By FOXNews.com
Published: 05-21-08
Unwilling to cede any territory after a blowout victory in the Kentucky primary and a substantial loss to Barack Obama in Oregon Hillary Clinton headed to Florida Wednesday hoping to make sure Sunshine State voters are not eliminated from the final Democratic presidential nomination count.
Clinton was to meet with Florida voters ahead of the May 31 Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting which will determine whether to lift the penalty on Florida and Michigan Democrats for holding their primaries before Super Tuesday Feb. 5.
Not to be outdone Obama was also headed to Florida to hold a rally in Tampa with Reps. Robert Wexler and Kathy Castor before attending a town-hall meeting in Kissimmee and an evening fundraiser in Orlando.
The rules committee meeting comes just one day before the candidates vie in another primary on June 1 when Puerto Rico votes. South Dakota and Montana follow two days later in the final contests of the Democratic primary season.
Obama could capture the nomination by then if he wins enough of the remaining undeclared superdelegates. He confidently claimed a majority of pledged delegates for the Democratic nomination leading up to his win in Oregon Tuesday night.
Obama had won at least 1649.5 pledged delegates in the 56 total primaries and caucuses surpassing the 1627 needed to claim a majority without Florida and Michigan. His campaign quickly issued a memo to supporters saying Obama had reached a critical “milestone” in his seemingly inexorable march toward the nomination.
“We have returned to Iowa with a majority of delegates elected by the American people and you have put us within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States” Obama told voters at a packed rally in Des Moines Iowa the site of his Jan. 3 caucus triumph.
But with the results from Oregon Obama was still shy of the 2026 delegate majority needed to claim the nomination.
Clinton has repeatedly said that the race isn’t over until every vote is counted. Speaking to supporters in Kentucky and again in a letter to supporters after her win she questioned why every time pundits declare her candidacy over she wins another state.
“We showed America that the voters know what the ‘experts’ will never understand — that in our great democracy elections are about more than candidates running pundits commenting or ads blaring” Clinton wrote. “They’re about every one of us having his or her say about the path we choose as a nation. The people of Kentucky have declared that this race isn’t over yet and I’m listening to them — and to you.”
Hoping to push up her numbers — and the threshold needed to win the nomination — the Clinton camp has been calculating ways to gain an advantage from Florida and Michigan.
One proposal for the two states that has not been rejected by the Clinton campaign is a plan to count the 185 pledged Florida delegates and 128 pledged Michigan delegates as 0.5 each and distribute them according to the vote in January’s Florida and Michigan primaries.
Clinton won Florida 50-33 percent over Obama. John Edwards won 14 percent in that vote though none of the candidates campaigned there. In Michigan Clinton was the only first-tier candidate whose name appeared on the ballot. She won 55 percent of the vote there compared to 40 percent who voted “uncommitted.”
Edwards has endorsed Obama and said he encourages his backers to pledge their support for the Illinois senator. If Florida delegates were counted at their full value Clinton would have won 105 delegates to Obama’s 67 and Edwards’ 13. In Michigan Clinton would have 73 pledged delegates compared to 55 who were uncommitted and would likely be given to Obama. The nominee would then need 2209 delegates to win the nomination.
One proviso behind approval of the plan is that superdelegates in the state be counted as whole votes. Clinton has earned the support of at least eight Florida superdelegates compared to at least five for Obama. She has at least seven Michigan superdelegates compared to five for Obama from Michigan.
“I believe they’re going to count them” McAuliffe predicted about the rules committee’s eventual decision on seating Florida and Michigan delegates. “We’re not going to disenfranchise two of our key states. And when that process is done I do believe that the superdelegates are going to say ‘Who is it that best can win the general election?’”
The Clinton campaign has argued that unlike Obama Clinton can carry swing states that are essential to a general election victory. Kentucky and West Virginia two states that Clinton won by at least 35 points both voted Democratic in 1992 and 1996 but Republican in 2000 and 2004. The campaign notes that large percentages of Democratic voters in those states have said they’d rather stay home or vote for John McCain the presumptive Republican nominee than for Obama.
“That’s going to weigh on the minds of the superdelegates to say who can best go up against John McCain” McAuliffe told FOX News.
But the Obama campaign has countered that Clinton’s claim to be the better general election candidate is specious. Campaign aides cite a March 2000 Pew survey that showed 51 percent of McCain primary voters said they would not vote for Bush but the GOP obviously came together by November 2000. This the argument goes indicates that Democrats will do the same come this November.
As Obama gets closer to reaching the crucial mark for claiming the majority of delegates his surrogates are urging Clinton to give up. The Service Employees International Union issued a statement after Obama’s Oregon victory saying Clinton can’t beat the numbers.
“Now that (Obama) has a majority of the pledged delegates the time has come for Democrats to unite around his candidacy said Anna Burger SEIU Secretary-Treasurer. “While we congratulate Senator Clinton for running a campaign that focused the country on the critical issues we face together it is time for her to join the effort to send Barack Obama to the White House.”
