Bill Clinton: Caucuses 'Killing Us'

[brooklynite]

Source: ABC News

ABC News' Teddy Davis, Sarah Amos, and Talal Al-Khatib Report: While speaking by phone Thursday to his wife's Texas supporters, former President Bill Clinton downplayed the importance of caucuses and argued that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., would capture the Democratic presidential nomination by outperforming Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in primary states.

"Right now, among all the primary states, believe it or not, Hillary's only 16 votes behind in pledged delegates," said Bill Clinton, "and she's gonna wind up with the lead in the popular vote in the primary states. She's gonna wind up with the lead in the delegates ."

"It's the caucuses that have been killing us," he added.

Bill Clinton's decision to flatly predict that his wife will finish ahead of Obama in the pledged delegates and popular vote which come strictly from primary states comes as his wife's advisers concede that the former first lady will not be able to catch Obama in the total number of pledged delegates.

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/03/bill-clinton-it.html

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. He didn't have a problem when he was winning them.

[JKaiser]

2. STOP Attacking dems.. its time to attack John McCain..

[texastoast]

9. Hear hear!!

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[darue]

16. don't name him, call him only... "the admiral's son" - that's all he is

who else would have gotten the chance to wreck that FIFTH jet? any normal person would have been reassigned after wrecking four jet's, not to mention all the people he killed after smashing into that aircraft carrier. the admiral's son needs to go to bed already.

[Codeine]

17. He crashed into an aircraft carrier and killed people?

You don't mean the Forrestal event, do you?

[darue]

22. yeah, actually I got that bit wrong n/t

[JKaiser]

18. lol that funny

[ryanmuegge]

20. The MSM would say this is a smear if the Democrats brought this up, YET

the validity of Kerry's medals (and therefore his heroism) was framed as a legitimate topic for debate in 2004. Interesting how that double standard works.

[darue]

21. they can shove their double standards - serious questions of nepotism are raised

he's just another incompetent rich kid wanna-be fighter pilot

[ryanmuegge]

25. They should be. The general public should know this shit when they talk about McCain

as some sort of foreign policy genius with a flawless record of military service and all of that nonsense.

[AZ Criminal JD]

26. That is not what Obama says

Who do you back for president?

[darue]

28. the candidate named "not mccain" will have to do

they guys I liked were all ignored to death long ago, but I'll take whatever, for now

[Baby Snooks]

24. Tell that to the Clintons

The Clintons have caused the division in the party with their racist and xenophobic campaign tactics. No real Democrat, since some like to throw that out there when it suits their purpose, will support her for president. That is just the reality. If you don't think that will happen, look at what happened in the governor's race in Texas in 2006.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

3. He's moves the goalposts so many times

that now David Beckham couldn't even find them.

[MilesColtrane]

23. Hillary's certainly learned how to bend it (the truth) like Bill.

[Muttocracy]

31. :-) funny analogy

[Middle finga]

4. Caucuses have been around for decades and just because

Hillary can't win them they are a problem?

[TomBall Democrat]

40. Democracy!

What a concept.

Whatever the meaning of the word is is, that is.

[BeyondGeography]

5. Bwahahahahaha

:cry:

[DB1]

6. Yes Bill democracy sucks. Makes it harder for you to make money.

[saigon68]

36. He is pretty good at that

[davidinalameda]

7. just go away!!!!

guess what Bill-the caucus states count just as much as the primary states!

doesn't he get dizzy from spinning this crap day in and day out

[Mz Pip]

8. So is the popular vote

but whatever. That probably doesn't count either.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. Bill won Texas that had the same system

they do now.......... Revisionist history Bill.

[texastoast]

12. With about 10 people showing up at the precincts

instead of 3,000.

[Kittycat]

19. Maybe he should have tried to motivate voter turn out?

Instead of playing up to the blue states?

[texastoast]

42. .

;)

[madrchsod]

11. i thought he wanted to play ball?

at least that`s what he said yesterday....i think there`s a lot of people getting tried of bill...

[neuvocat]

13. Clinton's loyalty is admirable but...

it is costing him whatever legacy he hoped to build up.

[patrice]

14. I LOVE the caucuses. They're good for People.

They haven't been managed that well this time, because of the surprising numbers, but the concept of people talking about the issues and the candidates IS, developmentally, WORTH the trouble in general. And you're also giving people opportunities to learn how "with the training wheels on" to be a candidate.

[Omaha Steve]

15. Nebraska primary May 13th

No delegates on the line. But we will be able to compare the primary totals against the HUGE Obama win here in the Feb. caucus.

[Beregond2]

27. Putz

And there goes the last shred of respect I had for him.

[Thor_MN]

29. Not really sure he is saying that caucuses are bad.

I think he is just indulging in some retroactive "We would been winning if it hadn't been for all those places where we lost." Probably a slew of ways to grouse about why you lost certain states. States starting with certain letters, length of State names, gender ratio of State Reps, direction of state's longest dimension, whatever...

