Things could get sticky at this month’s Democratic national convention!
Senator Hillary Clinton told supporters that she would not rule out having her pledged delegates heard at the nominating event, which should be all about Barack Obama.
I happen to believe that we will come out stronger if people feel that their voices were heard and their views respected. I think that is a very big part of how we actually come out unified.
…
Because I know from just what I’m hearing that there’s incredible pent-up desire, and I think that people want to feel like, ‘OK, it’s a catharsis, we’re here, we did it, and then everybody get behind Sen. Obama.’ That is what most people believe is the best way to go.
We’re not sure presumptive nominee Obama agrees…
Potential Obama anger aside, the candidate and Clinton released a joint statement yesterday and vowed to work toward a stronger Democratic party, “We will ensure that the voices of everyone who participated in this historic process are respected and our party will be fully unified heading into the November election.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
See the video of Clinton’s remarks after the jump…
CitizenGeek
I think Hillary is right though. There are many bitter Clinton supporters who are angry that Obama won. Doing things Clinton’s way would be probably be best for the party.
Lukas
Why are you reporting on this? This is so irrelevant both to Queerty and even as a very newsworthy item. I get it that you don’t like Hillary. Fine. But please: can you just move on? There are many Queerty readers who still have a lot of respect for Hillary Clinton, arguably one of the most famous, accomplished women in the world, and your constant portrayal of her as a rabble-rousing, self-aggrandizing opportunist is doing nothing to bolster your credibility or your readership.
charles
I genuinely have a ton of respect for Hillary Clinton too…but it’s over. By any measurement she lost. Barely, but she lost. And it’s because she didn’t run as effective and smart a campaign as the nominee did. Barack Obama is the nominee. Period. And it’s more vitally important to get him into office and for the Dems to take Congress than it is to soothe her bruised feelings. She is not more important than the party. If she does this, I promise you, her standing will go down-maybe permanently. I understand that she wants some acknowledgement of her achievement, but this is not the way to do it.
Qjersey
If Barack doesn’t not choose her as VP, her supporters should stage a walk out.
He only won the nomination because of the “caucus” states…and caucuses are legally questionable (you mean I have to stay here all damn day to vote?).
I’m voting democrat regardless, but I’m just sayin…
charles
But she (or her people) should have known, since they were by far the most experienced and knowledgeable team of any campaign, about the caucus system and how to work it to their advantage. By some accounts, they didn’t even know that the delegates were awarded proportionately. I agree that the caucuses and the delegate apportioning system are at best, questionable, but those were the rules at the time and she lost by the rules. You don’t start whining about the rules after you have lost the game-you try to win by them and then change them after you have won.
And I think it was a passion deficit-I only started hearing about people being so Hillary when she was close to losing, when it was too late. I met people who were passionately Obama from the beginning. It seems like a lot of people are supporting Hillary in this quixotic quest because they are anti-Obama, not pro-Hillary.
MAARRS
This is so stupid. i’m so tired of the Hillary dolts whining about her lose. she needs to learn the art of graciousness. Big Bill, the worst gay friendly ‘gay positive’ president ever, is acting the dick. Fuck this delegate couont mis appropriation. People voted, she lost. the minutia of the electorial process is meaningless. If you want to debate that, take a poli-sci course at your local community college, since it CAN”T MAKE A FREAKIN DIFFERENCE
Tom
She has ugly, big feet too.
emb
Another utterly selfish, self-promoting, and destructive move by Sen Clinton. I used to be a supporter, but her behavior throughout the primaries drove me to look for alternatives. It’s patently obvious that she would prefer a mccain victory, which would theoretically open the door for her in 2012, to a victory for her own party!
mccain, with whom hillary’s childish, petulant behavior has a lot in common, falsely and stupidly accused Obama of being willing to lose a war to obtain a political victory; hillary is clearly the one who is willing to lose a political victory in order to boost her own misplaced, unachievable, utterly ego-driven agenda.
