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Breaking: It’s not a rumor any more

By PaganPower on June 16, 2008 at 12:30 PM in Barack Obama, DNC, Democratic National Convention, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, New York Times, Sexism

There has been much speculation of late as to what will happen to Hillary’s delegates at the Democratic National Convention. As everyone by now knows, Hillary suspended (did not quit) her campaign and threw her support behind Barack Obama. And because technically, she did not quit her campaign, equally as technically she did not release her delegates. This has been the root source of much confusion and rumor.

On June 7th, 2008 the New York Times published a piece about disaffected Hillary Voters. A Hillary supporter, Cynthia Ruccia of Women for Fair Politics, was interviewed.

Clinton Bloc Becomes the Prize for Election Day

When Mr. Dean reached out to Cynthia Ruccia, who started an organization of female Clinton swing-state voters threatening to vote for Mr. McCain, Ms. Ruccia asked that the Democratic convention include a symbolic first ballot for Mrs. Clinton’s delegates. Mr. Dean discouraged the idea on the grounds of unity.

Party Unity? When Dr. Dean lost his bid for the nomination his name was placed onto the first ballot. And he had a total of 167.5 delegates. Ted Kennedy had the right to contest the nomination when he was 1000 delegates behind Carter. So since when is recognizing and rewarding someone with 1640 pledged delegates discouraging party unity?

Being unable to find a definitive answer to this question I called the DNC this morning and spoke with a woman in the Chairman’s office. HERE is what I learned in that phone call today:

I explained to DNC employee in the Chairman’s office that I was confused by what I had read and asked her if what the New York Times article said was true. Was Dr. Dean discouraging placing Hillary’s name onto the first ballot because of party unity?

Her answer shocked me. She told me it was true. She said that Hillary Clinton had decided to support Barack Obama, therefore her name would not be placed on the ballot.

So I then asked her if Hillary Clinton had decided that she did not want her name placed into nomination on the first ballot. Her answer was that she couldn’t speak for Hillary Clinton. At least she got that much right. And she and the DNC do not speak for Hillary supporters either.

I do not know where this will go from here but I do know that history and precedent favor placing Hillary’s name on the first ballot. If Dean and his puny 167.5 delegates got onto the ballot (in 2004), then the person with the most votes in Democratic primary history certainly deserves equal treatment. Anything less isn’t fair or right. And it sure isn’t party unity.

Stay Tuned!