Clinton blasts Democrats: Former president disappointed in handling of Florida, Michigan delegates
By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian
Watch a video of former President Clinton at the University of Montana
Former President Clinton teed off on the Democratic Party, and offered the Republican Party a few back-handed compliments when he spoke at the University of Montana on Wednesday.
He's dismayed by what has occurred in Michigan and Florida, where the national Democratic Party stripped those states of their delegates to the national convention after the states violated their own election rules and moved up their primary elections.
The Republican National Committee, on the other hand, penalized Michigan and Florida by taking away only half of the states' delegates.
Former President Clinton holds 1-year-old Shaelyn Tolleson-Knee: after his speech at a campaign rally for his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, on Wednesday at the University of Montana. Clinton spoke for about an hour and 10 minutes in support of his wife's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Photo by TOM BAUER/Missoulian
“It is shocking and somewhat embarrassing to me to see the Republicans in a more progressive position than the Democrats,” Clinton said during a campaign rally for his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton then took a shot at the election debacle in Florida in 2000, quipping: “I never thought it would be the Democratic Party that didn't want to count votes in Florida. I thought that was a Republican strategy.”
While talking about the “incredibly competitive nature” of the race for the Democratic nomination, Clinton told his audience of about 1,100 people it is critical that every voter and every state be counted.
The delegate snafu in Michigan and Florida is disturbing, he said, because it not only silences thousands of voters, but the decisions also are counter to what the Democratic Party has long stood for: equality and fairness.
Arguments have been made that the election process in Michigan and Florida was faulty from the start because Illinois Sen. Barack Obama pulled his name from the ballot, as did former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who later dropped out of the race. On Wednesday, Edwards endorsed Obama's candidacy, as did 12 Montana county attorneys, including Missoula County's Fred Van Valkenburg and Ravalli County's George Corn.
The former president said that because Hillary Clinton respects the voters of this country, she offered a revote in Michigan and Florida but those suggestions were ignored.
But, said Bill Clinton, “Why should we put Michigan at risk and pretend these people didn't show up and pretend somehow she is responsible and the voters are responsible?
“The only thing she asked for was to treat those people with dignity and fairness,” he said.
The frustrating element, he said, is that in the end, it is the people who suffer and not the political mechanisms at work.
“If we are going to decide a closely held contest, it shouldn't be decided with those kinds of tactics and those kinds of principles,” he said. “We are Democrats. We are supposed to be about the business of empowering people.
“How ironic would it be,” Clinton said, if the election was “decided by the most dis-empowering, top-down and, I think, mindless decision I can recall in a month of Sundays?”
The pointed comments during Clinton's hour-and-10-minute speech were cheered by the audience and caught the attention of the national media, some of whom have been following the former president since January as he's traveled the country promoting his wife's platform.
Clinton said it was appropriate that his rally at the University of Montana fell on the day after his wife won the delegate vote in West Virginia on Tuesday.
Before launching into Hillary Clinton's to-do list if elected president - a list he's hammered on at stops across the country that includes creating universal health coverage, growing the economy with “green collar” jobs, fixing the national mortgage crisis while keeping families in their homes, changing the No Child Left Behind education laws and withdrawing troops from Iraq - Clinton scored points with Griz fans.
“When I was president in 1995, the University of Montana won a national football championship,” Clinton said. “And I called the team to congratulate them. And I thought you might be interested to know or remember that one was won with a fourth-quarter comeback engineered by a quarterback named Dave Dickenson - and the game was won in West Virginia.
“Hillary won last night in West Virginia by 41 points,” he said to a cheering crowd. “I think it's worth noting that no one has won the White House without carrying West Virginia since 1916.”
Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com.
