Democrats derail effort by Clinton backers to ban caucuses

[Blue Gardener]

PITTSBURGH — Devoted Hillary Clinton supporters urged the Democratic party Saturday to get rid of caucuses, the town hall meetings in states such as Iowa where Clinton's presidential campaign stumbled and Barack Obama launched his march to the nomination.

"We need to get rid of caucuses," said Melissa Whitener, a waitress from Conneaut, Pa., who traveled to lobby the Democratic National Committee as it prepared its party platform.

"Caucuses are inherently unfair," she said. "I work in a restaurant. I can't take off a whole shift to go sit in a caucus. We need to all be on the same primary system. Why should 2,000 people in Iowa have the same say as 2 million in Pennsylvania?"

More here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/election2008/story/47083.html

I suspect this is more about Iowa's first in the nation status than it is about caucuses in general. If Senator Clinton had done well here, her supporters would be praising the caucus system.

[Peacetrain]

1. I do not get this at all

How a state decides to work its canidate selection process, is their buisness. Some times I think people get the selection of a canidate and general election process confused.

[Debi]

2. aAAaarrrgGGggghhhhhhahhh

:banghead:

I thought Caucusing was easy...that's what Hillary Clinton said....Until January 4, 2008 x(


And what the heck does a PRIMARY VOTER in Pennsylvania doing commenting on the caucuses???? :shrug:

[Hardrada]

3. A paid-off conniving DLC mole or stooge

wanting to backstab Iowa. We are on to their shoddy tricks.

[chiefofclarinet]

4. This has got be about Iowa

There is NO way that is about caucuses by themselves. There are 15 other states/territories with caucuses, which aren't even mentioned. Plus, Clinton won or tied some of the caucuses. (Granted, it's only three, including technical win but a one delegate loss in Nevada, a tie in Guam and a one delegate win in American Samoa...)

This is about some Clinton supporters that refuse to acknowledge that Hillary Clinton lost big-time. And, because they conveniently ignore her losing the front-runner position due to ignoring of Iowa, they blame Iowa for her loss. Because their candidate got third place, they say that the caucus is unfair.

We in Iowa aren't stupid. We got the first in the nation position due to the vote in the DNC. Anyone that wants to complain about that needs to do some research before making themselves look like the fools they are.

(Oh, and to the woman quoted in the article. There are 2,000 precinct delegates, not voters. We're smaller than Pennsylvania, but we aren't THAT small.)

[Peacetrain]

5. Excellent point!

I had not even thought of it in that fashion.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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