she try this on a few weeks ago

Only to pull it back?

[mohc]

20. The idea keeps getting floated

Perhaps softening the ground to get people used to the idea.

[uberblonde]

18. What incredible tunnel vision here on DU!

You do know the Obama campaign is working just as hard to steal Clinton's PLEDGED delegates, right? It isn't a secret, I've read it in interviews with his campaign staff.

[JuniperLea]

19. Ummm... they aren't.... that's part of the normal process...

WTF?

All y'all are nutty as bat shit, I swear!

I'll support the nom... but all y'all are nutty as fucking hell...

[flor de jasmim]

22. Aren't you glad we aren't ALL on the ballot, then? ;-)

[BlueJac]

21. The poison campaign of "Hill the Chill".........

What kind of bullshit will she come up with next.

Hillary will go as low as she can go to win at all cost, even if that means the Democrats will not with the White House.

I am so fucking sick of seeing those phony Clinton's to tv, they remind me of the Bush family. They are from the same flock of assholes.

[snappyturtle]

29. Dangerous. She talks of disenfranchised FL voters??? Encouraging

pledged delegates to switch their affiliation will only disenfranchise MORE voters!

[redqueen]

35. The apparent duplicitousness is completely understandable,

if you consider how desperate her campaign is.

[snappyturtle]

50. How very true! n/t

[4themind]

30. Interestingly she's not calling them "automatic delegates"...

here and calls them "superdelegates" again...lol

[TomClash]

31. Does HIllary plan to attempt to bribe Obama's delegates?

Otherwise, I don't see a snowball's chance in hell that they will switch to her.

Or is there something even more sinister afoot?

[frazzled]

32. A mass defection of pledged delegates would be wholly unprecedented ...

and would send shockwaves through the party and the electorate.

Think of all the money, time, scrutiny, and passion that has gone into each primary and caucus; how voters have struggled to come to their decisions. How they believed they were voting to send delegates to the convention to stand for their preferred candidate.

Why have presidential primaries or caucuses at all? Why not simply have contests to send uncommitted delegates to the convention to decide for us?

It is technically correct that are not legally bound to vote for the candidate they were elected to represent--but the rules clearly state that they are ethically responsible to represent their constituencies.

This is not going to happen anyway--but the fact that Clinton would suggest it makes me terribly concerned about the ways she might try, as president, to skirt the sense of the law or the people, for the technicalities of the law ... much in the way Bush has done.

[redqueen]

33. I'm glad she's making a lot of noise about that.

That way her campaign can STFU when they break for Obama.

[SoCalDem]

37. It's the HRC-MPD Tour..Hear her Roar..and Purr

:eyes:

[SoCalDem]

39. and i bet she smiled like a sweet innocent angel when she said that

we've advanced to the whole kitchen, family room and garage... apparently the sink was not enough

[suston96]

42. I do believe she is correct. After the first round at the convention.......

....ALL delegates can do what they want.

I believe she anticipates that neither she nor Obama will have the required majority before the convention.

[DemBones DemBones]

57. She is correct and her campaign has also said they are

NOT going to pursue delegates pledged to Obama.

Delegates can change their votes based on what they think is best for the party in November. People should know that this is the rule, has been the rule for a long time, long before I ever heard of the Clintons.

I think we need to nominate Clinton to beat McCain, hope the delegates do so.

The GOP wants us to nominate Obama, which means they feel sure they can beat him.

[Arugula Latte]

43. I don't have words for how I feel about Hillary Clinton. Actually, yes I do.

However, I can't post them because I'd be banned from DU.

[Medusa]

44. She's effectively trying to DISENFRANCHISE All voters

For all the talk about how it is the Obama campaign that is somehow trying to disenfranchise the voters of Michigan and Florida, it is Clinton who in her extreme arrogance and quest for power who is really trying ot disenfranchise EVERY voter in ALL states by forcing delegates to vote for her.

[Sulawesi]

47. Indeed!

Not forcing however, but to suggest that the votes don't count...why bother with voting in MI and FL if the delegates can do what they want anyway. Why have anyone vote? Why did I vote? Why campaign at all when there are only about 4,000 people that choose the nominee?

[hughee99]

54. She doesn't want to disenfranchise ALL voters, just the Obama voters. n/t

[hisownpetard]

51. Yes, Hillary! And DNC rules are not to be followed, and FL and MI should be seated,

and it's OK to set your attack dogs on a fellow Democrat instead of the Republican opposition,
and it's good policy to vote for a law as long as you say you *hope* it won't pass,
and the Kyl-Lieberman amendment wasn't really an authorization for Bush to wage war
against Iran, and - tell me again - you say your eyes are not blue, but brown??

[anonymous171]

52. My blackmail sense is tingling.

We are going to have one interesting convention. And NOW she decides that we should follow the time worn process?

[GarbagemanLB]

55. Yet another reason there will be a civil war in the Democratic Party if she takes the nomination.

I'll be voting third party/write-in if she 'wins' this, although it looks extremely unlikely.

[brindis_desala]

56. if that's the case let's save the party a whole lot of money

split the Fl and Mi 50-50 and let them "decide" at the convention.
:sarcasm: