Why does the guy with the second-most votes keep acting like he’s going to be the nominee?
Hey, everybody. Just checking in here from my father’s computer. The news is funny, eh? “Barack Obama begins search for running mate” sez the New York Times. Does that actually work? To just assume you’re going to be the nominee even though most people voted for the other person? Since the other person in this case is female, it just might. That is, after all, the time-tested method for dealing with an uppity woman. Just ignore her. Or if you have to pay attention to her, laugh. Roll your eyes. Silly woman, don’t you understand you’re not wanted here? This is men’s work.
It reminds me for all the world of those earnest young women back in the 19th century who petitioned to be admitted to university, patiently demonstrating that they’d mastered Greek and Latin and calculus and Newtonian physics and surely, surely they were qualified to embark on higher studies? Surely they would be admitted? Yes, please? And the university deans just patted their heads and sent them back home.
Hillary’s like that. She knows everything, or as close to everything as you’re going to get with a politician. She’s the smartest, most qualified, most capable person up for the job. And most Democrats agree; that’s why they voted for her. But the Boyz just keep pointing and laughing. Silly woman, don’t you understand you’re not wanted here?
31 Responses to “Why does the guy with the second-most votes keep acting like he’s going to be the nominee?”
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Ciccina says:
Violet, every time you post it makes my day. Just thought I’d let you know.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:48 pm EST -
anna says:
Hillary has not won the popular vote because the vote in Michigan and Florida does not count (whether it should or not, it doesn’t)
and the caucus votes do count. -
Megan says:
As I understood it, the penalty for Florida and Michigan is that their delegate wouldn’t be seated, that doesn’t mean their votes don’t count in calculating popular vote. How can it be a popular vote if it doesn’t account for the populace??
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slythwolf says:
Yeah, just because the delegates won’t be seated doesn’t mean those people didn’t vote for Clinton. Anyway, if Obama and his little friends hadn’t decided to block the revote efforts we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
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blondie says:
It is incorrect to claim that the popular vote cannot include the votes cast in Michigan and Florida. zuzu has parsed these rules over at Shakesville. Under the DNC rules, their delegates may end up not being counted, but that does not disenfranchise the individual voters, i.e., the popular vote.
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Kali says:
Thanks Violet, those headlines in NYT have been bothering me since morning. The way they are trying to elbow out Hillary is disgusting.
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Violet says:
Yes, of course Hillary has won the popular vote. Any penalty the DNC imposes on the convention delegations from those states has nothing whatsoever to do with the popular vote. The populace voted.
As for the absurdities of the delegate count, if anybody hasn’t seen it, I recommend Cokie Roberts’ column from earlier this month:
Since Feb. 19, seven states have voted. Clinton has won four — Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island —building up a popular-vote margin of 483,000. Yet her total gain in delegates was exactly five. In Texas, she won by more than 100,000 votes, but because of that state’s ridiculous rules, she actually came out five delegates behind.
How can that outcome possibly be fair? How can it possibly benefit the party?
Wait, it gets worse. Obama built up sizable margins in small states that Clinton was foolish enough to concede. His delegate advantage in Idaho, Kansas and Louisiana — three states that will never vote Democratic — was a total of 38. By contrast, Clinton handily won three large swing states — Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio. And yet, because of party rules, her combined marginal gain amounted to 28 delegates.
Hillary is the choice of the majority of Democratic voters.
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Violet says:
Thank you, Ciccina.
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Ciccina says:
Thanks Blondie for the tip about zuzu’s analysis. I’ll have to look that up.
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julia says:
It’s even on Portland Indymedia “The Lady in the Pantsuit” - it has a picture of HC in a Nazi uniform with the caption ‘It’s Not Over Until She Says it’s Over”. If any of you have a minute, will you please join me in posting a comment and e-mailing IMC, and tell them to stop the sexism?!
it’s bad when the alternative media is as woman-hating as the mainstream. -
shera says:
Well now Obama won’t even consider Hilary as running mate. Even John Kerry picked Edward the second guy behind him as VP. *Sigh* it feels so hopeless; the powerful men running the party won’t let her have any powers.
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descanso says:
Thanks for posting this. I saw that NY Times article, too. So angry. So g**damn angry.
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Alikatze says:
Ok, so, um, what’s everyone going to do if Hillary gets the veep nod?…
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donna darko says:
Um, she should turn it down. Since he disrespects everyone who’s not in his coalition, he should try to win on his own. He can’t so she should get the nomination and he should be her VP.
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Vanessa says:
Hey I just wondered about those rules on how the delegates are counted. Are they the same for the democratic party, or does the party skew the rules from election to election to get the “correct” vote. I can understand how it is tried to achieve fariness with this system, in order to not make population rich states overpowering in their voting power, but do the rules stay the same, or do the democrats say, gee we really want candidate X, so this year the rules here will be like that and there like this.
