Hillary Clinton: I'm only acting in the best interests of the voters, so join me

Statement from Clinton about the Michigan and Florida delegates: (emp add)

"I hear all the time from people in Florida and Michigan that they want their voices heard in selecting the Democratic nominee.

"I believe our nominee will need the enthusiastic support of Democrats in these states to win the general election, and so I will ask my Democratic convention delegates to support seating the delegations from Florida and Michigan. I know not all of my delegates will do so and I fully respect that decision. But I hope to be President of all 50 states and U.S. territories, and that we have all 50 states represented and counted at the Democratic convention.

"I hope my fellow potential nominees will join me in this.

About debating in Maine: (emp add)

“With both of us in the state – I would like to invite him to join me for a joint town hall Saturday morning in Orono, ME, so that the people of Maine have a clear idea of the differences between us."

"It’s time for the people of this country and the caucus goers of Maine to pick a President,"

"I hope Senator Obama will accept my invitation to help them do just that.”

Those remarks are, pardon the comparison, similar to the manipulative language that Peggy Noonan uses. It's all extremely polite, but with easy to miss (at first) assumptions about what's going on. "Won't you please join me, now that I've proposed something that will help me defeat you?"

Hillary is attempting to make it look as if seating delegates from Michigan, or holding a town hall meeting in Maine (the morning of three state caucuses!), is for the benefits of the voters. And that such high-minded proposals should be supported by her opponents.

Actually, it's probably not Hillary doing this, but someone high in the campaign. The language is a melange of finishing school manners + press release objective. The request to "join me" in something that is clearly advantageous to Hillary is audacious.

Regarding Maine. While polling is unclear, it appears Hillary has a substantial advantage. So what better way to show that's she's better than Obama on the issues than having a debate (of sorts), followed by an electoral victory? As if Maine was an impartial adjudicator. Oh, and Bill Clinton is in Maine now, so that's another distraction from Obama's message. And the town hall that Obama is invited to (with less than 48 hours notice) is an already-set event for Hillary, so the folks who will be there will be overwhelmingly pro-Hillary.

And there's more. If you want more debates, the Hillary campaign is on your side. From David Plouffe, Clinton Campaign Manager: (emp add)

I was disappointed to see that Senator Obama rejected the idea of having more debates given the fact that he and Senators Clinton have had only a single one-on-one debate. I think we can do better and so does Hillary.

Senator Clinton believes voters should have more than one opportunity to see the candidates discuss the issues and has accepted five debates between now and March 4th from CNN, MSNBC, WJLA, ABC and Fox News.

Fox News!

The Clinton campaign should simply go for broke. Request - only in the best interests of the voters, of course - a total of 473 debates between now and the August 25 convention in Denver. (That would work out to one debate every ten hours.)

While the Hillary campaign is making all the right moves (in a purely rational-tactical sense) it doesn't appear that they are particularly strong. It's like a chess game where one side has lost the queen and is furiously moving pawns and knights all over the board to catch any advantage, in the faint hope the opponent will make a blunder.


posted by Quiddity at 2/08/2008 02:13:00 AM