US News
Clinton faces defiance of her appeal for Democratic party unity
Aug 26, 2008, 20:22 GMT
New York Senator Hillary Clinton tours the stage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado USA, 26 August 2008. Clinton is to be the main speaker during the evening session. The Democratic National Convention runs 25-28 August 2008 where it is expected that Illinois Senator Barack Obama will be nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate. EPA/TANNEN MAURY
Denver, Colorado - Senator Hillary Clinton, who brought her presidential bid within a hair's breadth of winning her party, was expected to appeal later Tuesday for her 18 million backers to get solidly behind rival Barack Obama in the general elections.
But ahead of the much-awaited speech before 4,400 Democratic Party delegates in Denver on Tuesday, many supporters continued to be unhappy about a prospect of forced unanimity and were trying to force a state-by-state roll-call vote the next evening.
Many in the Obama camp fear such a display of support for Clinton, who won more than 40 per cent of delegates in primary elections, could undermine the party's bid to reclaim the White House in November.
Tension between the Obama and Clinton camps over the plan has become fodder for media speculation, even as the New York senator on Monday tried to publicly quell the spat.
'This is Barack Obama's convention as it should be,' she said in broadcast remarks. 'What we are doing is bringing everyone together with the same level of commitment.'
She warned it would be a mistake for her supporters to vote for Republican presumptive nominee John McCain in the general elections.
'Anyone who voted for me has so much more in common with Senator Obama' than with McCain, she said.
Yet her supporters are still pushing for the formal recognition of her accomplishment as a woman who went further in her bid for the party's presidential nod than any woman in US history.
And some say they will defy her request and that they won't be railroaded into voting for Obama Wednesday night in the roll-call vote.
Maryland State Senator Mary Boergers, a diehard Clinton delegate, said there's a move afoot to collect 800 signatures that could force a rules fight over the state-by-state roll call that the Obama campaign is apparently trying to cut short with a rules manoeuvre.
'I respect what (Clinton's) saying. I have a different path to unity,' Boergers told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The Clinton dynasty already dominates two evenings of the four-day gathering that will end Thursday with Obama's acceptance speech before 75,000 people at Ivesco field's Mile High Stadium.
Her speech Tuesday evening will clinch an evening designed as a salute to Clinton, complete with a video prologue, and to women's accomplishments in politics. The day marks the 88th anniversary of women's right to vote in the US.
Clinton is not, however, delivering the so-called keynote speech, to be given by former Virginia governor Mark Warner who is locked in a hard battle for election as US senator. In 2004, Obama rose to national promise when the party gave him the 'keynote' role to boost his chances of winning a US senate seat held by a Republican.
On Wednesday, before the roll-call vote, Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, is to speak.
Boergers likened the 'huge pressure' on Clinton delegates to switch to Obama, to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 'Kremlin' tactics.
'Whoever doesn't go along with the programme is subversive,' Boergers said. Obama's people 'seem to be terrified of having the votes counted.'
Boergers said she feels an obligation to her Maryland voters to cast her ballot for Clinton.
Clinton is 'going to tell us to vote for Obama? It's not up to her to convince me to vote for Obama. It's up to Obama to do this.'
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
The 'Safe' Convention
By David Harsanyi
DENVER -- For those of you who believe that the Hillary Clinton Uprising is a fairy tale concocted by a press in search of convention controversy, think again.
Hillary Clinton's seductive charms lie heavy on the Mile High City. Defiant supporters can be seen citywide sporting Hillary pins and T-shirts, in direct defiance of unity.
Nearly every event in Denver includes some unruly joker who injects her name into a perfectly pleasant discussion. Why didn't Barack Obama pick Hillary as his running mate? Why hasn't she campaigned harder for Obama? Will her supporters defect to John McCain?
So dreaded is the thought of disunity, it has been reported, that teams will be dispatched to quell any unauthorized outbreaks of irrational exuberance from Clinton supporters.
Apparently, Hillary loyalist and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell missed the memo when he accused the media of having irrational exuberance for Obama during the primaries. 'Ladies and gentlemen, the coverage of Barack Obama was embarrassing. It was embarrassing.'
One senior Obama supporter, according to Politico, claimed the Clinton associates act like 'Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific still fighting after the war is over.' And every good Democrat knows that war is never the answer.
A new USA Today/Gallup Poll finds that only half of Clinton's primary supporters say they 'definitely' will vote for Obama. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll put the number at 52 percent. More alarmingly for Obama is the 30 percent of those polled who claim they will vote for McCain, someone else or just stay home. [...]
So then why not Clinton? If you erode your theme of 'change' by choosing a longtime Washington insider, why not pick the one who can unite your party?
Perhaps a clue can be found in the words of Nancy Pelosi, who said Democrats need to 'begin anew.' At a convention that will feature Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, John Kerry, Joe Biden and maybe Ted Kennedy (in order of most annoying), who can argue?
