Democrats Splitting to Pieces
This has been such a bitter campaign with Obama and Clinton that it seems there will be no healing of the rift in the Democratic party this year and McCain will win by default.
Nancy Pelosi says the superdelegates should vote the way the voters voted; i.e. vote for the candidate with the highest popular vote.
That would mean Obama and Clinton’s supporters are not happy about that and have sent a letter to Pelosi stating their dissatisfaction.
In the letter sent to Pelosi on Wednesday, the Clinton supporters asked that the House speaker retract statements she made a week prior calling for superdelegates to follow the will of primary and caucus voters.
Superdelegates “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,” the donors wrote.
The letter also noted the donors “have been strong supporters” of the House Democrats’ fundraising arm.
“We therefore urge you to clarify your position on superdelegates 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.”…
…According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Democratic donors who wrote Pelosi have contributed nearly $24 million to Democratic candidates and committees over the last 10 years.
Hillary Clinton’s Senate and presidential campaigns and her political action committee received $554,000. By comparison, Barack Obama collected $52,200. Contributions for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which helps Democratic House candidates, equaled $2.9 million.
BET founder Robert Johnson, a Clinton supporter who has contributed $2 million to Democratic candidates over the years, and signed onto the letter, said he will continue to contribute to the party but it’s the superdelegates’ prerogative to choose who they want.
“The real issue is fundamental fairness in making sure that the superdelegates carry out their role. They are not, as Nancy Pelosi, would suggest ‘confirmation delegates.’ They are not robot delegates. They are superdelegates whose charter authorizes them to analyze who will be the better candidate of the two to run against the Republican candidate and win the presidency,” Johnson said. He added that he has a letter on his desk from Pelosi asking him to contribute $100,000 to the national convention, but he has not decided yet whether he will donate.
The MoveOn team also calls for the members to match “whatever the CEOs and billionaires refuse to contribute.”
Calling Clinton’s donors “the old guard,” the MoveOn group said, “This is how the Democratic Party used to function — the big donors called the shots. But the small donor revolution has changed that. The 20 people who signed this letter have given Democrats an average of $2.4 million per year over the last 10 years. Small donations now dwarf that: In February alone, Obama and Clinton raised $47 million in small donations.”
So now we have the super wealthy democrats up against Moveon.org and the superdelegates, whose duties are described by Pelosi.
Somehow they are managing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Written by ~J~