[FightTheRight89]

30. Whoop-de-shut-the-fuck-up, Bill.

It's great that you're only behind 16 votes in the pledged delegate states. But caucuses matter just as much, even if you can't win in them.

[EFerrari]

32. There's something wrong with Bill Clinton.

We're going to find out eventually that there's something medically wrong with him. This is so sad.

[scot]

33. Depends on what the meaning of "us" is.

[terrell9584]

34. Ok let's take politics out of this and just look at it objectively

Without trying to tilt it for either candidate, let's just look at what a caucus is objectively. A caucus is nothing more than a party meeting. That is what it is. It's not an election in the truest since. There is not a secret ballot. You have to stand on the side of the candidate that you support. You listen to speeches trying to encourage you over to whatever side and people can actually get to join their side.

In almost every caucus state I looked at, you saw that they weren't willing to tie local nominees to this, that they were still decided via primary. So, if local and state nominees are not going to be done by caucus, why are we going to use caucuses to decide Presidential delegates.

And I think it is fair to ask, why is it that Obama has a 66-33% lead in caucuses, but that in primaries, if you discount Michigan and Florida, he is at best, running maybe one to two points ahead of Clinton in popular vote. And he is losing the electoral vote, narrowly counting the caucus states, not so narrowly counting primary states.

It is an honest question, and in this primary in which there have been no issues and only demographics (and this was both sides by the way)

Why is it that Obama got 68% in the Washington caucuses, 51% in the primary, and why is that Clinton won the popular vote in Texas by several points, but Obama presently leads the caucuses by 10. Personally, I feel it is because of what a caucus is.

A primary is an election in the traditional sense. You stand in line to vote, and then when your time comes you go into the privacy of the booth. Your choice is between you, your ballot and God. No one sees it, no one can influence you, no one can try to bring you to their side, and if campaign workers are electioneering too close to the actual booth, they get thrown out of the precinct. In other words, an election in which there is no social pressure and when you can be guaranteed that a person is voting their conscience.

The caucus takes out the secret ballot aspect, and, it also by its nature discriminates against segments of the population. Correct me if there is a case that I am wrong about, but my understanding is, there are no absentees for a caucus, because that would defeat the whole point of a caucus. In a primary there are absentee ballots, I voted absentee. If we had a caucus, I'll be honest, I probably would not have shown up. One thing I rely on when I vote is that if I am too busy or out of town I can just mail it in, and if I do go in person I can be in and out of there in about 15 minutes. I specifically plan when I vote to follow this pattern. I know when the dead times are.

You can't do any of that in a caucus. The fact is, if you have to work during caucus time, you are probably disenfrachised. If you are bedridden or ill, and could have otherwise sent in an absentee, you are automatically disenfranchised. If you are on a business trip at the time your area caucuses.....well, you get where I am going. My personal feeling is that caucuses do discriminate against the working classes, the elderly, poorer and more infirmed citizens and the citizens that just lack the stamina to stand there for 3-5 hours. It also discriminates against the people who do not want their vote to be public, the silent majority types if you will.

In another example, I'll compare my state to Colorado. And we'll just look at the Democratic side. I am comparing them because they are roughly equal in population, Colorado has a few more hundred thousand. In Colorado, 119,740 people came out to caucus. We had 536,293 turn out in our primary. So, more than four times the number of people who came out to vote in the Colorado caucuses came out to vote in our primary, nearly five times. (basing the Colorado #'s off of the Leip site)

And I would like to point out, Obama was only able to win this state because it was a primary. Our state party establishment was firmly behind Clinton. Most of the African-American political leadership in the state, was behind Clinton. The most powerful black political leader in the state is a superdelegate for Clinton, and in our area, all the major black figures who were on the ballot as delegates were on there as Clinton delegates. If there had been a caucus in this state, Clinton would have won. The reason Obama won the state is because it was a primary. He wouldn't have had the same response in a caucus, just in the same way that Clinton won the popular in Texas and not the caucuses. It is my contention that caucuses simply are putting too much power in the hands of, while not the "select few" is still a number that is too few when compared to the turnout that a primary brings

[Vinca]

35. These modes of electing candidates have been in place for ages.

They've worked until now and, if Hillary was winning, they'd probably be working well now.

[dipsydoodle]

37. 'Killing Us' ?

What's with "us" ? Didn't realise he was running:sarcasm:

[JNelson6563]

38. Bill, running through a barn filled with shit

"I know there's a pony in here somewhere!"

[IA_Seth]

39. I'd say 80% of DU agreed leading up to Iowa...

But now that Clinton has lost the majority of the caucus races, they are all good. Sometimes this place kills me. Why don't some of you that were preaching the evils of caucuses before agree now?

[natrat]

41. they dont call him slick willy for nothing

[damntexdem]

43. Time to move the goal posts again -- the ball has been kicked.

When will the media wise up and start ignoring the whine? Oh wait, I'm talking about the MSM -- wising up is not an option.