Was the 2008 Democratic Primary Election fixed?

As I reflect over the past 17 months of the Democratic primary season, I find myself thinking about how the nomination of Barack Obama played out. I find myself asking questions like “why did the DNC choose to penalize some states for holding their primaries early, but not others?”.

How come in Feb uncommitted Super Delegates believed the winner should be the candidate who won the popular vote?  And so did 59% of Democrats who were surveyed?

Why did the Democratic Party Leadership go against these beliefs and instead push the Super Delegates and the media to select the nominee with the most “perceived” pledged delegates?

I’ve been thinking about the similarities of the 2000 Presidential election between Bush and Gore and how that election mirrors the 2008 Democratic Primary between Clinton and Obama.

For starters, we have the same disputed state of Florida involved. Then we have the fact that not all votes were counted as the votes were intended, and third we have the actual winner of the popular vote (Hillary Clinton and Al Gore) being denied the election.

And, I’ve been asking myself  - “What happened to the Democratic party that I was once so proud of and believed in?”

In 2000, the democrats fought hard to make sure every vote was counted and recounted. They cried “foul” when Florida was ordered to stop counting the votes. They took their fight to the Supreme Court and lost. The election was given to George Bush and no one will ever know how the votes were truly caste.

Flash forward to the 2008 Democratic primary election and we have the state of Florida crying “foul” and asking the Democratic Party to count all the votes in full as intended (see lawsuit filed here), only to have the Democratic Party (the same one that argued in 2000 to count every vote) Rules and Bylaws committee vote “no” thereby giving the election to Barack Obama - who did not win the popular vote.

The RBC argued that Florida broke the rules and therefore must be penalized. In 2000, the Republicans argued
that certain counties didn’t follow the rules and therefore those votes should not be recounted.

The DNC decided to penalize both Florida and Michigan for holding their primaries early, even though four other states also violated the DNC rules, yet these states did not have to pay a penalty, click here to view DNC Delegate Selection Rules pdf.

While the DNC rules allowed for Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina to hold their elections ahead of schedule, the rules stated the following:

Iowa was not suppose to hold it’s election before Jan 5, 2008, it was held on Jan 3.
New Hampshire was not suppose to hold it’s election before Jan 22, it was held on Jan 8.
South Carolina was not suppose to hold it’s election before Jan 29, it was held on Jan 26.

Only Nevada held it’s election within the time frame outlined by the DNC rules.

The RBC chose a completely different path for penalizing Michigan voters.  Barack Obama, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson all removed their names from the ballot, while Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gavel all kept their names on the ballot. There was no requirement by the DNC to have their names removed. The only agreement by all candidates was not to campaign there.

Debbie Dingell, a Michigan DNC member stated “those candidates who do not even want Michigan voters to consider them have sent their message to Michigan about how they feel about Michiganders”.

So voters in MI that might have voted for either Obama, Edwards or Richardson, could have voted uncommitted since that was a selection on the ballot.

But, the RBC decided that the penalty to Michigan would be to seat the delegates by 1/2 and that Clinton would get 34.5 delegates (1/2 minus 4 delegates owed to her) and Obama would receive 29.5 delegates (all of the uncommitted plus 4 delegates from Clinton).

The Democratic party overturned the election results.

Barack Obama knows full well that if you remove your name from a ballot, you do not receive votes.  Just ask Alice Palmer, the Illinois State Senator that Obama removed from the ballot (along with other opponents) on a technicality to be sure that voters would only vote for him!!  (read about it here).

Had Michigan and Florida both seated their delegates in full like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina did, and the delegates had been counted as the voters voted, then the results of the election would have been:

Hillary Clinton      1,725 pledged delegates
Barack Obama     1,707 pledged delegates

Hillary Clinton would have won the pledged delegate count by 18 delegates.

(thanks to Riverdaughter at The Confluence for calculating this).

The reality is that Hillary Clinton did win both the pledged delegate votes and the popular vote total:

Popular vote total:

Hillary Clinton      18,046,007 votes
Barack Obama     17,869,542 votes

Hillary Clinton won by 176,465 votes

Why? Because he knew that Hillary Clinton would win both states and therefore win the election.

Instead of wanting the voters in Michigan and Florida to have a say, Mr. Hope and Change, chose to shut them up, just like he did in the Illinois State election.

Donna Brazile said “my mama taught me to play by the rules”. If you break the rules, you must be penalized.

Well what about Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina? Why weren’t they penalized?

What about all the rules that were broken in the caucuses? Why aren’t those states penalized?

If it’s playing by rules that matter, then what about the numerous fraudulent claims that took place in the Texas caucuses alone? Read about these incidents here and here

In the precinct I attended in Houston, the Precinct Capt was from out of state and the judge worked on the Obama campaign (both illegal). Many people who voted that night had no identification or proof that they had voted in the primary (which was required). We filled out complaints and affidavits  - so, what happened to these broken rules? Should the Texas caucus results be thrown out?

The Democratic Party made up the rules to achieve the outcome they wanted.

At least not all members of the party and Super Delegates feel the same way. Last week I heard back from two Super Delegates that had this to say:

“Thank you for your message.  I am a super delegate pledged to support Hillary Clinton.  I am doing everything in my power to get her elected.  I will stay with her until she releases her delegates.  Please do not believe that all super delegates support Obama or switch their vote.  I believe that a pledge is your promise to support.  I don’t give my pledge lightly.

I am receiving 50 to 80 e-mails daily in support of Hillary.  I try to answer them all if only briefly.  If every delegate reads and pays attention to the letters that I am receiving, it should bring them over to Hillary’s side.  Thank you for your work on behalf of Hillary Clinton.”

 

and this one

Filed under: Diaries, Sample Letters