It’s RBC Day

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Myiq2xu

Today is the day we mourn the death of democracy in the Democratic party. On this day in 2008 the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee effectively stole the nomination from Hillary Clinton and gave it to Barack Obama.

In August 2006, the Democratic National Committee adopted a rule that only Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina would be allowed to hold primaries or caucuses before Super Tuesday (February 5, 2008). Subsequently, the duly elected representatives of the people of Michigan and Florida set their primary elections in January. So then the DNC ruled that Florida’s 185 pledged delegates and 26 superdelegates as well as Michigan’s 128 pledged delegates and 29 superdelegates would not count in the nominating contest.

At Obama’s suggestion, he and Edwards, Biden and Richardson removed their names from the Michigan ballot, then urged their supporters to vote “uncommitted.” They did this to curry favor with the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton kept her name as did Chris Dodd. All the candidates remained on the Florida ballot but agreed not to campaign in either state.

Both states held their official primaries in January 2008. Hillary won handily in both contests, getting 54.61% of the votes in Michigan and 49.77% in Florida. Barack Obama got 32.93% in Florida and no votes in Michigan. “Uncommitted” received 39.61% of the Michigan votes.

Hillary proposed that the election results stand and that both states’ delegations be seated accordingly at the DNC convention. The Obama campaign opposed that proposal because it would have cut his narrow lead in pledged delegates by more than 50%. Clinton supporters argued for re-votes in both states, but Obama supporters quietly blocked the idea.

Due to wins in traditionally red states and small caucus states as well as complex rules for the proportional awarding of delegates (where winning over 50% of the vote could result in substantially less than 50% of the delegates) Obama had taken the lead in pledged delegates. Hillary had won all the big states (except Illinois) and all of the “purple” or “swing” states that were critical to winning in November.

Despite claims by the media and the Obama campaign (but I repeat myself) that he was the inevitable winner, Hillary continued to win big victories in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania as well as several smaller states. By the end of May Obama’s lead in pledged delegates was less than the number of pledged delegates at stake in Florida and Michigan.

The Rules and Bylaws committee met on May 31, 2008 at the Marriott in Washington DC. According to the rules the RBC committee meeting was supposed to be open to the public. At a backroom meeting during the lunch break the committee made the following decision:

Half votes would be restored to the delegates from both states. Florida’s delegates would be awarded according to the election results. Obama would be awarded all of the uncommitted delegates in Michigan plus four of Hillary’s delegates.

Why is this important?

When the primaries ended a few days later on June 3rd, Obama had an official lead of 62 pledged delegates and Hillary was ahead in actual votes. If the delegates had been awarded at full voting strength according to the official results, it would have been a net gain for Hillary of over 100 pledged delegates.

Although neither candidate would have had enough pledged delegates to clinch the nomination, but for the RBC decision Hillary would have finished in the lead for total votes AND pledged delegates!

Either way it was ultimately the superdelegates – members of the Democratic party establishment – that selected Barack Obama as the nominee. They did this in defiance of democratic principles and the will of the voters.

That is something we will never forgive, and never forget.

“My momma taught me to play by the rules and respect those rules. My mother taught me, and I’m sure your mother taught you, that when you decide to change the rules, middle of the game, end of the game, that is referred to as cheating.”

This entry was posted in Barack Obama, Corruption, Democratic Party, Disingenuous Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Politics and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

111 Responses to It’s RBC Day

  1. HELENK says:
    May 31, 2012 at 12:22 am

    A DAY THAT WILL LIVE IN VOTER INFAMY .

    The first time that 18 million people were told ” your votes are not worth shit”

    one of the greatest things about this country was the right to vote for the person of your choice and have your vote counted. The democratic party took that right away from the Hillary Clinton voters. That must not ever be forgotten or forgiven. In a way they tried to kill democracy.

    • HELENK says:
      May 31, 2012 at 12:26 am

      I want to see the new democratic party go down in flames in 2012.