This isn’t about “the delegates” or “healing”, it’s about hillary being literally unable to stand aside for the elected nominee for an office she seems to feel, for reasons that escape me, is somehow hers by right. She just wants to pee on Obama’s parade, and it ain’t very team-playerly.
By all means let her give a speech, but there’s no “right” for delegates who don’t have enough votes to elect their candidate to get an opportunity to vent their hatred of the nominee. She just wants to be disruptive, and let others do her dirty work.
mark
Hillary
It’s not ALL about you, and it sure as F*CK ain’t about Bill.
You have egos that ate cleveland…ya lost, go to the wings gracefully, or you’ll be BOOED out of Denver.
Do you see Dodd or Biden acting like prima donnas?
RyanInSacto
@Qjersey: Caucuses are “legally questionable,” huh?? Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the US Constitution, which states under Article II, Section 1:
“Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress.”
Get that? “In such manner as the legislature thereof may direct.” If a state legislature decides to assign the state’s electoral votes using a Ouija Board or by drawing names out of a hat or by a game of pin the tail on the candidate, it would be OK. So, no, caucuses, which require people to actually take a day off for their democracy, are not “legally questionable” so long as they have been passed into law by the legislature of that state.
Carrie
Hillary, and her band of 60-year-old feminists, cannot seem to grasp the fact that it is 2008 – not 1970. We are not listening to Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan anymore. MOST of us have moved on. She didn’t lose because of sexism. She lost because she ran a lousy campaign, she has too much baggage, she lied continuously, and people hate her. Why can’t these old bags get this through their gray-haired heads?
Hillary needs psychiatric help. She is is so self-centered that she would rather have McCain win: prolong the war, prolong the poor economy, etc., etc., than ever admit SHE LOST.
She is an evil, evil, person. I hate McCain and don’t care much for Obama either, but I would vote for ANYBODY but Hillary.
Bitch Republic
What!? You mean Clinton wants to actually hold a delegate vote at the convention (the way it’s supposed to be done and was done for over 100 years)!!?? How dare she want to actually make the convention do its job!
AJ
The liberal left-wing of this party is just as hateful and undemocratic as the right wing conservatives!!! Some of you Obama supporters are really venomous and are in need of professional help!
MAARRS
A delegate vote, while accommadated within the convention rules, is not necessary. The only reason for a delegate vote is for her to bask in her victimized glory. BUT, a delegate vote would further divide and splinter the DNC, continue the Obama Vs. Hill media crap and let McCain breeze through the next 6 months without having to answer for his ignorance and unsuitability for the office. If you want a Democrat in office, we need to focus on discrediting ‘the old wrinkly dude’. Hilliary is trying to use the most important election in the last 30 years to her own personal gain and glory. Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell is a glaring reminder of what her brand of ‘support’ would have given queer voters.
She is not going to be president. She is not going to be VP. She needs to be bigger than her ego.
It’s not about supporting a favorite “Political American Idol”, it’s about ending a war, saving the eco-systems, reducing ALL oil dependency, foreign and domestic, and putting the final nail in the ‘Family Value’ scare tactics of the Republican Right once and for all.
RyanInSacto
@Bitch Republic: Oh, please. You actually believe this is about holding a delegate vote at the convention? Why would Hillary want that? So that she can be reminded one last time that she DID NOT WIN THE NOMINATION? This is an attempt at arm-twisting her way into the VP slot, pure and simple.
mulletkitty
I can’t believe commentary is focused on substantive issues like weighing the merits of her campaign, when shouldn’t we be discussing those PANTS! I’d like to see her kick McCain to the curb in those…
AJ
Former Clinton supporters now back McCain? This is the very definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Hillary Clinton must (one hopes) be appalled.
As Arvonne Fraser once noted: right-wing feminism is an oxymoron.
The irony is that Obama is far more of a feminist than any woman (or man) who would vote for McCain.
In other words: *feminism* is not *womanism*.
