Got A Veep, Not A Nom

Barack Obama is not the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party.

I have said this before, and I’ll keep saying it.  Here’s why:

There is no rule in the politics of Democratic Party conventions that says that the contender with the largest number of pledged delegates short of the total required for nomination should automatically, by dint of that achievement, be handed the party’s designation.

Obama is being allowed to pretend he is the nominee by the Democrats because he’s the one a number of party officials want to nominate.  Super delegate votes are being counted in his delegate total, but his push over the top has nothing to back it up.

Nothing in the bylaws requires the so-called “Superdelegates” to declare a candidate preference ahead of the convention, and nothing prohibits them from changing their mind once they declare such a preference.

Clearly, the voters did not select Barack Obama to be the nominee; in fact, according to the voters it’s a virtual tie.  Allowing him to prance around the world “looking presidential,” even going so far as to choose a running mate, is simply another act in an elaborate stage production.  However, if the nominee status was a car, Obama would be arrested for taking it off the lot without paying for it.  It’s not his.

Many sources accuse Hillary Clinton supporters of being angry about the way she’s been treated, and they are correct.  But the sexism and disrespect shown her is only a small part of the reason.  The fact that she was not seriously considered for VP, though a slap in the face, is not surprising.  However, these are small things.

Obama’s not yet the nominee.  He shouldn’t be picking a veep at all.  It is the treachery of the Obama campaign and its validation by a complicit DNC and MSM that really bites.  In executing the Obama version of Howard Dean’s fifty state grassroots strategy, many questionable tactics were employed. Some say the activities rise to the level of fraud.

Lynette Long is one such person.  She has been chronicling caucus irregularities regarding the Obama campaign.

I’ve spent the past two months immersed in data from the 2008 Democratic caucuses. After studying the procedures and results from all fourteen caucus states, interviewing dozens of witnesses, and reviewing hundreds of personal stories, my conclusion is that the Obama campaign willfully and intentionally defrauded the American public by systematically undermining the caucus process.

She’s not the only one making claims.  A video clip of a documentary entitled, We Will Not Be Silenced, produced by Gigi Gaston has been released for preview.  From the website:

We believe that the The Democratic National Committee (DNC) made a grave error by depriving American voters of their choice of Hillary Clinton as Democratic nominee. Senator Clinton, by all accounts, except caucuses, won the Primary Election and, therefore, should be the 2008 Democratic Nominee. That didn’t happen, due largely to illegitimate and illegal acts. We have interviews of many accounts from caucus states recounting threats, intimidation, lies, stolen documents, falsified documents, busing in voters in exchange for paying for “dinners,” etc. There are at least 2000 complaints, in Texas alone, of irregularities directed towards the Obama Campaign, that have lead to a very fractured and broken Democratic Party.

Another documentary, Audacity of Democracy, chronicling Obama caucus irregularities is also in production; a preview debuted earlier this month on The Confluence, Riverdaughter’s  website, and the birthplace of the PUMA movement.

Whether these allegations can be proven or not, there is still enough evidence to give a voter pause.  Obama ran an aggressive Democrat For A Day campaign encouraging Republicans to cross over and vote for him in Pennsylvania.  However, not only did this not really help him, he still lost, it’s not even the first and only time such tactics were employed.  From Taylor Marsh:

To add, here in Nevada, Barack Obama has put out a flyer reading, in part, “You Can Be A Democrat for A Day.” It’s a plea to caucus for Obama, even if you just become a Democrat for one day. More as I get it…

Supposedly, the incident was “investigated” by ABC’s Jake Tapper and poo-pooed as Clinton campaign hysterics.

These local reporters — all women, incidentally — seemed rather skeptical of the whole deal. One asked when it was, exactly, that the Clinton campaign started caring about the integrity of the caucus system, since Sen. Clinton has been questioning its validity since she lost Iowa.

Seems pretty clear that HRC knew exactly what was going on, and it’s just as clear that crossover tactics were an integral part of Obama’s caucus and primary campaign.  This is from an article about “Obamacans“

Obama’s primary victories over Clinton in states that voted for Republican President George W. Bush in 2000 or 2004, and in those where members of other parties are allowed to vote in Democratic primaries, effectively showed that he is capable of generating the largest crossover vote.

Last Tuesday, seven percent of voters in the Virginia Democratic primary described themselves as Republicans, and nearly three-quarters of that group chose Obama.

In Iowa, when there still were seven Democrats in the race, the Illinois senator attracted 44 percent of the crossover vote.

Crossover voting played a big part in other states, too.  From an article in the Wall Street Journal about the role “Operation Chaos” played in the Texas Primary, or the “Limbaugh Effect”:

According to exit polls, Clinton won a notably higher number of Republican voters than she has in past open primary contests. Of the 9% of voters who identified themselves as Republicans in the Democratic Primary, Obama still edged Clinton 53%-46%. However, that margin is significantly slimmer than earlier contests. In Wisconsin’s open primary, for instance, Republicans broke 72%-28% for Obama. Similarly, in Virginia’s open primary, Obama was favored 72%-23%.

In Obama’s own words:

Still wonder why we’re pissed?  Stay tuned.  We just scratched the surface.  There’s always Florida, Michigan, and the Rules and Bylaws Committee.  Obie gamed that too.  He knew the rules and how to exploit them.  From his website:

Most of us expect Hillary to win by a landslide in Michigan.  This is because Obama and Edwards do not appear on the ballot.  Perhaps we might be wrong, especially if a group called “Detroiters for Uncommitted Voters” has anything to do with it!

Edit

What an uncommitted vote would do is ensure that a portion of the delegates to the national convention in Denver this summer would go to the convention uncommitted to any candidate. Once at the convention, they could support any of the remaining candidates still in contention for the Democratic nomination.

Black America Web has more on the story:

Democratic Rep. John Conyers and his wife, Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, launched radio ads calling for “uncommitted” votes because there was no other way to register support for Obama, who they both support.

Slick, huh?  It seems the Obama camp was well aware that the “uncommitted” votes “wouldn’t count for anything,” since they were supposed to go to the convention uncommitted, right?  And the whole delegations from Florida and Michigan were always going to be seated.  And everybody knew it.

“The Democratic National Committee is the ruling authority now .. but the tradition is that the presidential candidate will decide,” Pelosi said.

She noted that she had the job in 1984 of reviewing whether states had complied with rules governing the party’s presidential primaries and caucuses.

She recalled that when she threatened the states with not seating their delegates if they broke the rules, “they said ha, ha, ha, because no presidential candidate is going to say we’re not seating New Hampshire and we’re not seating Iowa.”

Oh, by the way, even if Obama and Edwards had appeared on the ballot Clinton would have won by a landslide.  That is, if the “uncommitted” votes are truly reflective.  She got 55% of the vote, “uncommitted” got 40%.  We know how that worked out, don’t we?

Yeah, we’re still pissed.  For a lot of reasons, not all of which are listed here.  Just add Joe Biden to the list.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal