What happened to objective reporting and let the voters decide? The misogynistic, gender bias that exists in this country is deplorable (from pundits, party leaders, the media) and if Senator Clinton gives in to the DNC and "follows the lead" they want her to take with Obama even after she is winning the popular vote, it would send a message that it is Ok to trash talk a leading woman politician, to belittle her accomplishments as if she were "just someone's wife", and this would send a message to every man out there to pile it on, to ignore and expect every woman to "get in line" like a good girl, for the betterment of society. Even if that very woman is the most accomplished candidate out there, or the most qualified professional for the job. What kind of message is that to send to our mothers, sisters, daughters, and sons?

This primary race has revealed a very flawed, twisted system and I for one will happily go back to my long-term Independent status soon, if Senator Clinton is not the nominee. I would love nothing more than for Hillary to run as an Independent candidate with 18+ million supporters strong. The Democratic Party is gone in my eyes. They have turned their back on the voters, on Senator Clinton, and on all that is good in this country. Manipulating the media, the voters, and the very "democratic" process itself has exposed our system as nothing better than any other country with flawed elections, tampering and propaganda. Shame on America, Shame on the Democrats.

Senator Clinton is the right choice, the ONLY choice for me in '08.

God Bless you Senator Clinton. You are an inspiration and a role model to all women and men who wanted to quit. Never give in, never give up. That is your message to us and my message to you.

by suzanne in FL at 6/3/2008 11:11:28 PM

If Unity and Party are to rise above Democratic Values, Party rules and Charter, candidates, delegates, voters and country, and it is to happen because one candidate declares that he should be president and convince almost half of the voters who voted, what are we?  If we let him pretend and cause the rest of the universe to pretend that most of the voters did not vote for the other candidate and it is OK for him to bully her out of the race 80 days early.

The status of presumptive nominee or having "clinched" or reached the magic number must be done without superdelegates.  If the primary season closed with neither candidate winning enough votes to clinch in pledged delegates, it goes to convention to determine which will be the nominee.

The reason: superdelegate votes are fungible until they are cast and recorded at convention.  Much has changed in the las 80 days and much will change in the next.  No one knows what the vote will be in August.  This is the way the rules are set up and why.

We have a candidate and some party leaders who want that candidate to be the nominee who are breaking the rules.  Nothing new.  Hillary would be correct to press her case with the supers and to spend the summer on a crusade to count the votes and try to correct the various instances during the primaries when the voters intentions did not receive fair reflection in the outcome.  Fair reflection of the voters' intention is the bedrock of the Democratic Party Charter.

Think about it. Why would a group of leaders or a candidate be so incredibly eager to shut down an election process?  Why be so obvious in violation of the party rules and why antagonize so many millions of voters?  Why suffer huge losses in party membership and donations?

Why show yourself to the American People as one who will not follow due process and run and win fair and square?  What would make any rank and file Democrat and the most necessary Reagan Democrat feel that they are values by this party?  Why is Obama that convinced that he can't win by the rules?

Dean, Reid and Pelosi say they will issue "stern letter" to superdelegates demanding that they chose a candidate and announce it at once.  These power handlers in the party are threatening superdelegates to decide three months early what their vote will be and reveal it publicly NOW.  But the precious party rules say that the ballot must be secret and has to be cast at the convention in a monitored, recorded proces.

People who have studied the rules and been involved in the pary processes for various conventions kknow this and also know that what the "leaders" are doing is really wrong.

The leader of the House and of the Senate have much say in the assignment of members to committees and in the scheduling of votes and bringing legislation to the floor.  Their "stern" requirements on members implies a threat about their jobs.

We have rules in this society about people in power over other people's jobs using that power to coerce people to abridge or submit their rights.  Yet we have allowed the creation of an environment where many things that society abhors are now expected and usual.

