I am amazed at the view expressed by Obama supporters that unifying the Democratic Party is a problem for Hillary Clinton. Like me, they all expect Barack Obama to be the nominee, but they insist that the problem of unifying the Democratic Party belongs to Hillary Clinton. This is an incredibly obtuse view. Obama is going to be the candidate who will win or lose in November. It will be HIS job to unify the Party. Ezra Klein does not see it that way:

[There is an] authentic, deep anger among Clinton supporters. And that's not a problem the Rules Committee can resolve. This one is up to Clinton herself.

Um no. That is up to the likely nominee, Barack Obama. It will be his campaign this Fall. Not Hillary Clinton's campaign.

POST SCRIPT: And here is Meteor Blades berating angry Clinton supporters. There is a winning strategy. Not. Unity? Not hardly. And maybe never if people like Ezra Klein and Meteor Blades have their way. Yelling at people who consider themselves aggrieved is not exactly a smart way to bring them back in the fold. Time for some OBAMA supporters to grow up.

Speaking for me only

Comments closed

Via Political Wire:

"My momma taught me to play by the rules and respect those rules. My mother taught me, and I'm sure your mother taught you, that when you decide change the rules, middle of the game, end of the game, that is referred to as cheatin'."

-- Donna Brazile, quoted by NBC News.

The DNC Rules and Bylaws committee did not change the rules yesterday, They did not even pretend to follow them. What the RBC did yesterday simply is not allowed by the DNC Rules. There is not a person in the world that can say that RBC played by the rules. So Donna, what would your momma call that?

Comments closed.

Tomorrow it's on to Puerto Rico. Here's your last open thread of the evening.

BTD - I added my own choice, Maelo, el Sonero Mayor, the late great Ismael Rivera. The video has a clip of La Perla, in Old San Juan. It is on the flip side.

7 hours from now. Starting at 8 am and closing at 3 pm, the people of the Isla del Encanto go to the polls for the Presidential Primary. Clinton is favored. the questions seems to be margin and turnout. Clinton wants big for both.

I'll try and give an early indication of turnout in the morning. My predictions remain the same - Clinton 57-43. Turnout 500,000. Clinton wins the delegate race 31-24.

Any late night predictions for Puerto Rico?

By Big Tent Democrat

Now that the DNC has recognized the Florida and Michigan primaries by agreeing to seat all of their delegates, the party has to recognize the popular votes in those states. The elections are no longer "illegitimate." Flawed, perhaps, but illegitimate, no.

The way I see it, the DNC cannot change the numbers of votes cast the way it did delegates. These were certified state elections with firm vote totals. Barack Obama removed himself voluntarily from the ballot. Hillary has to be allotted her votes, and he has to accept the consequences of his action, which is that he gets none of the popular vote in Michigan.

As a result, by any count, Hillary Clinton now leads in the popular vote. From Real Clear Politics:

Yes, it is the delegates, pledged and super, who decide the nominee. But the popular vote remains an important metric to me at least. Now that Florida and Michigan have had their delegations seated, we can discuss the popular vote a bit more concretely.

RCP is the semi-official keeper of the numbers, but, as I have stated, I have problems with their numbers. [More...]

Bump and Update: We are moving to the new server around 10:30 pm ET as opposed to 11:00. See you all in an hour or so.

****

Is the drama over? Yes and No.

To review the day, Big Tent Democrat, Back From Ohio and I started at 9:00 am ET getting live threads going to cover the day's big Democratic Rules Committee meeting. We finished at 6 pm.

There was lots of drama at the committee meeting, you can read our five or six live earlier threads on it.

There was also drama behind the scenes as our server went down and the site crashed repeatedly. All day. Sometimes for five minutes, once for almost an hour.

No one knows why. . [More...]

I do not blame him. Florida got the shaft today. Part of Rep. Hastings' statement:

Florida Democrats have been serially abused and the DNC is the latest of offenders. How the DNC has the authority to ignore the votes of ‘Jack and Jane Lunch Bucket’ is beyond my understanding. The insiders who actively sought to disillusion and disenfranchise the more than 1.75 million Florida Democrats who voted on January 29 give new meaning to collective arrogance.

. . . I suppose the DNC has the right to block Democrats in Florida from attending the National Convention. They also have the right to be stupid, and stupid they are.

MORE . . .

Atrios writes:

Deep Thought

Your candidate's supporters suck.

Here is a deeper thought -- your candidate NEEDS the sucky supporters of the other candidate to win in November.

Will the Dems learn this anytime soon?

This is an Open Thread.

Comments closed

As usual, I have severe criticism for everybody involved in today's fiasco. Let me start with the Clinton camp. You know my beef about the Clinton camp's tactics and strategy on this. Look at their statement just released after the meeting:

Today’s results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party’s nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party’s convention. The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly. [MORE].

They are an hour and a half behind schedule. We smell a back room deal.

This is Big Tent Democrat's and my continuation of live-blogging the afternoon non-session of the Democratic Rules & Bylaw Committee meeting on seating Michigan and Florida.

The live-blog appears below the fold so it can be bigger. Comment in this thread as usual if you want others to see your comments. Only BTD and I can see those you submit through the live blog software.

Comments here will open when they reconvene now closed.

CNN and others are breathlessly reporting Obama is resigning from Trinity Church.