Letters to the Editor
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yeah, a little too heavy on emotion and light on evidence
There are a lot mischaracterizations here of the Obama camp positions: First of all, Obama did run a couple ads in Florida for which he got explicit DNC permission because they were on cable channels that broadcast nationally. Clinton had fundraisers in Florida where the media just happened to be there. So they are both equal on this one.
As for mail-in voting in Florida, that wasn't the best option because they had never done it before so it would have been totally untested. It is not hypocritical for Obama to support a plan that would implement mail-in voting over time yet not support a one-time-only system that would have to experiment with in Florida of all places. I used to work at the Elections Office in Texas and trust me, things take time to happen. This is the government and it takes awhile to establish a secure voting system.
I remember that Clinton threw out that she would not accept a caucus even though Michigan and Florida thought a caucus would be more feasible. So she turned down an option flat out because she did not feel a caucus would favor her. How is that for only supporting democracy when it supports her? Look, I honestly think we have a small chance of getting Florida no matter who the Dem nominee. Sure Clinton won the state but not by a huge margin, especially considering none of the other candidates campaigned in person there. McCain has the support of the governor who he may very well pick as VP. So I'm not fretting about FL. Michigan seems a lot less pissed about this and more willing to accept their role in this problem. I think Obama can win MI.
The Clinton campaign seems to be imploding right now and she will likely lose her core supporters of white working class men with the latest NAFTA, Colombia revelations in a general election, where Repubs would have negative ads against her. She has only done this well because Obama has not run a negative ad against her, ever. She will be destroyed in the general and marked as a liar and hypocrite. Her income taxes don't help any. A less than 2-millionaire like Obama is much different than a 110-millionaire, I don't care what anyone says.
Anyway, I could go on, but you know ... What's the point? The rules are the rules and Obama just played this one better. By far.
So the fact that we don't have a winner-take-all system seems very democratic to the core ... After all, the Repubs use winner-take-all and they ended up with McCain using that system and he wasn't vetted at all. Thanks, Repubs. We get to introduce his negatives to the voters on our terms.