Something is very wrong.  We had better find out what it is before we present this man to the voter as our nominee.  We only have 80 days to put this right and clean up all the mess on the path.  We can fix all of Obama, and some of Dean and Pelosi and Reid's problems if we just have the superdelegates vote for Hillary in August and we can unify the party then.  It is grossly abusive to try to push people into "Unity" now with the contest not completed and 80 days to go until it is.  You may succeed in pushing Hillary's friends until they push Hillary out of the race.  But know this: it is wrong.  It is not the way Democrats are supposed to do things.  It will cost us enormously, one way or the other.  If millions of people who want Hillary to be their president have their way are thwarted, you might just be witnessing the dominance of the two party system fall away.

Catfish advises Hillary that she will be blamed and denounced no matter what she chooses.  You will blame her if Obama loses and blame her if he turns out to be a fraud.  Whatever she says will be wrong or insufficiently grovelling or supportive or unambiguous.

This man declared himself the "nominee of the Democratic Party" last night, even though he knew it was a lie.

 He knew that he could not count superdelegates for that declaration.  He knew that his list was inaccurate.  He knew that at least one of the new supers that he claimed to add last night was all evening emailing constituents of his decision to change to Hillary.  He knew that he had heard the same from others who had signed on long ago and since learned that they had made a terrible mistake.

He knew that Hillary was considered by the RULES to be a candidate in good standing for the nomination until the vote in August and yet he orchestrated a circus with media complicity to try and convince the rest of the Democrats and the country and the world that something else had happened and he had won.  It is a lie.  It will probably get him the nomination and be the excuse for the abuse on Hillary and on her supporters seen today on this site.

Just stating this fact of the Party rules has gotten so many troll ratings that I lost my trusted user status here today.

I heard my first convention on the kitchen radio when I was 6 and the votes were being counted for Truman.  I have not missed once since then.  But it looks like I'll be missing this one. If you push Hillary out when she is the one with most of the votes and the greatest ability to win in November, not to mention the only one qualified to be president, then there will be no point.

 No promise Obama makes Hillary to get her to yield up her delegates will be kept.  Everybody he has used to get ahead has eventually come to the same end.  Just PEEK UNDER the BUS!  Whatever gets into the platform will not bind him.  There will be no health care because he has already shown himself to be in the pocket of the industry, but we aren't allowed to show evidence and discuss that.  His energy plan will not help us and the oil, nuclear and coal interest he has catered to.  We know he had bills written entirely by lobbyists but we don't want to talk about it. We know he is a total novice at foreign policy and knows nothing about the military.  He hasn't studied the issues he would need to know about if he got elected.

But then he probably wouldn't be elected, so what's the problem?  The problem is that the Democratic Party leaders and values will have been sold out for nothing and our chance to finally look like we should be allowed to govern in the eyes of most voters will have passed, wasted.  We would have lost the best President the country would have had in my lifetime and maybe ever.

Dean, Pelosi, Reid and Obama and a lot of others are missing the big point.  What does Hillary want? She wants to be President.  She wants due process and she wants all of the people who agree with her to be respected and their votes valued.  And she wants the things she would do for her country to get done.

Once people start bullying other people they are not likely to notice that this is no way to win support, earn respect or convince voters you should be given power.  It is the perfect opposite.

We called the registrar today and the new cards are in the mail.  We want to belong to a party that believes in and lives by Democratic Values.  If this one doesn't want to be it, we will just have to build one that does.  We can't have a party that so disrespects the voters named "democratic", just because of the misdeeds and bad judgement of a few errant leaders.

This was always the People's Party.  It was the Republican Party that had these problems: putting party loyalty over what was good for the people and good for the country and demanding single voiced, good little soldiers of all its' people.

If we are ready to act like Democrats again, then we have two candidates and the race is on. We educate the media on how they got it wrong again, free the superdelegates from their coerced promises and give them back their secret vote in Denver. Senators Clinton and Obama spend the summer getting the message of democratic values, their plans for the country and voter registration around the country and they fix the irregularities from disputed caucuses and the Saturday night massacre so as much of the damage done to and by the Party is on the mend. They take time out to rest and interview Vice Presidential candidates and we meet in Denver for the votes, and then take on McCain.  It is how it is designed to work in this Party. We could let it.

(Note: Bully Gang don't dignify this diary or its sentiments or authors with your presence, your wisdom or your power.  In your lexicon, it is not worth your trouble and you could be spending the time on something you care about.)