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kenoshaMarge says:
Once again we see that in the media’s eye a “woman’s place is second place”.
I sincerely hope that if and when Senator Clinton were to lose she would return to her seat in the Senate, the seat once held by RFK.
If she were to accept a VP spot it would validate the misogyny and all that has been done by and for the Obamacrats. It would also validate the putting of women in their secondary place in most workplaces in this Sexist country.
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Amy says:
Violet, This was an excellent article. I wanted to share it on Digg but it said my link was invalid.
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Kali says:
I really, really, really hope that Clinton does not accept the VP position. That would be like accepting a slap in the face.
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Gayle says:
I agree with everyone above– I do not want to see Hillary Clinton take the VP position.
First because it would validate this campaign and bring, at least some, Clinton supporters on-board.
Second, if she takes it and he loses, everyone will blame her.
This morning I heard the talking heads say Bill Clinton wants her to get the VP position. Is this true or just a rumor? If it’s true, why would he want that? I don’t get how it helps her at all.
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Violet says:
I wanted to share it on Digg but it said my link was invalid.
Amy, I’m sorry about that and I’ll look into the Digg problem as soon as I have regular internet access again. Right now I’m still scrounging around for a few minutes here and there on Dad’s computer.
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Tabby Lavalamp says:
“Second, if she takes it and he loses, everyone will blame her.”
That’s already going to happen anyway. “She should have dropped out immediately! Waaah! It’s all her fault! Waaah!”
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octogalore says:
I’m with Kali. Women have had to work subordinate to less qualified junior men too often. It usually isn’t a good idea, and I don’t see this situation as an exception.
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Kai says:
Actually, he’s acting like he is going to be the nominee because he has a virtual mathematical lock on the nomination, its really that simple. The popular vote is not what determines who becomes the nominee, although, we can argue whether that ought ot be the case since there really is no democratic logic in this system we have here. However, this is what it is, and these rules weren’t just made up yesterday for Hillary, they have been that way for a few decades. Its highly undemocratic, and was so even early in the race when it benefited Hillary http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=266130
If Hillary still maintains the the lead in popular votes in June, she’ll have a persuasive argument to make to super delegates, otherwise, she doesn’t have a shot.
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donna darko says:
That’s only if he reaches 2209 and he won’t. There’s no lock on the nomination. It could be delegates, popular votes, electability, experience, anything. SD’s can also change their mind at any time up until the convention. You drank teh math koolaid.
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Hazel Stone says:
Violet, I have to hand it to you. I started this race dead set against HRC for her war votes but now I am really hoping she wins.
She’s not my preferred candidate, but I’m sick of election procedure bullshit gaming elections. And I DO NOT understand the mysterious allure of Obama.
I should never have stopped watching TV. I totally don’t get American culture anymore.
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Susan Mayhew says:
I wasn’t able to find the Nazi reference, but the pure arrogance of Barack is truly making me vomit.He has been referring to Clinton in the past tense for some time now and I recently heard him ‘praising’ her as an historic figure - one that have paved the way for his daughters…. etc more bald-face patronizing. A friend saw this with me and laughed and said.right, they are little black girls and if they run for office, like Shirly Chisholm before them, they will be attacked as women - not because of their race. Right, Barry, they’ll learn the epithets of your minions, they’ll learn ‘c*nt’, ’slut’, ‘whore’ one of your minions will tell them to ‘iron his shirt’ and they will be dressed Nazi uniforms - what we’ve learned - even CNN wrote about months ago - racism is taboo, sexism is actively preferred.I have two grand daughters, I can’t trust the Supreme Court to this misogynist.
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julia says:
Hillary’s war votes? What about Obama’s? He just voted to spend $165 billion more on the ‘war’ in Iraq. None of his fans are talking about that, are they?
One thing that makes me sick about this whole shenanigan called a campaign are the men HC helped in the past who are turning their backs on her now. McGovern, Byrd, etc. If anything this reminds me that we have to rely on each other and stop trusting most men. The old boy’s club still exists, and not just in politics.
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ginmar says:
Obama’s already talking about 2016, as if he’s going to breeze through two terms. That kind of arrogance is frightening.
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sam says:
A co-worker just told me about David Letterman’s Top Ten list last night. Check out #3.
Top Ten Signs an NBA Game Is Fixed
10) Game begins 20 minutes before visiting team arrives
9) Tip-off always goes to the player with the largest salary
[...]
3) The team loses even though it led in points, delegates and the popular vote
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sam says:
That last 1 should be 3. Sorry.
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Violet says:
It’s the silly software; it messed up your formatting. I fixed it.
