Monday, March 31, 2008

Elected Senators hate democracy

Only in a representative democracy will your representatives call for a candidate to drop out of the race. Here's the glitch. Without the superdelegates, no candidate will get over the hump. I wonder if Dodd and Leahy support revotes or seating delegates from Florida and Michigan. My guess is a likely no since they hate democracy that much (for our readers coming in via google or elsewhere, this is called having a sense of humor).

CNN:
Sen. Chris Dodd said Thursday a protracted Democratic presidential race would be "devastating" to the party.[...]

Dodd, a former presidential candidate and current backer of Barack Obama's White House bid, told the National Journal he thinks it’s a forgone conclusion Obama will be the Democratic presidential nominee, and said he thinks it's about time party leaders bring the race to a conclusion.[...]

But Dodd said Thursday allowing the race to continue indefinitely would be "irresponsible."

"Allowing this sort of to fester over the months of June, and July and August, I think, are irresponsible," he said. "I think you have to make a decision, and hopefully the candidates will respect it and people will rally behind a nominee that, I think, emerges from these contests over the next month."
AOL:
Sen. Patrick Leahy is suggesting that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton abandon her White House run.

"Senator Clinton has every right, but not a very good reason, to remain a candidate for as long as she wants to. As far as the delegate count and the interests of a Democratic victory in November go, there is not a very good reason for drawing this out..."
Obama is misleading the voters per this memo from the Clinton campaign.
False Advertising: New Obama Ad Falsely Claims He Does Not Accept Money From Oil Companies
Phil Singer, Deputy Communications Director: “It’s unfortunate that Senator Obama is using false advertising to explain why he can be trusted to do something about energy prices. Senator Obama says he doesn’t take campaign contributions from oil companies but the reality is that ExxonMobil, Shell and others are among his donors. I wonder if they’ll fix the ad.”

A new ad by Sen. Obama running in Pennsylvania falsely claims that Sen. Obama does not accept money from the oil industry. In the ad, Sen. Obama says, "I'm Barack Obama and I don't take money from oil companies or lobbyists and I won’t let them block change anymore."

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Sen. Obama has received over $160,000 from the oil and gas companies. Two major bundlers for his campaign -- George Kaiser and Robert Cavnar – are oil company CEOs. Sen. Obama has accepted money from Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron and just about every other major oil company. Just last month, Sen. Obama accepted another $8,400 from ExxonMobil, $12,370 from Chevron and $6,500 from British Petroleum.

In 2005, Sen. Obama voted for the Dick Cheney energy bill, which was written in secret with the oil industry. Hillary Clinton opposed Cheney's energy bill, has a plan to eliminate oil industry tax breaks, and would require oil companies to contribute to a $50 billion strategic energy fund to jumpstart research and investment in clean energy technologies.
In the words of Bruce Springsteen: No retreat, baby, no surrender.
Hillary Clinton is being forced to adjust her stump speech this weekend amid her slide in the polls and calls from Vermont Sen. Pat Leahy and others to cut her losses and leave the race.[...]

Clinton even suggested in an interview that she is geared up for a floor fight at the Democratic National Convention in August. There is no reason to doubt her — at least not until we’ve heard from the voters in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Oregon and Indiana.

The politics of no retreat and no surrender is a rite of passage during the parties’ quadrennial pugilistic nominating season, to be sure. It’s also a political law of diminishing returns.[...]

Clinton isn’t listening to her detractors; she’s more likely listening to the crouching prophet in pinstripes, Yogi Berra: “It ain’t over until it’s over.”

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