The sordid tale of this particular tom foolery begins way back in August of 2007, when the Florida state legislature voted to move up the date of their presidential primaries. In response the Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of delegates to send a message to the other states. Shortly thereafter Michigan state officials, anticipating reprisals, scheduled their primary 2 weeks earlier than Florida, January 15. As anticipated, the Democratic National Committee voted to strip Michigan of delegates as well.
Now here's where things get interesting. In early September of '07 Michigan rescheduled their primary. In October Obama pulled his name from the Michigan ballot, and announced that he would not be running in the state's primary. This, almost a full two months before the DNC voted to strip Michigan's delegates.
Fast forward to April '08 and the delegates are now at battle over whether or not the Florida and Michigan votes should be counted. Obama, who did not campaign in either of the states, adamantly defends the DNC's decision to strip delegates. Clinton, who desperately needs to remain viable candidate in the eyes of the nation, includes popular vote counts in Michigan and Florida when tallying up the current score.
In the end, the Dick Dastardly Award goes to Obama for his blatant misrepresentation of the facts. According to the ironically named factcheck.barackobama.com:
"In today's edition of "The Note," ABC News' Rick Klein wrote that "By one (rightly disputed) metric -- the popular vote, including Florida and Michigan -- Clinton has pulled ahead of Obama. But without the rogue states, Obama is still up by 500,000 -- and if you can find another objective measurement by which she's in the lead, let us know." ... Somehow, the Clinton campaign took his report and twisted it into this: "ABC News reported this morning that 'Clinton has pulled ahead of Obama' in the popular vote." That is a false reflection of what ABC News reported.
The Clinton campaign took something and twisted it? That sounds about right to me, but just to be thorough, lets take a look and see what the HillaryClinton.com has to say on the topic:
Estimates vary slightly, but according to Real Clear Politics, Hillary has received 15,095,663 votes to Sen. Obama's 14,973,720, a margin of more than 120,000 votes. ABC News reported this morning that "Clinton has pulled ahead of Obama" in the popular vote. This count includes certified vote totals in Florida and Michigan.
Well, it looks like Barack was right. She twisted Rick Klein's statements to her advantage. Then to top it off, Obama turns around and twists Clinton's words to HIS advantage! He implies that Clinton is trying to sneak the Florida and Michigan votes by us, when in fact, the very next line on her site indicates that "this count includes certified vote totals in Florida and Michigan."While the democratic nominee has not yet been decided, one thing certainly has been: these donkeys are real jackasses.
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