Obama: Selected, Not Elected
June 6th, 2008 at 10:53pm Matt Margolis
Ann Coulter points out the obvious:
Words mean nothing to liberals. They say whatever will help advance their cause at the moment, switch talking points in a heartbeat, and then act indignant if anyone uses the exact same argument they were using five minutes ago.
When Gore won the popular vote in the 2000 election by half a percentage point, but lost the Electoral College — or, for short, “the constitutionally prescribed method for choosing presidents” — anyone who denied the sacred importance of the popular vote was either an idiot or a dangerous partisan.
But now Hillary has won the popular vote in a Democratic primary, while Obambi has won under the rules. In a spectacular turnabout, media commentators are heaping sarcasm on our plucky Hillary for imagining the “popular vote” has any relevance whatsoever.
Sounds just about right. For Democrats, rules are only important when they work in their favor. in 2000, Democrats wanted to abolish the Electoral College. In 2004, Democrats wants to challenge the results of Ohio. Mathematically it was impossible for Kerry to edge out a victory in the state, but even if they could have stolen the state by a couple thousand votes, Kerry would have achieved an electoral victory without winning the popular vote.
Coulter makes an interesting case for Hillary to take her fight to the convention… which considering Hillary didn’t drop out today as she was allegedly going to… she may be contemplating such a strategy.
Hillary’s argument that she won the popular vote is manifestly relevant to that determination. Our brave Hillary has every right to take her delegates to the Democratic National Convention and put her case to a vote. She is much closer to B. Hussein Obama than the sainted Teddy Kennedy was to Carter in 1980 when Teddy staged an obviously hopeless rules challenge at the convention. (I mean rules about choosing the candidate, not rules about crushed ice at after-parties.)
And yet every time Hillary breathes a word about her victory in the popular vote, TV hosts respond with sneering contempt at her gaucherie for even mentioning it. (Of course, if popularity mattered, networks like MSNBC wouldn’t exist. That’s a station that depends entirely on “superviewers.”)
After nearly eight years of having to listen to liberals crow that Bush was “selected, not elected,” this is a shocking about-face. Apparently unaware of the new party line that the popular vote amounts to nothing more than warm spit, just last week HBO ran its movie “Recount,” about the 2000 Florida election, the premise of which is that sneaky Republicans stole the presidency from popular vote champion Al Gore. (Despite massive publicity, the movie bombed, with only about 1 million viewers, so now HBO is demanding a “recount.”)
Liberal hypocrisy? How shocking!
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008
5 Comments
1. amused observer | June 6th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
when you count every vote, obama did win the popular vote.
2. winnowhead | June 7th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Well, that might make a tiny amount of sense if it were actually true. But since you’re quoting Coulter (of all people), of course it’s false.
Anyone who claims to know what the actually tally is lying. Nonetheless, Obama only lost the popular vote using various estimates of the Michigan vote, where Obama wasn’t on the ballot. Giving the Michigan uncommitted vote to Obama (taking into account the caucus estimates) gives Obama the lead.
3. JustAnotherTaxpayer | June 7th, 2008 at 3:16 am
When the Supreme Court “elected” to intervene in the election process in 2000 for the first time in the nations history, they could’ve given control over Floridas electoral votes to Congress, or the Florida legislature. Both dominated by the republicans.
Even if that gave Bush a de facto victory, it would’ve been decided by a publicly elected officials, not the court.
But by taking it out of the hands of elected officials, Bush supporters can claim he won the election. But that won’t change the verdict of history.
He was selected, not elected.
Perhaps, Barrack, like Bush, was divinely appointed.
4. kjstrouble | June 7th, 2008 at 3:57 am
and the liberal bloggers are spinning their lines so very well.
5. Some Assembly Required | June 8th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Ann Coulter, the Queen of miss-representation and bold faced lies(among other things). Funny, but I’m really not surprised that this blog would quote anything from her.
McCain/Coulter 08!