Please peruse this bit of insanity brought to us by the New York Times:
Clinton Backer Points to Electoral College Votes as New Measure
Taken by itself it is a laughable sign of a desperate campaign that knows it can't win within the rules or even using standards of common sense.
When considered with all the other shifts in logic used by the Clinton campaign to first bolster and now justify their continued candidacy it's a sign of just how detached from reality and dangerous to the party this campaign continues to be.
Iowa:
Hillary says Iowa is too stupid and sexist to vote for me. And oh yeah Mississipi sucks too:
"I was shocked when I learned Iowa and Mississippi have never elected a woman governor, senator or member of Congress. There has got to be something at work here," she told (the DeYepsen, theorizing it may be the risk-averse nature of a state built around agriculture.
"How can Iowa be ranked with Mississippi?" she asked, siding with the Hawkeye State. "That's not the quality. That's not the communitarianism, that's not the openness I see in Iowa."
She dropped this bit of knowledge in October 2007 a full three months before she suprisingly lost the Iowa caucuses, giving her a nice soft cushion to soften the blow of losing.
This was also the beginning of the Clinton campaign's short-sighted "Screw you if you don't vote for me" strategy, which assumes the voters in the states she loses are deaf and have no pride.
Hillary also gets bonus points for insulting Mississipians a full 5 moths before they got to vote.
Hillary's ultimate reaction? I'm ready to lead!
Goalpost remains firmly planted in the ground.
New Hampshire:
A stunning victory. The comeback kid V 2.0 speaks:
"Over the last week, I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice."
"Now together, let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me."
The sound of a confident candidate with a message of hope and promise of a better future. Sound familiar?
Clinton leaves New Hampshire with a new image. One of a more vulnerable and open Hillary Clinton.
Goalpost still standing solidly and further supported by a phalanx of older women from New Hampshire.
Michigan:
Michigan's delegates don't count per the DNC. An arrangement that all the candidates agree to. Nevertheless Clinton gives the goalpost a sharp shove by keeping her name on the ballot of a meaningless contest. Which leads some to question what she will do in Florida.
Howard Wolfson justified this back in October 2007 by saying:
"We will honor the pledge and not campaign or spend money in any state that is not in compliance with the DNC calendar, but it is not necessary to take the steps necessary to remove Senator Clinton's name from the ballot."
Clinton "wins" the Michigan primary beating Mr. Uncommited 55% to 40% which leads, of course, 9 days later to Hillary Clinton's first unselfish plea for the enfranchisement of Michigan and Florida's precious votes.
Goalpost hasn't moved an inch but is now covered in a layer of mud.
Nevada:
On January 11, 2007 the Hillary Clinton supporting Nevada State Education Association files a federal lawsuit to stop the Culinary Workers Union from caucusing on the Las Vegas strip two days after the Culinary workers endorsed Barack Obama for president and about a week before the Nevada caucuses. The Democratic parties agreement ability for Culinary workers to vote at their places of work had been in place since May.
Bill Clinton snarkily adds his two cents:
"Some people in Nevada are old-fashioned," Clinton said. "They think the rules should be the same for everybody, and everybody's vote should count the same," the president said.
He also adds unasked:
"I had nothing to do with that lawsuit, and you know it."
The lawsuit is ultimately defeated but it unhelpfully adds to the bad blood between the campaigns and their supporters.
Bill Clinton further bludgeons any spirit of civility by alleging voter suppression by spatula wielding culinary heavies.
The Big Dog tells of a harrowing attack at a casino:
"Today when my daughter and I were wandering through the hotel, and all these culinary workers were mobbing us telling us they didn’t care what the union told them to do, they were gonna caucus for Hillary.
There was a representative of the organization following along behind us going up to everybody who said that, saying 'if you’re not gonna vote for our guy were gonna give you a schedule tomorrow so you can’t be there.' So, is this the new politics? I haven’t seen anything like that in America in 35 years. So I will say it again – they think they're better than you."
So for the record, disenfranchising good Democratic union voters for no other reason than they back your opponent doesn't merit a serious discussion but a unsubstantiated account of harassment does.
Hillary goes on to win the popular vote of the Nevada caucus while Obama gets more delegates.
The mud covered goalpost has been moved several feet to the right from its original base. A pile of shiny polished apples rests at its base.
South Carolina:
All hell breaks lose. Racial division which had been played before by the Clinton campaign, most notably with ridiculous comments by Sergio Bendixen and Billy Shaheen became an issue again as the campaign moved into the first state with a substantial African-American population.
With Obama still not going away and African-American voters surging towards his candidacy the Clinton campaign decides to take it's frustrations out on it's most loyal base of support.
Hillary Clinton diminishes MLK's role in paving the way for political gains for blacks.
Which leads to a hypocritical and moralizing drug comment this time from Bob Johnson, the African-American founder of BET, which gives millions of Americans the most distorted and trashy view of black America that's possible.
Blacks flee from the ranks of Clinton supporters sensing a shift to a GOP style of racial division. Some wonder if making Obama the "black candidate" is what the Clinton's wanted all along as they shrug off Obama's big double digit win.
Any doubt of the Clinton campaign's goal of marginalizing and diminishing of the African-American vote is removed when Bill Clinton compares Obama's win to the wins in South Carolina of the failed presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988.
No Democrat would tolerate these comments from a Republican but the Clintons do not feel those standards apply to them.
The goalpost is dragged further to the right using the tears of their former black supporters to smooth things along.
This ends Part 1. Part 2 Florida and Super Tuesday tomorrow.
Update and hat tip to TooFolkGR for correcting me on who was on the MI ballot. Dodd, Kucinich, and Gravel were too.