      I do not know if it will ever regain any trust or loyalty or even if it should

      • Cynthia Ruccia says:
        May 31, 2012 at 2:35 am

        ditto!!! and to compound things, that O never put HRC on the ticket with him to consolidate the party was the final slap in the face for me. I know that a year ago we discussed endlessly if we could even vote for an Obama/HRC ticket. But for me at least, beyond that, that callous act of not putting her on the ticket just confirmed how truly irrelevant we HRC supporters were/are. The chickens will come home to roost in 2012…..

        And I am still amazed how fresh my anger still is.

        • WMCB says:
          May 31, 2012 at 5:56 am

          I wouldn’t have voted for that ticket, but the fact that he didn’t even try to mend the schism was telling.

        • insanelysane says:
          May 31, 2012 at 9:43 am

          In my gut, I believe Hillary pre-empted that. No way did she want to be VP. She knew O was going to be amateur-hour guy and VP is just a lap dog position. When Hillary and O met at D Feinstein’s home, Hillary probably made it clear she wanted SOS. That way she would have the power to carry out her agenda of women and girls civil rights and be clear of any political fall out from this boy king’s lame administration.
          Plus I’ll bet she realized what a mess O could make on foreign policy., so she decided to “save” us the horrors of that.

        • leslie says:
          May 31, 2012 at 10:24 am

          My anger is as strong today as it was that day. I have never – not during Nixon or Reagan, or GWB – not even during my divorce felt anger as strong as that.

          (and I’m glad TehOnce didn’t name Hillary to his tkt. I wouldn’t have wanted to vote against her – but I would have if she had been his running mate.)

      • votermom says:
        May 31, 2012 at 6:01 am

        I want to see the new democratic party go down in flames in 2012.
        HONK!!!!

  2. Lulu says:
    May 31, 2012 at 2:55 am

    The Rules Committee of the Democratic Party was bound and determined that the good old USA would have our historic first black Prezzy. And four years later we would have our historic first Mormon president too! With their historic leadership the Democratic party will be historically absent from many historic states in 2013. Their historical foresight set up the re-emergence of the hated Republican Party in just two years for 2010 and its dominance in 2012. Never before has a party of super geniuses halved the size of their own party in such a short period of time thus reducing themselves to irrelevance. But they are still historic and icky people with cooties still can’t join.

    • Lola-at-Large says:
      May 31, 2012 at 8:36 am

      Note how it’s always increasingly smaller subgroups of males that get privilege. At this rate, we’ll have our first transgendered president (m-t-f, of course) before we have our first female president. I swear, if that happens I will shoot myself in the head on that very day.

    • Anita Finlay ("Ani") says:
      May 31, 2012 at 2:33 pm

      Andrrew Sullivan and his idiotic “cootie” comment is something I will never forget either! The political choices he has made show he does not exactly have the best judgment.

  3. DeniseVB says:
    May 31, 2012 at 5:07 am

    I think Obama bamboozled the Democrats. They put all their money on a community organizer with no real accomplishments in his life and thought they could hopey-change the worrrrrld. They failed miserably.

    The first clue was how BO treated the PUMAs, “sour grapes, you lost, get over it”. He mananged to divide his own party before the election, then he divided the PUMAs. Most of us went independent after that, the others are still stuck with “any Dem is better than an evil Republican”.

    I really enjoy being an independent and clearly seeing all the assholes on both sides 😀

  4. DeniseVB says:
    May 31, 2012 at 5:16 am

    Oh, and wouldn’t Hillary have been historic too ? I never understood why it HAD to be Obama on top of the ticket ? He could have been just as historic as VP. Gotten a little seasoning, and possibly given the Dems the WH for the next 16 years?

    • elliesmom says:
      May 31, 2012 at 5:39 am

      There is no way a man with an ego the size of Obama’s who has a wife with an ego at least as large was ever going to be second fiddle, especially to a woman. I get really angry when men say that the women should have to settle for a woman as VP before we go after the presidency. Men never needed to do that, did they?

    • indigogrrl1 says:
      May 31, 2012 at 6:08 am

      She would have been more historic as a former first lady. I’m still so angry I can’t see straight. I will never forget.

    • foxyladi14 says:
      May 31, 2012 at 2:18 pm

      HONK

  5. driguana says:
    May 31, 2012 at 5:27 am

    Lots of things still under the rug that everyone needs to be reminded of…..this was egregious…

    • Pips says:
      May 31, 2012 at 5:51 am

      Can’t wait for the things Bill Clinton promised to tell – after the election. (Speaking to that young twit who more or less forced him to say “I’m not a racist”. As if he ever needed to say that!)

      Now I guess we’ll have to wait till after Obama is out of the White House. Can’t be too soon, lol.

  6. OldCoastie says:
    May 31, 2012 at 5:29 am

    I grieve on this day… probably will forever. I’m tempted to wear black today.

    • OldCoastie says:
      May 31, 2012 at 5:40 am

      It occurs to me that it might be a very good day to call the DNC and express my unhappiness.

      • WMCB says:
        May 31, 2012 at 5:45 am

        Oooo, good idea. I may just do that.

      • insanelysane says:
        May 31, 2012 at 9:52 am

        Here is the phone number of DNC:
        202-863-8000

        I just called and let them know that I will not forgive nor forget what the Dem elites did with my vote in 2008.

  7. DeniseVB says:
    May 31, 2012 at 5:35 am

    Can Obama Govern?

    The answer seems to be no.

    Lately, President Obama has been touting a “to-do list” of proposals he wants Congress to act on urgently. On his high-priority action list are items ranging from incentives for clean energy manufacturing to cutting red tape for homeowners trying to skirt foreclosure.
    But a look at Wednesday’s Roll Call suggests that the to-do list seems to be much ado about nothing. Even some of the President’s closest allies in Congress don’t seem to have gotten the message.

    Reports Roll Call:

    When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) outlined his agenda for the June work period this week, only one item from Obama’s to-do list made the cut — a business tax cut package….
    [S]everal Senators confessed to Roll Call that they don’t know what is on the to-do list anyway, despite several speeches in which Obama has urged his followers to tweet, call, write and email lawmakers urging them to take it up.

    Just a few years ago, Barack Obama was hailed as a transformational leader. It turns out that he often lacks even ordinary political skills, let alone extraordinary ones.

    In the past, the President has often blamed recalcitrant Republicans for his legislative failures. But as Roll Call makes clear, his problems run far deeper than that. Members of Congress in his own party are tuning him out. The result is gridlock.

    In a race against Mitt Romney, who’s made his name by getting things done in a wide variety of spheres, the contrast between the two men could be damaging to the President’s standing.

    Four years ago, Barack Obama proved highly adept at running a campaign. But he’s not proved highly adept at running a country. Now that he’s got a record to defend, it remains to be seen whether he can rekindle the campaign magic of 2008. My guess is that he’s going to need the combined skills of a Harry Houdini and a David Copperfield to get out of the box in which he’s locked himself.

    • trixta says:
      May 31, 2012 at 9:26 am

      But BO still has the MSM shilling for him.

    • SWPAnnA says:
      May 31, 2012 at 2:40 pm

      I wouldn’t say Owe proved highly adept so much as so f-ing cynical that there was no low to the floor, no rotten, disrespectful, ugly thing he and his “followers / trolls wouldn’t do. So full of himself in the utmost ignorance of the patina acquired via legitimate, hard work he was never an honorable anything but a bad boyfriend, one who strung ‘er along holding out for a more appealing deal, a more prestigious, more impressive, shiny new thing, the brat stayed close to the fulcrum always ready to hop off the see/saw when he had what he wanted.