It's true that Biden is the 'safe' pick. And for those who've dug deeper into Obama's political career, you already know the junior senator from Illinois always makes the safe pick.
The one thing that is certain, though, is that picking Biden over Clinton helps one candidate. And that candidate is not here in Denver.
The Joe Biden presidential campaign, 2008 ended after a finishing fifth place, with 0.9%, in the Iowa Caucus, about 7000 votes total.
Hillary Clinton got 18,046,007 votes (versus 17,869,542 for obama) and 47.9% of the democratic party's total vote (versus 47.4% for Obama) before the DNC took Michigan away and gave delegates to Obama.
Yet this smug idiot with the 143 days didn't want her upstaging him in the white house.
Go to:
www.hcsfjm.com
Go look at the documentary.
=====================================================
Angry Clinton Supporters Start Rallying for McCain Online
By Sarah Lai Stirland
They're mad as hell, and Hillary Clinton's supporters aren't going to take it anymore.
Some Clintonites are so mad about Barack Obama's Tuesday victory that they've launched a web site to build support to launch a lobbying group to support Republican John McCain.
'We're going to run campaign ads to defeat Obama,' says Ed Hale, a 63-year-old rancher and a Clinton supporter from Wellington, Texas. 'We have doctors, lawyers, CPAs, the blue bloods, and then we have rednecks like me. It's a very diversified organization.'
The apparent peeling off of a portion of Clinton's supporters from the Democratic party illustrates the difficult task party officials now face in rallying the troops behind Obama. Open dissent within party ranks provides Republicans with openings to exploit.
Hale launched the 'Hillary Clinton Supporters for John McCain' group....
hcsfjm.com
that Obama got this far is a joke on all American citizens. This is one of the most frustrating, hate filled election years I have ever witnessed. Whatever happens, Barack must not win!!
..depending on who you believe. Free trade, foreign policy, etc., and even taxes, Hillary is way more middle-of-the-road, as evidenced by her voting record in the senate, certainly not in her commentary. Were it not for the endless scandals, she'd probably have Biden's spot.
she didn't want it!!
Clinton, Obama, Biden and all of them are a bunch of backstabbing hypocrites. I wouldn't want any of them as a leader of this country. They all backstabbed and trashed each other up one side and down the other including Biden who said the guy he is running with was not qualified to be president. What a bunch of phonies, they all make me sick to my stomach. You vote for them you are just as bad as they are.
Liberals cannot run on their own beliefs and be successful. Obama proved this in his Canadian comments on NAFTA, and Hillary, caught in the act of selling her influence on the Columbian free trade deal.
Hillary's supporters would be wrong in voting for McCain. It would go against everything she strived for as a Democrat.
shut up about Barack being the right candidate then Jorja.
...i'd be curious with what calculus you arrive at such a conclusion. The facts paint a very different picture, Jorja...
Hillary is, undeniably, for free trade, after a decade of selling it for influence to various governments via her husband and her husbands foundation. She was caught in the act, in fact, doing so, to Columbia. McCain, like most republicans is totally honest about his support for free trade. Obama - who knows what he believes?
Hillary is, for tax breaks on certain businesses, a fine distinction from McCain who, rationally, believes it's good for all businesses. Obama does not.
Foreign policy - Hillary voted for the war in Iraq and is on record as supportinig Bush. So is McCain. Both support the war in Afghanistan. Both are anti-communist. Obama....?
Energy - The Clintons greenlighted EVERY oil merger in the 1990's and had Sandy Berg(l) ar sell their influence to AMOCO for campaign dollars. McCain, again, is honest about domestic drilling, except in the case of shale oil and lower - 48 land-based drilling. - Obama...close connections to big coal...mouthing energy alternatives....who really can tell...?
so, it looks to me like Hillary and McCain have some real common ground, if you look at Hillary's voting record and past actions, versus what she says.
We NEED alternative energy sources - off shore drilling isn't the complete answer. As far as Hillary voting for the war in Iraq - many did so because of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld lies as you well know by now. A change of opinion is not an indication of a flip flopper (McCain) but realizing when there is a better solution. Someone who won't change their mind can be a stubborn,dangerous individual.
The Dems will eat their young to get elected at the expense of the USA economic structure. Obama, Hillary, Reid, Pelosie, and of course the Kennedy's all want gas at $8.00 per gallon. One has to wonder why and how much money they will make on gas at that level.
,because Ted (and the others)Kennedy is, allegedly, part OWNER of an oil company!
the Bushes have NEVER been involved in oil companies - that's something only related to Democrats!
...the Kennedy's get a pass while the Bush family gets pilloried. THAT is the heart of liberalism in America: The double standard.
page: 1
Hillary got more votes!Aug 26th, 2008 - 20:32:16
Clinton voters were treated like garbage by the DNC who broke the rules to get Obama win.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH92E5vWrjk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=35pRuYPiY-0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNotZJoZR-4
Report this comment