Clinton Compares Michigan and Florida to the 2000 Election

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Last updated on July 1st, 2012 at 06:42 am

Hillary Clinton is either looking to make sure that the Democrats don’t win Michigan and Florida in the fall, trying to incite a populist outcry in these states that she hopes will carry her to the nomination, or make sure that every Democrat hates her by comparing the primary mess in Michigan and Florida to the 2000 election.

Clinton has the nerve to go to Boca Raton, FL today and compare the illegal primaries in that state and Michigan to systematic the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters in the 2000 general election.

“We believe the popular vote is the truest expression of your will. We believe it today, just as we believed it back in 2000 when right here in Florida, you learned the hard way what happens when your votes aren’t counted and the candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner. The lesson of 2000 here in Florida is crystal clear. If any votes aren’t counted, the will of the people is not realized and our democracy is diminished. That is what I have always believed.”

If by always believed she means that she has believed it since she figured out that she has no chance at the nomination without these delegates then she is correct. The truth is that voters in these states are having to go through this because their state politicians, the people the voters elected, would not follow the agreed upon rules. Clinton did not become an advocate for these voters until she needed the delegates.

Clinton now said that not counting the votes in Michigan and Florida would be undemocratic.

“Now, I’ve heard some say that counting Florida and Michigan would be changing the rules. I say that not counting Florida and Michigan is changing a central governing rule of this country – that whenever we can understand the clear intent of the voters, their votes should be counted. I remember very well back in 2000, there were those who argued that people’s votes should be discounted over technicalities. For the people of Florida who voted in this primary, the notion of discounting their votes sounds way too much of the same.”

Here is where the Hillary logic goes off the rails, no one is going to be disenfranchised. The only way that these voters would be excluded is if their delegations were not seated at the convention. The delegates will be seated. Clinton is fighting to get the original numbers counted only because that would result in more delegates for her. This isn’t about voter rights. This is all about the Clinton delegate count.

Clinton was making this argument today as way of gearing up for the May 31 meeting of the Democratic Party’s rules committee. For her to link her selfish actions in 2008 in any way to the events of 2000 is a shameful disgrace. She can try to keep changing the math, but the numbers still won’t add up for her. Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee this fall no matter what she says or does.

The full text of the Clinton speech today