  8. Pips says:
    May 31, 2012 at 5:44 am

    Meanwhile Hillary Clinton is in Copenhagen the first stop on a 7 day tour to as many countries.

    Says she’s looking forward to be out of politics and start relaxing. Who can blame her!

  9. Honora says:
    May 31, 2012 at 5:44 am

    I left my home that morning to attend the rally as a Democrat, I returned home that night as a PUMA and as an Independent.

  10. WMCB says:
    May 31, 2012 at 5:54 am

    May 31st 2008 is the day I became an Independent, and vowed to devote myself to the downfall of the current incarnation of the “Democratic” Party. No party who pulls shit like that deserves power in any way shape or form.

    I have not wavered. I still want them destroyed and disgraced. I want everyone who was party to this, or even stood by silently and let it happen, run out of town on rails.

    Four years. I’m still disgusted and furious.

  11. cj says:
    May 31, 2012 at 6:04 am

    Thanks for posting this today myiq2xu, it was a brazen slap in the face that I won’t ever forget. Good to be around a few of Hill’s bitter clingers who feel the same way.

    I can’t say that it turned out for the best because we’re stuck with Obama the drone killer sitting on his throne, but at least what happened in 08 opened my eyes to what the Democratic Party had become. It must have been rotting from the inside out for years, but I was too loyal & too blind to notice. Never again.

    • WMCB says:
      May 31, 2012 at 6:22 am

      Yup. I still hold out some hope that the Dem party I knew will one day reconstitute itself. But that will only happen if the current incarnation is burned to the ground.

      Burn baby burn. *flicks another match*

      • Lola-at-Large says:
        May 31, 2012 at 8:46 am

        This is why beating them ferociously this fall is so important. Parasites on the body politic must be burned out or cut out. This debacle has offered us a unique opportunity for total political realignment, and allowed some of us to pursue a strategy of reforming both sides. What we manage to do this fall will tell us how far we can go with such reforms. The parasites have to go, or they will colonize the body politic.

  12. indigogrrl1 says:
    May 31, 2012 at 6:12 am

    AND … you HAD to put a photo of that PIA on this post???? Another one of those rumored to be “family” that I want to in no uncertain terms deny membership.

    grrrrr

    • Rangoon78 says:
      May 31, 2012 at 9:24 am

      Thanks for the link Oswald:

      Here’s the money quote (out of the mouths of Right-Wingers) for me:

      Morning Jay: It Was Never Bill Clinton’s Party | The Weekly Standard

      “…the party establishment – as embodied by the superdelegates – decided overwhelmingly to nominate Obama rather than Clinton. Indeed, that was an early signal from House speaker Nancy Pelosi, certainly no Clintonite, who communicated that the superdelegates should back the delegate leader (Obama) and not the popular vote leader (potentially Clinton).”

      http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/morning-jay-it-was-never-bill-clinton-s-party_646312.html

  14. angienc says:
    May 31, 2012 at 6:25 am

    Never Forgive. Never Forget.

  16. Glennmcgahee says:
    May 31, 2012 at 6:43 am

    And never forget the threat made by that idiot. “If Obama is not the nominee “there will be blood in the streets”. Makes me happy that CNN’s ratings, where she is a “political analyst” are dropping like a stone. Yea, she’s a bitch alright, and a LOBBYIST who dared to threaten the voters who wouldn’t drink the Koolaid..
    http://anglachelg.blogspot.com/2008/04/oh-my-darling.html

    • DeniseVB says:
      May 31, 2012 at 7:54 am

      Believe me, they’re going to use that threat again if he’s not re-elected. I say, bring it on. Besides, I like the Tea Party, they have the guns 😀

      • elliesmom says:
        May 31, 2012 at 3:30 pm

        The problem is that women never threaten violence if we don’t get what we want. Maybe we should consider it. I could imagine looting a Neiman Marcus or a Nordstroms. WalMart wouldn’t be worth the risk, though.

  17. elliesmom says:
    May 31, 2012 at 6:44 am

    I was 18 when Ted Kennedy left Mary Jo Kopechne to drown. My dad was a yeller dawg Dem, and I watched him twist himself into a pretzel to find some way to continue to vote for Kennedy. Because everything that my father was all about said that no man worth anything would abandon a drowning woman. He could understand if he tried to save her and couldn’t. It was the walking away from her that stuck in Dad’s craw. He even came up with theories about how it wasn’t really Ted, but that he was protecting someone. Ultimately, my dad’s loyalty to the Democrats won. But I knew how much it cost him, and I decided I never wanted to be in the position of having to compromise my principals because of affiliation with a political party. So I never joined either party, but my ideological bent says that over the years I have voted for a lot more Democrats than Republicans.

    I bring this up because you didn’t have to be a Democrat to be horrified at what happened that day. I was solidly in Hillary Clinton’s camp. I made hundreds of GOTV calls and traveled to knock on doors. The Rules Committee’s decision made me realize that there is no way that women are going to get our share of the power by playing by the rules because we are always on “Double Secret Probation”. We are never privy to what the rules really are and even if we think we do know, they can change at anytime. I feel like I cannot or should not wait for the perfect candidate anymore. Any woman who can push herself through the door is the “right one”. Because getting there is the only thing that matters to me anymore.

  18. DandyTiger says:
    May 31, 2012 at 7:55 am

    I’m fucking pissed off all over again.

  19. DandyTiger says:
    May 31, 2012 at 7:57 am

    I want the new Dem party to fully burn to the ground. It can’t be helped or tinkered with or fixed, it must be fully destroyed first. Then a new party can emerge.

  21. HELENK says:
    May 31, 2012 at 8:14 am

    MIQ2XU

    have you heard from SMS77 ???

    since she is the one who named
    P party
    U unity
    M my
    A ass

    I was hoping someone would hear from her today

    • WMCB says:
      May 31, 2012 at 9:10 am

      FormerDeminTX (@FormerDeminTX)
      5/31/12 11:02 AM
      Dem RBC Mtg 2008, where they stole delegates to gift the nom to Obama. Matters to R’s because O corrupt from the start. youtube.com/watch?v=um5QHG…

    • cj says:
      May 31, 2012 at 9:59 am

      On the day they went after Ferraro, I knew the Democratic Party was gone forever.

      • Erica says:
        May 31, 2012 at 10:38 pm

        Same here, because her words were practically identical to what B0 had written on his US Senate website. They scrubbed the site and went after Ferraro. It was brazen, and despicable.

  26. FembotsForObama says:
    May 31, 2012 at 9:57 am

    That picture of Brazilla should have big words emblazzoned across that say “THIS IS WHAT A HYPOCRITE LOOKS LIKE.”

  27. insanelysane says:
    May 31, 2012 at 9:58 am

    In California, write in votes will only count if the name written in has applied to the state to be a write in candidate. Any write in name will not be counted if that name is not on a pre-approved list.

    Here are the eligible candidates:
    MICHAEL W.R. MEYER, JR. Democratic
    LUIS ALBERTO RAMOS, JR. Democratic
    DARCY RICHARDSON Democratic
    DONALD JAMES GONZALES Republican
    JEREMY HANNON Republican
    SHELDON YEU HOWARD Republican
    ANDREW ABE DIAZ American Independent
    RAYMOND DELMOND SMITH American Independent
    RONALD CLINTON FORBES Peace and Freedom
    LEON LEO RAY Peace and Freedom
    SHELLEY UPCHURCH Peace and Freedom

  28. yttik says:
    May 31, 2012 at 10:42 am

    Because of May 31, 2008, after 30 years, I am no longer a Democrat. I’ve only voted Republican once, in 2008. I’ll be doing it again in 2012.

  29. votermom says:
    May 31, 2012 at 10:44 am

    W portrait unveiling at the WH now, so both W & Bush Sr and Obama are in the WH.
    I am LOLing at the social awkwardness.

  30. HELENK says:
    May 31, 2012 at 10:51 am

    I am surprised that the place where SMS named PUMA does not want to talk about it today. this was a day that should never be ignored or forgotten or overlooked or hidden in the closet.
    If we do not shout out, stand up against this day in history , it could happen again

    • SophieCT says:
      May 31, 2012 at 6:02 pm

      They did talk about it today.

      • HELENK says:
        May 31, 2012 at 6:22 pm

        this is what I read when I commented

        We all know what went on four years ago. RBC hearing, rules manipulation, voter disenfranchisement. All voters are equal but some voters are more equal than others, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. You’ve heard it for so long now that it’s just a persistent, high pitched whine that has faded into background noise and can easily be ignored. Or avoided.

  31. votermom says:
    May 31, 2012 at 11:30 am

    Mitt campaigns on Solyndra
    http://hotair.com/archives/2012/05/31/video-famous-chicago-political-organizer-outorganized/

    Btw, loving the pix of Obama on the phone here.LOL

  33. HELENK says:
    May 31, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    this year the democratic party is doing the same thing. Withholding delegates. Mr Wolfe won delegates running against backtrack. The democratic party said “screw the people who voted for you, we are not going to give you any delegates,” Mr Wolfe is taking it to court.

    So to those who think this was just about Hillary Clinton, you are wrong. It is about the right of every voter to have their vote count.

  34. Pingback: PUMAs Mark Infamous Anniversary – Hillary, we never left your side! « Still4Hill

  35. Anita Finlay ("Ani") says:
    May 31, 2012 at 2:30 pm

    insanelysane, on May 31, 2012 at 9:43 am
    ***************
    insanelysane,
    Agree 100% with your comment. Hillary pre-empted the VP suggestion. She knew better. And yes, this did put her in a far better position to help women, to try to keep foreign policy from blowing up and to stay separate from domestic policy boobery.

    Myiq2xu, thanks so much for this thread and for explaining the delegate situation so well.

    Also, it is always so refreshing to feel safe in the arms of fellow Hillary supporters. The troll presence out there who would deny simple facts gets beyond tiresome.

    • myiq2xu says:
      May 31, 2012 at 2:54 pm

      If she had taken the VP job she would have been sidelined for four years. The VP job has two duties: Break ties in the Senate and wait for POTUS to die. Obama would have left her cut-off from any real power.

      As SofS she is in charge of foreign policy. Obama can undercut her but he can’t cut her out completely.

  36. NoEmptySuits says:
    May 31, 2012 at 2:56 pm

    Killer post! Thx.

    Never forgive, never forget. Come, come Nov.

  37. NoEmptySuits says:
    May 31, 2012 at 2:59 pm

    If you tweet…in the spirit of this post, please consider ‘trending’ this hashtag I started: #PUMAsSpeakNov6

  38. mark says:
    May 31, 2012 at 10:24 pm

    The Dem Party knew who they wanted from the start. It sure is telling. The convention that is planned way befor the primeries. So how is it Obama’s accepence speech just happens to be on the same date as the “I had a dream speech”(Aug 28th).How is it this was planned befor the primeries had started???Guess we know that answer

  39. Karma says:
    May 31, 2012 at 11:21 pm

    Every vote cast is seen through this day and that election. I will never forgive the tactics that were used, the damage caused, and the moment in time lost.

    They stole from every American a chance to truly resolve the health care issue and to fix what was wrong with Wall St. And shamelessly abused the accusation of racism into a joke.

    If getting Romney in the WH wakes up the opposition, then we are already better off than we are with Obama.

    Thanks Myiq for writing this and to everyone else who refuse to forget or fall for their shallow rhetoric. There have been times I’ve lost my faith in the political process after the 2008 election cycle and thankfully found it again here.

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