Obama Plays The Decider in Nevada
19 January 2008 6:17 pm by Taylor Marsh
reported from Las Vegas, Nevada
–updated–
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| Can you find Bill Clinton amidst the throng? |
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“Obama lost Nevada by a pretty significant margin. … Everyone thinks
Hillary Clinton won Nevada.” – Jon Ralston (on MSNBC)
Does Obama really want to play it this way?
Because The Nation put
up a post that didn’t contain the facts. It reminds me when Bush lost the popular
vote to Gore in 2000, and I’m not alone on that one. Now Obama is saying he won, while the
Nevada Democratic party is saying flatly that Obama is wrong.
‘I don’t know why they’re saying that,’ a confused
Derby said. ‘We don’t select our national delegates the way they’re
saying. We won’t select national delegates for a few more months.’”
Here’s Derby’s official statement.
Statement by Nevada Democratic Party Chair Jill Derby Regarding the Nevada
Caucus(Las Vegas, NV) Today, two out of three Nevadans who caucused chose a Democrat
instead of a Republican for president. That is an overwhelming majority vote
for a new direction. Just like in Iowa what was awarded today were delegates
to the County Convention. No national convention delegates were awarded. The
calculations of national convention delegates being circulated are based upon
an assumption that delegate preferences will remain the same between now and
April 2008. We look forward to our county and state conventions where we will
choose the delegates for the nominee that Nevadans support.
In addition, Obama lost the popular vote in Nevada by about 6%. Then Clinton handed
the Obama campaign their hats by winning 7 out of 9 at-large caucuses.
So even though no delegates will be awarded until April, Obama is playing the decider. Remind you of anyone?
They’re choking on sour grapes.
“We currently have reports of o/ver 200 separate incidents of trouble
at caucus sites, including doors being closed up to thirty minutes early,
registration forms running out so people were turned away, and ID being requested
and checked in a non-uniform fashion. This is in addition to the Clinton campaign’s
efforts to confuse voters and call into question the at-large caucus sites
which clearly had an affect on turnout at these locations. These kinds of
Clinton campaign tactics were part of an entire week’s worth of false, divisive,
attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself.
– David Plouffe
This is the worst kind of politics to play.
Here’s Clinton’s statement:
Hillary Clinton won the Nevada Caucuses today by winning a majority of the
delegates at stake.The Obama campaign is wrong. Delegates for the national convention will not
be determined until April 19.
Jon Ralston said the same thing earlier on MSNBC. The delegates are not allocated
until April. So nobody knows who gets what delegates today. The only fact that is known absolutely is that Clinton beat Obama by around 6%, also winning 7 of 9 at-large caucus sites. Translation: she won.
Segue to the Clinton victory party, which was a contrast of jubilation, celebration
and determination. It was packed. I did run into Rory Reid, getting to speak to him about
the victory and the caucuses, which we both agree have got to go.
Obama’s campaign has turned very negative in the last days of the Nevada campaign.
The statement from Plouffe reveals their reaction to the unexpected loss in Nevada. The last
thing Obama expected was to lose 7 out of 9 at-large caucus sites, plus the
popular vote by close to 6%. But the belligerent, stubborn reaction of the
campaign to Clinton’s obvious victory today makes Obama’s campaign look even worse. What it’s about is spin and feeding the media the story they hope they’ll report, instead of what actually happened today, which is that Clinton won.
A final note from my caucus experience… There was an outside surrogate at my caucus pushing himself on voters until the caucus coordinators literally yelled at him to back off. He was pushing undecided Kucinich people to vote Obama after Kucinich proved not viable. He wasn’t even from Nevada, but was an Obama supporter working and coaching the lead Nevada Obama supporter in my caucus.
UPDATE: Latest statement from NV Dems, which includes an “if” on which some of this pivots, because they will not remain unchanged, because there is nothing that requires them to. Whomever wins biggest on Feb. 5th will get the majority of delegates coming out of Nevada (Iowa too, by the way). That’s the bottom line. Regardless, Clinton’s win by 6% cannot be denied:
**Clarification** of Statement by Nevada Democratic Party Chair Jill Derby
(Las Vegas, NV) “The Nevada Democratic Party and its officials have taken great effort to maintain our neutrality in the presidential campaign and the integrity of our process. Today, two out of three Nevadans who caucused chose a Democrat instead of a Republican for president. That is an overwhelming majority vote for a new direction. Just like in Iowa, what was awarded today were delegates to the County Convention, of which Senator Clinton won the majority. No national convention delegates were awarded. That said, if the delegate preferences remain unchanged between now and April 2008, the calculations of national convention delegates being circulated by the Associated Press are correct. We look forward to our county and state conventions where we will choose the delegates for the nominee that Nevadans support.”