“It is a tragedy that, having become the UK’s first woman prime minister, she [Margaret Thatcher] did so much to undermine the position of women in society.” (Patricia Hewitt, former UK Secretary of State for Health)
Hillary Clinton would make a great vice-presidential candidate for Obama. Not solely because she is a woman but because she is an extremely talented politician who already has secured a unique place in American political history.
Her so-called supporters do her a grave and stupendous disservice. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Dairyqueen
SORE LOSERS. Get over it, Hilary loss. Do we really want Mcsame to get an edge, because of what this potential mess could cause? I am losing more respect for Hilary everyday. People who will vote for Mcsame because they hate Obama need to get a clue and wake UP!
Qjersey
Caucuses are legally questionable because they place undue burden on the voter. Rather than taking 15-30 mins to vote, caucuses require that voters spend an entire day participating which disenfranchises voters who cannot afford to skip work to participate.
Darien
I think it’s hilarious that caucuses became “legally questionable” after Hillary started losing.
Here’s a video of Hillary’s famous “Caucusing is Easy” PSA from January:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLxtP2UhSLY
Do any of Hillary’s dead-enders care?
AJ
It all comes down to UNITY, and if you Obama supporters, not Senator Obama, think the path to unity is to discredit Clinton supporters by telling us to shut the hell up and fall into place, then you will be the ones that will cost the democrats the election this cycle. Your idea of unity is completely belligerent and undemocratic.
If you really think you are going to win without our support and votes, then you’re mistakenly wrong. The polls show Senator Obama is succeeding only about 3-6 points, nationwide. But as we SHOULD know, the election is not won on a popular-vote basis, as we have found out in the primary season. It’s based on an Electoral College, proportioned by the states. The entire population of California could vote for Obama, but he will still only receive 55 elector votes. You NEED us, in order to win. To win Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and others.
So go ahead and try without our support, but you can not succeed without our votes. I believe Senator Obama believes in unity, but his supporters clearly do not. So try to fuck with us and in the end, you will be the pansies crying in the corner because you did not win!
emb
AJ, interesting diatribe accusing the supporters of the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee of being obstructionist and potentially damaging to a possible Democratic victory in November. Interesting how so many of your statements boil down to “you” versus “us” and “we” and “our” — not sounding very unity-ish, there, really. Rather a bit confrontational and divisive: just what the Obama-supporters your attacking are suggesting that you’re doing.
So there you go, proving the point.
You really ought to just admit that HC is grandstanding, looking for a way to somehow keep her (losing) campaign alive, hoping against hope that the convention will “come to its senses” and nominate her instead of the uppity black man.
And check your electoral college maps: Yeah, Obama has a relatively slim popular polling lead at the moment, but when his lead is broken down by state he’s well over 200 electoral votes and mccain’s well behind.
And funny thing, no one’s asking about Hillary.
That’s cuz she’s not the nominee. Odd that I’m not seeing rabid commentary from Edwards-supporters and Richardson-supporters demanding that their delegates should be given prime time to delivery impassioned speeches about their losing candidates. Just HC.
She really does need to get over herself. And her supporters really need to get over them-selves, and quit trying to hijack the party, use the convention as their personal therapy session, and threatening to take their votes and go home: Are you Democrats, or just hillary cultists?
AJ
I was just thinking the same way:
Are you just Obama cultists, or Democrats?
RyanInSacto
@AJ: Well, considering the fact that EMB appears to support the Democratic nominee and you support the person who is trying to derail his candidacy, I’d say that AJ is the Democrat here.
AJ
Are you trying to say that this election primary season never happened? For them to not have a roll-call, would imply that this was not a close and real race and Senator Obama was all of a sudden anointed as the Democrat nominee.
Unity-ish? Are you kidding me? Have you read the comments on this page? And of course, Edwards and Richardson did not have 18,000,000 votes.
I never said I was ONLY a Hillary supporter; I supported and voted for both Senator Obama and Clinton, legally (One of the advantages of living overseas, Democrats Abroad, and being from the state of Florida) and I stand by my decisions. I am all about Unity, and telling people that their votes do not count and they were all for Senator Obama, is not democratic nor conventional.
mark
Hillary even for your own career as Senator, believe me…you and your militant supporters F*CK UP Denver and this election…you will lose your next election.
Brian
If you watch the video, it’s pretty obvious she was trying to calm down her most rabid supporters, not get them all worked up for a convention fight. Similarly, Bill’s recent comments, in context, were very supportive and complimentary of Obama.
I can’t stand Hillary. I would have held my nose and voted for her, I guess, but I really dislike her for a bunch of reasons. But even from my biased perspective she is getting a bad rap here. She has been nothing but gracious and supportive since her concession speech. Give credit where it is due.
mark
Brian it’s you thats blind deaf and dumb if you thought anything Bill said was supportive of Obama. He’s about two steps away from full TANTRUM rolling on the floor with seething rageful jealosy.
Hillary wants a f*ckin show of POWER of her delegates…as a pre I TOLD YOU SO!
mark
Hillary can get on Obama’s team or get off…that’s FINE.
What she can’t do is this duplicitous passive/aggresive cr*p saying she supports him, and doing sneaky sh*t with her supporters behind the scenes.
Brian
Bill said Obama was smart as a whip and made several other complimentary remarks. Sounds supportive to me.
I don’t deny he bears a grudge. He’s clearly shocked that he was beat. Nevertheless, his comment about “nobody” being really ready for the job was in the context of praising Obama and trying to minimize the “experience” argument. It was a smart tactic.
I hate the Clintons for a whole bunch of reasons. And I can’t see how anybody can disagree that Hillary and Bill were both disgustingly disloyal to the Democratic party after it became clear Obama was the Nominee (back in freakin’ February). They continued to use Republican attacks about “elitism” and “experience” against him even after Obama beat them fair and square (despite the Clintons’ huge built-in institutional advantages — the nerve of those people whining about the media not being fair to them — after weekes of Rev. Wright on 24/7 and nary a mention of any Clinton scandals — those two are delusional).
BUT — as much as I hate them, and I do, this last flurry of “does Clinton want him to lose?” is based on nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. (do I believe she wants him to lose — I kind of do — but I’ll admit that my assumption is based on my poor opinion of the Clintons, not any actual evidence).
She was clearly passive aggressive and disloyal during the campaign, but I have seen no evidence that she has been anything but supportive since her concession. That’s pretty impressive, considering how much she thought she deserved the nod. As much as I hate saying anything nice about her, she has been a class act lately.
Karl Mill
We are not voting for McCain because Hillary did not win.
McCain is the only candidate with integrity and experience. Both qualities are lacking in Senator Obama.
Allow Obama to return to Chicago to clean up the district he left as a slum, his hateful and vile church and wash his witch of a wife’s mouth with a bar of soap and we will see how well he accomplishes change. Practice what you teleprompt and serve as an example.
Brian
And once McCain gets to replace 2 liberal Supreme Court Justices with Scalia clones, and sets gay rights back by a decade, we can thank people like Karl. I will defend Hillary in this instance because she has done nothing wrong, but her dead-end supporters who will sacrifice gay rights out of spite are beneath contempt.
b/t/w — Obama’s district was a slum when he got there. He spent his life trying to make it better (while Hills was busy busting unions on the board of Wall-Mart).
mark
Hillary can go back to the Senate, and Bill can go f*ck himself
Mr C
@ No 21 AJ said: So go ahead and try without our support, but you can not succeed without our votes. I believe Senator Obama believes in unity, but his supporters clearly do not. So try to fuck with us and in the end, you will be the pansies crying in the corner because you did not win!
Well my dear, my dear AJ. If that be the case. Then FINE and in 2012 and 2016 we will have a republican administration because us Obama supporters WILL NOT go out on a limb for this woman who feels SHE IS ENTITLED to this…. NO Ma’am not happening. We can pull levers also.
BOTTOM LINE, Her campaign sucked because she had HORRIFIC people including her husband in the cut. And when they became VULNERABLE they went deadly and DESPERATE and sorry to say this if you really think this is about the 17+some odd millions of voters who voted for her because she NEVER reached 18,000,000.00 votes so lets move away from that fable. This is not about National Security, nor the economy.
This is all about HILLARY DIANE RODHAM CLINTON and her husband! He recently did an interview from Africa with ABC News and when asked, “Do you think Barack Obama should be the next president of the United States. He refused to say YES! Now if that was Hilz he would respond with an ABSOLUTELY YES! They are still bitter and NO I don’t think they’re racist at all. They just have the “SUPERIOR EFFECT†going. I’m better than you are and you always stand BEHIND ME!
I want her to be the VP and she should because it would be a SLAM-DUNK.
But now with the way she is rousing up NONSENSE. It goes to show that she will do anything to get what she wants and reading some of the Hillary supporters’ comments on here. Some of you have the AUDACITY to be calling Barack’s supporters: “OBAMABOTSâ€,“THE MESSIAHâ€,â€OBAMACONS†etc. What the fuck are you doing here? Praising the soon and coming QUEEN!
And if she was so for the American people. Why did she sit on a board (WALMART) of a company who opposes unions, doesn’t provide decent healthcare (Her big stance). And now they have told managers in a closed door meeting that to vote for Obama would be bad for business because of his STANCE for unions so they want them to vote for McCain who opposes unions as well. WOW……..For the American people…YA THINK?
That’s just great Hillary Clinton. So your Gay supporters will vote for McCain because they feel that this Man isn’t fit. Well girls if John McCain wins. I hope he teach some of you the very good lesson of being TRUE AND VILE Hypocrites remember you want
Equality rights
Marriage Rights
Our lifestyle to be added to a HATE CRIMES bills, etc
And if you think that OLD ASS GOAT who told Ellen to her face I don’t support Gay Marriage and am fully against it!
MAVERICK…WHAT?
You girls better wake the fuck up and get over your “I’m not voting for Black Man who comes from a evil church and whose wife said she wasn’t proud of Americaâ€
Well John wasn’t proud neither check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hVeWZjB8zM
Is America proud of you????? THINK ABOUT IT!
MikeD
Mr. C, why don’t you shut the fuck up for once you racist asshole. Obama is unelectable because of massive incompetence and not his race. His district is a slum? It’s amazing that no one has ever mentioned that before. Oh wait, you all want to blow him so you never bothered to bring it up. But I’m sure he has the right prescription for change for America, right? Hilary supporters wanted a Democrat in office and now with this piece of shit candidate that’s just not going to happen. 2012 can’t come soon enough.
Brian
Um, if he is so incompetent how did he clean Hillary’s clock? She had the biggest Democratic machine in the country going for her, huge advantages in connections, money, and name recognition. She was generally beloved by the Democratic base. But he beat her.
Could it be that she was out-organized by sheer competence?
And please don’t start with that BS about the press being against her. The press is always against the front runner. They like to cultivate drama. A competent politician would have accounted for that. The second he started to pull ahead the press lit into Obama like nobody’s business (um, did you watch that shameful ABC “debateâ€?)
Obama built a vast grassroots effort (a competent move); created a wildly innovated online fundraising strategy (what? more competence????); hired extremely talented, loyal, and drama-free people (in stark contrast to Mark Penn’s Preschool Circus); and planned his strategy around the rules that actually existed, as opposed to the rules that one may wish were in place. That, my friends, is managerial competence.
If Obama loses it will be due to a number of factors (the press’ man-crush on McCain; the Republican smear machine; and idiot Hillary dead-enders being chief among them). But the fundamentals of this cycle and his unbelievably competent performance against Hillary indicates that he should win.
emb
I honestly cannot understand the logic of hillary cultists who say they’ll vote for mccain. I mean, honestly, people, you supported a liberal-ish, progressive-ish Democrat, and now with a choice between a different liberal-ish, progressive-ish Democrat and a guy committed to a continuation of the anit-liberal, anti-progressive agenda of the current administration, you say you’d rather vote for HIM?? WTF, really? Because of his “character”?? Puleez, folks, your glorious “character” guy is going to appoint neanderthal judges, eliminate any progress made by GLBTs, and provoke another war or two: You like that? And those “18 million” who deserve to be heard? Hey guess what: THEY WERE HEARD WHEN THEY VOTED. Heard, considered, counted, and it’s over. Over. Done. The votes have been counted. The convention is, as it usually is, a pro forma exercise in annointing the person who emerged from the primaries victorious. In this case, IT AIN’T HILLARY. This is so hard to understand?
I give up. These people are hopeless, and don’t deserve the attention they’re demanding.
My View
Wonder if she is going to be locked-up after the Peter Paul trial that’s imminent? She could get 20 years!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq8aopATYyw
Brian
It is kind of amusing to hear “character” as a reason to vote for a guy who dumped his disabled wife in order to marry a hot heiress a couple of decades his junior.
Mr C
Hey Idiot MikeD
You and your Momma can kiss my ASS
DUMB MOTHERFUCKER!
Enough said!
Mr C
Oh yeah and by the way a slum???????
I guess that speaks VOLUMES about the many trailer parks that whites represent in Congress….Miss Mike Dickhead!
MikeD
Whoa. Save that anger for when you riot when Obama loses.
Brian
I dunno, it’s kind of fun to watch the two of you craft an argument entirely out of vitriol rather than anything crazy like “facts” or “logic.” Maybe you should just get together and just spit at each other while the rest of us focus on getting a Democrat elected in November.
L.
I hope this happens! I am still holding out that she will get the nomination. But, if obama gets the nomination and does not pick her as his vice president then all the people who voted for Hillary should just stay home on election day! She got 18 million votes, at least. Reagan took Sr. Bush; Kennedy picked Johnson. Without Hillary on the ticket I hope obama does not win!
Brian
L’s argument exhibit equal parts bad grammar and bad logic. And, by the way, there are punctuation marks other than exclamation points. Perhaps you should explore them.
mark
MikeD get in your gated community, and shut the hell up.
Roy Pyatt
All Democrats were upset when all the votes weren’t counted and G.W. Bush became president but most don’t give a damn when all the votes weren’t counted and B.H. Obama is the presumed Democratic nominee.
BTW Moveon.org members used some very scary tactics at the caucuses in many places to deny Mrs. Clinton’s supporters an opportunity to be counted.
Not The Receptionist
First and foremost, for Hillary to be voted on at the convention SHE has to sign off on the paperwork to put her name into the ring. Her supporters and scream and clamor all they want about getting her at least onto the first round of voting but Hillary is the one who has to make it happen.
And as for the comment of caucuses being legally questionable, I would like to know the rationale behind that statement. I’m sure the residents of Iowa, Nevada, Texas, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, West Virginia, North Dakota, Maine, Hawaii, and Wyoming don’t find it to be that way.
Mr C
OK, Roy remember one thing in the primary it was not about votes it was about DELEGATES in which Obama had more than Clinton. And another thing she never had 18,000,000.00 votes NEVER!
He didn’t steal anything from her. He played fair and I’m sure you’re not going to say that The Clinton camp didn’t use SCARE TACTICS as well. They damn sure did using the following people.
1.Adelfo Callejo-Texas
2.Edward G Rendell Pennsylvania
3.James Carville- National Democratic Strategist
4.Gov Mike Easley Governor State of North Carolina
5.Stephanie Tubbs-Jones-US Rep Ohio (Cleveland) ETC
And that was on T.V
Need we say more?
M Shane
It seems to be clear that Clinton is the selfish self agrandizing bitch that she seemed to be all along. She should either get on the team or jump off a building. Like a number of women politicals said she is not a democrat or a feminist shi is just in favor of herself. How disguisting.
How undignified even to present this.