The Daily Background

Hillary Clinton, before winning the Michigan and Florida primaries:

“It’s clear, this election they’re having is not going to count for anything.”

Hillary Clinton, present day, while trailing Obama by anywhere between 70 and 150 overall delegates according to various tallies:

Evan Smith: There’s been a lot of talk about what your campaign would do should it get to the convention. Would you commit today to honoring the agreement made earlier not to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations?

Clinton: Let’s talk about the agreement. The only agreement I entered into was not to campaign in Michigan and Florida. It had nothing to do with not seating the delegates. I think that’s an important distinction. I did not campaign–

Smith: The press seems to have missed the distinction if that’s the case. The talk is that you agreed not to seat the delegation.

Clinton: That’s not the case at all. I signed an agreement not to campaign in Michigan and Florida. Now, the DNC made the determination that they would not seat the delegates, but I was not party to that. I think it’s important for the DNC to ask itself, Is this really in the best interest of our eventual nominee? We do not want to be disenfranchising Michigan and Florida. We have to try to carry both of those states. I’d love to carry Texas, but it’s usually not in the electoral calculation for the Democratic nominee.
[…]
REPORTER: So your intention is to press this issue?

CLINTON: Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

One or two folks are arguing that Obama too is “trying to change the rules of the game mid-stride” because he has argued that super delegates ought to support whoever the pledged delegate winner is. But the thing is, he’s not talking about actually making a rule to say that super dels are required to back the pledged del winner, he’s saying that philosophically, for the good of the party and the good of the country, it would be best for them to back the pledged delegate winner.

And frankly he’s right: there would be chaos if the pledged delegate winner (the choice of the party) doesn’t go on to be the nominee. More on that possible situation here.

Update:
A lot more here.

Earlier
TDB Factsheet: Despite Clinton’s Claims, Outside Observers Agree FL Primary “Won’t Matter” for Democrats

I’ll believe the “caucuses are undemocratic” argument from the Clinton Campaign when…

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog