Clinton: Florida like Zimbabwe, only without the dictators and all the starvation
posted at 6:55 am on May 22, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Desperation leads to foolishness, and Hillary Clinton is not immune from that process. In a campaign appearance in Florida, Hillary tried to play into the anger that Democrats there feel over their exclusion from the Democratic National Convention by comparing their plight to Zimbabwe. If that wasn’t bad enough, she made a statement that Barack Obama supporters will likely find even more outrageous (via Memeorandum):
Desperate to get attention for her cause to seat Florida and Michigan delegates, Hillary Clinton compared the plight of Zimbabweans in their recent fraudulent election to the uncounted votes of Michigan and Florida voters saying it is wrong when “people go through the motions of an election only to have them discarded and disregarded.”
“We’re seeing that right now in Zimbabwe,” Clinton explained. “Tragically, an election was held, the president lost, they refused to abide by the will of the people,” Clinton told the crowd of senior citizens at a retirement community in south Florida.
Er, Zimbabwe? Did Democratic leadership send armed thugs to beat Hillary voters? We haven’t seen this kind of hysterical paranoia in politics since …. well, since Florida 2000. Either Hillary hasn’t got a foggy clue about what happened in Florida, or what is happening in Zimbabwe right now, or both. No one stole the election in Florida; the state did not follow the rules, and Howard Dean idiotically stripped the state of all its delegates, not half as the Republicans did.
Plus, I’d almost guarantee that some Obama supporters will argue today that the Zimbabwe reference was an intentional provocation regarding race. However, Team Obama won’t need to go that far in spiking the Outrage-o-Meter over Hillary’s commentary, if they choose to acknowledge her comments at all. Hillary practically invited her supporters to vote for John McCain if the DNC doesn’t seat delegates from Florida and Michigan:
In just one day, Clinton has used a variety of arguments to convince her party to seat Florida and Michigan delegates, going as far as comparing the struggles of the voters in Florida and Michigan to those of abolitionists, suffragists, to the plight of Zimbabweans. Clinton even warned that if a resolution is not reached, Democrats in these two states would feel abandoned and likely jump ship to Republican John McCain.
“I think people across Florida and Michigan are thinking to themselves, ‘Well if the Democrats don’t want my vote, maybe John McCain and the Republicans do?’ We can’t let that happen,” she told the small crowd .
Can Obama afford to let that pass? I doubt it. He needs to reach out to those voters when he wraps up the nomination, and Hillary’s wink-wink, nudge-nudge act and subtle threat to the Democrats presents a very large danger to his general-election chances. He will have to answer this, and in doing so Hillary can cast him in the role of an oppressor bent on disenfranchising voters — using her analogy, a Robert Mugabe, which is where the racial provocation appears, even though the problem is really Howard Dean.
Obama has a simple solution at hand: agree to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates, accepting the “uncommitted” delegates from Michigan. Even with that, Obama will still lead Hillary at the convention. It will take the steam out of Hillary’s campaign and make him look magnanimous. And maybe Obama should play the Who Resembles A Dictator game by playing the soundtrack from Evita whenever he mentions Hillary on the campaign trail.
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Off topic trolling. If it happens again …. - Ed
originalpechanga on May 22, 2008 at 7:06 AM
Good on the gal. Keep up the good work Hillary - the GOP needs every vote it can muster this fall.
Almost wonder if Coulter knew what she was doing by backing Clinton all along.
Pax americana on May 22, 2008 at 7:12 AM
Not so sure. Hillary might then lead Obama in the popular vote, which will give her every excuse to carry on to the bitter end, claiming that she actually won the election.
Hopefully, that is what will happen - let the chaos continue!
Pax americana on May 22, 2008 at 7:15 AM
Funny she should mention Zimbabwe, I was thinking yesterday of Hillary as internally feeling like South Africa’s former First Lady, Winnie Mandela right about now, where she’d order Terry, Harold, Sid or one of her other minions to have her enemies necklaced, if she could get away with it.
jon1979 on May 22, 2008 at 7:15 AM
Okay, we get it, this is one of several times you posted this. I am sorry you were excluded membership and can’t participate in the gambling money…but that’s what you get when you want a “free” ride. Move on, find a job and earn money like the rest of us.
Ed: If he does this again (hijack a post) ban him please.
*
Now back to what the real post is about.
I disagree Ed, most analogies are bad when you dissect them. I understand what she is saying, she feels a vote blocked from being counted is wrong. Whether in a state controlled envior or a free election country. She wasn’t drawing a comparison to the plight of the people, just that votes weren’t or won’t be counted.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…she was just talking about the votes, don’t read into it. That is one of the problems in this country, we spend more time “reading between the lines”, interpreting what was not said, then listening to the words. Savor the tea, and don’t read the tea leaves.
right2bright on May 22, 2008 at 7:17 AM
I have been schooled by Ed. I apologize to all.
originalpechanga on May 22, 2008 at 7:30 AM
Hillary is absolutely doing the right thing here for Hillary. The primary season is almost over, so why should she back out now? It’s almost certain that Obama will get to 2,026 delegates by the end of the primary; he’s about 60 shy of that number now, and between upcoming primaries and superdelegate switches, he can reach that number. Therefore Hillary HAS to move the goal post by getting Michigan and Florida seated in order to remain viable — at which point she can begin furiously campaigning to steal delegates back from Obama.
Bill and Hillary are dumb like foxes. My guess is they will push on the Michigan and Florida thing VERY hard until they get their way, and then will use surrogates to go negative on Obama during the summer to try and convince superdelegates to switch over. In order to stop this, Obama has to stop Michigan and Florida from being counted so that he can clinch with 2,026 delegates… But by stopping Michigan and Florida from being counted, Obama risks alienating those voters come election day.
OPERATION CHAOS!!! WOOOOOOOO!
Outlander on May 22, 2008 at 7:39 AM
Maybe I should clarify. The Zimb. analysis is a little deep, but the rest is excellent.
Obama cannot afford to give Hillary the chance to claim victory by having the popular vote. That plays back into the “Florida” checkmate move.
She can use all the quotes, and Obama may have had some himself, regarding “selection not election”. You know Gore and his cronies had much to say; as well as most of the super-delegates, in fact the whole Dem leadership would have to acknowledge Bush actually won the election.
Obama has got his hands full, he will win, but he will be bloodied.
right2bright on May 22, 2008 at 7:41 AM
You go, Grrl!
gridlock2 on May 22, 2008 at 7:48 AM
I think the democrat party should consider re-opening the Whitewater investigation. I suspect they’d do a much more thorough job than Republicans did, and I bet they could probably get a conviction, complete with orange jump suit, by August.
jeff_from_mpls on May 22, 2008 at 8:00 AM
Maybe Jimmuh Carter should come in to supervise the Democrats?
originalpechanga on May 22, 2008 at 8:07 AM
Man, enough already! Someone make this lady go away, and have her take her whole yahoo family with her!
pilamaye on May 22, 2008 at 8:15 AM
This is all too wonderful having Hillary turn her conspiracy vermin on the Dems themselves. Usually I have to wait decades for the books to be written unmasking the grifters in our midst.
Can there now be any doubt about the Clinton’s?
patrick neid on May 22, 2008 at 8:16 AM
So if Florida is Zimbabwe, and Mugabe got all the votes in Zimbabwe…does that make Hillary the Mugabe analogue?
James on May 22, 2008 at 8:18 AM
Is the analysis of the Zimbabwe analogy as racist the hip, deep analysis…or the hip-deep analysis?
It does remimd me of Obama, though…I see him as being less hip and deep than hip-deep…
Salamantis on May 22, 2008 at 8:23 AM
I always thought I’d be the last person to offer up praise for Hillary but I starting to think that something more then ego is powering her continued fight. Exactly what that is I’m not sure. It is starting to seem, to me, that she might be as afraid of a Barry presidency as we are.
I go back to my morning margarita now.
Limerick on May 22, 2008 at 8:23 AM
Wow. Hillary’s campaign is implementing the Total Scorched Earth en passant: if she doesn’t win the Democratic party’s nomination, they’ll poison the well so no Democrat wins. McCain wins and she can run against him in 2012, all the while claiming, “you see, I told you he (Obama) couldn’t win.” Shrewd. Clinton-shrewd.
Over30 on May 22, 2008 at 8:36 AM
Florida is like Zimbabwe? Does this mean that Florida has a centuries-old set of stone ruins that have been wrongly attributed to the Phoenicians, or other external influences?
Bigfoot on May 22, 2008 at 8:41 AM
He has already won not only the nomination but also the presidency. I’ve read three articles already this morning framing the election as an exercise in racism. The election will show the world two groups of Americans. The wise, accepting and progressive people that did the no brainer and voted for BO and the vile racist who did not and that includes all those that sit out the election. There is one and only one reason not to vote for BO and that is race. Racism was even mention within these few comments. This next election is all about race and we will elect BO because personally we can not tolerate the thought that someone some where may think that we are racist.
jmarcure on May 22, 2008 at 8:45 AM
She is a piece of work.
DrSteve on May 22, 2008 at 8:53 AM
Among other things, if you know what I mean.
JonRoss on May 22, 2008 at 9:15 AM
What is the problem with a Zimbabwe analogy? Has she gone too far by comparing Barack to an African? Do Democrats consider Africans subhuman and therefore out of bounds for comparason to a Great American Leader and Constitutional Scholar? Partly I’m joking but, also, I think I truly don’t understand the issue.
snaggletoothie on May 22, 2008 at 9:16 AM
Details, details…
CP on May 22, 2008 at 9:20 AM
I hate your kind of posts…not because they are wrong, but because I am afraid they make sense.
The only hope is that enough people will see how truly weak he is as a person (and it is already showing), and the truth will prevail over “black guilt”.
BTW, just like affirmative action, if Obama wins he will be forever saddled with…”only because he was black”.
right2bright on May 22, 2008 at 9:23 AM
Me too and I do find the prospect of BO as president very scary. I live in MA and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called a racist because I don’t go all gooey eyed over him. It’s just plain scary to hear people talk about race riots and blood in the streets if he is not elected. My dad was saying that people at his old folk club, he’s 75, are even taking about how it’s ashamed that we have to wait until next year and that Bush should just step aside and let BO take his rightful place because the people have spoken. It’s really scary to see the insane look in people’s eyes when they talk about him. He is truly a messiah for many people.
jmarcure on May 22, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Amen! Similarly, if you show people are wrong after interpreting their statement as generously as possible, you’ve made a real point. If you simply refute what you want to hear them say, you haven’t made a point that anyone should listen to.
thuja on May 22, 2008 at 10:35 AM
I refute what you say, just because…
right2bright on May 22, 2008 at 10:39 AM
I’m sure Hillary has empathy for Bobbie Mugabe alone.
Maxx on May 22, 2008 at 10:41 AM
I believe Hill would have done quite well
In days past
When dueling was still an option.
T J Green on May 22, 2008 at 11:15 AM
But I thought all the kids were voting for Obama for his muscular body–tight abs, nice ass and so forth. Wouldn’t he have the advantage?
We have to get that 26th Amendment (18 year old voting age) to the Constitution repealed. It’s even more important than Ann Coulter’s drive to repeal the 19th Amendment.
thuja on May 22, 2008 at 11:31 AM
Wisdom. Well said.
techno_barbarian on May 22, 2008 at 12:24 PM