Thursday, May 22, 2008

Revisionism


I believe we call it "revisionism" when people re-write history to match some later perspective.

Yesterday while eating my lunch in the break room at work, where CNN plays endlessly, I saw Senator Clinton playing to Florida with her "every vote must count" schtick. I wanted to puke, because for all the noble sentiment (and yes, I believe every vote should count in a democracy) her phony stance on Florida and Michigan now does not match the past. She wants to change the rules in the middle of the game or, if you will, she wants to play Calvinball with the primaries.

It seemed rather like wrapping oneself in the flag when under the flag is a tissue of hypocrisy. All the crowd sees is the flag, the noble things we find easy to support.

Check out JLFinch's tour of what happened that got Florida into this situation. It does not read well for Senator Clinton. Slate is quite devastating:
On Aug. 25, when the DNC's rules panel declared Florida's primary date out of order, it agreed by a near-unanimous majority to exceed the 50 percent penalty called for under party rules. Instead, the group stripped Florida of all 210 delegates to underscore its displeasure with Florida's defiance and to discourage other states from following suit. In doing so, the DNC essentially committed itself, for fairness' sake, to strip the similarly defiant Michigan of all 156 of its delegates three months later. Clinton held tremendous potential leverage over this decision, and not only because she was then widely judged the likely nominee. Of the committee's 30 members, a near-majority of 12 were Clinton supporters. All of them—most notably strategist Harold Ickes—voted for Florida's full disenfranchisement. (The only dissenting vote was cast by a Tallahassee, Fla., city commissioner who supported Obama.)
This new-found passion for Florida votes is pure bullshit.
--the BB

2 comments:

Fran said...

Amen, amen amen!

I feel very ill at ease over a number of things today. Among them - besides oil and food prices - is that some ugly backroom power deal will be made and she will be the nominee.

Bullshit is too mild a word.

June Butler said...

Paul, it's not pretty. And now she's whining about sexism. Does sexism exist in this country? Of course it does. Does racism exist? Of course. Does ageism exist? Of course.

Perhaps Obama can begin to whine about racism, and McCain can whine about ageism. Will the prize go to the loudest whiner or the one with the stiffest upper lip?

I am a woman - in case you didn't know - and I am embarrassed by Clinton's whining. It doesn't not further the feminist cause. Do you want to win because we pity you the most, Ms Clinton? Not the way to go.