Michigan and Florida Must Be Counted, Speaker Pelosi [Critical ACTION Update]
By SusanUnPC on March 27, 2008 at 4:51 PM in Barack Obama, Democrats, Florida, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Michigan, Nancy Pelosi
ACTION UPDATE: Sign the petition at HillaryClinton.com. Yes, Hillary Clinton has put up her own petition:
Millions of people in Florida and Michigan went to the polls to make their voices heard in the Democratic Presidential primary. They deserve to have their votes count.
Add your name to show your support for seating the Florida and Michigan delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August.
Original: Join a grassroots group of dedicated Democrats, a great group at Facebook, and Taylor Marsh (who’s very enthusiastic about this group’s efforts) in pressing the DNC to allow Florida and Michigan to revote:
If Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, and the DNC think that they can get away with disenfranchising the Democratic voters in Michigan and Florida, they’d better stop and take a hard look at the stunning polls that MyDD’s Jerome Armstrong posted last night for those Red States that Obama brags he won in. An example: The SUSA poll for Kentucky shows Obama at 28% and McCain at 64%. See more of the shocking numbers that Jerome found.
Hello, Speaker Pelosi? Hello, Chairman Dean? Don’t you realize that we will not carry those Red States in the general election? Don’t you know — you surely do, don’t you? — that Obama’s current bragging rights have NO VALIDITY in the general election? He brags that he won Idaho? He touts his victory in North Dakota? What a joke! They’ll all vote for McCain in November. You’d damn well better be good to the voters of Florida and Michigan, two states that Democrats have a good shot at carrying (but not if you blow them off).
Next, join this list of highly influential, large-donor Democrats in submitting your thoughts to Speaker Nancy Pelosi. First, you must see how TPM — totally in the tank for Obama — characterizes the following letter:
Twenty top Hillary fundraisers and donors have sent a scathing private letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, chastising her for publicly saying that the super-delegates should support the winner of the pledged delegate count and demanding that she say that they should make an “independent” choice.
Scathing? Chastising her? I think the following letter is amazingly polite, if firm — and SPOT ON:
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the US House of Representatives
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515Dear Madame Speaker,
As Democrats, we have been heartened by the overwhelming response that our fellow Democrats have shown for our party’s candidates during this primary season. Each caucus and each primary has seen a record turnout of voters. But this dynamic primary season is not at an end. Several states and millions of Democratic voters have not yet had a chance to cast their votes.
We respect those voters and believe that they, like the voters in the states that have already participated, have a right to be heard. None of us should make declarative statements that diminish the importance of their voices and their votes. We are writing to say we believe your remarks on ABC News This Week on March 16th did just that.
During your appearance, you suggested super-delegates have an obligation to support the candidate who leads in the pledged delegate count as of June 3rd , whether that lead be by 500 delegates or 2. This is an untenable position that runs counter to the party’s intent in establishing super-delegates in 1984 as well as your own comments recorded in The Hill ten days earlier:
“I believe super-delegates have to use their own judgment and there will be many equities that they have to weigh when they make the decision. Their own belief and who they think will be the best president, who they think can win, how their own region voted, and their own responsibility.’”
Super-delegates, like all delegates, have an obligation to make an informed, individual decision about whom to support and who would be the party’s strongest nominee. Both campaigns agree that at the end of the primary contests neither will have enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination. In that situation, super-delegates must look to not one criterion but to the full panoply of factors that will help them assess who will be the party’s strongest nominee in the general election.
We have been strong supporters of the DCCC. We therefore urge you to clarify your position on super-delegates and reflect in your comments a more open view to the optional independent actions of each of the delegates at the National Convention in August. We appreciate your activities in support of the Democratic Party and your leadership role in the Party and hope you will be responsive to some of your major enthusiastic supporters.
Sincerely,
Marc Aronchick
Clarence Avant
Susie Tompkins Buell
Sim Farar
Robert L. Johnson
Chris Korge
Marc and Cathy Lasry
Hassan Nemazee
Alan and Susan Patricof
JB Pritzker
Amy Rao
Lynn de Rothschild
Haim Saban
Bernard Schwartz
Stanley S. Shuman
Jay Snyder
Maureen White and Steven Rattner
Via TPM.
by Ronald Scott
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