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Clinton fights for Florida votes
22/05/2008 12:13 - (SA)
Miami - Invoking Democratic nightmares of the 2000 Florida presidential recount, Hillary Clinton demanded the revival of two voided primaries as she sought to halt Barack Obama's march toward the party's nomination.
The Democratic rivals canvassed the key battleground state of Florida on Wednesday, but with different races in mind.
While Obama traded blows with Republican presumptive nominee John McCain in a preview of their potential matchup in the November general election, Clinton pressed for the Florida and Michigan primaries to be reinstated.
The former first lady was in a feisty mood at a rally in Boca Raton, warning her party had deprived voters of basic rights by stripping the two states of national convention delegates over a scheduling dispute.
"You learned the hard way what happens when your votes aren't counted and the candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner," she told supporters.
"The lesson of 2000 here in Florida is crystal-clear: if any votes aren't counted, the will of the people is not realised and our democracy is diminished."
Obama needs just 67 delegates
Clinton's hopes of becoming the first female presidential nominee were dealt a blow on Tuesday after the two candidates split the latest primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, leaving Obama just 67 delegates short of claiming the nomination.
Clinton, trailing Obama in every metric of the race, needs a solution to the Florida-Michigan imbroglio to claim victory in the popular vote and bolster her claim that she is the rightful nominee.
She won the discounted primaries, though neither candidate campaigned in Florida and Obama took his name off the ballot in Michigan.
Moreover, Democratic Party rules state that the total of elected delegates in each state is the measure of victory - not how many total votes were cast.
Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod said their campaign was "open to compromise" on the Florida-Michigan question.
"We are willing to go more than half way," he told National Public Radio. "We're willing to work to make sure that we can achieve a compromise."
Even if Michigan and Florida delegates were reinstated at a party meeting in Washington on May 31, Clinton would still trail Obama in the decisive count.
Florida recount in 2000
Clinton's comments evoked the plight of ex-vice-president Al Gore, who many Democrats believe was deprived of the White House when the Supreme Court stopped a Florida recount, handing the presidency to George W Bush.
The New York senator, 60, has vowed to keep fighting at least until after remaining contests in Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota end the exhausting coast-to-coast marathon, by June 3.
According to independent website RealClearPolitics, Obama led by 1 959 total delegates to 1 778, with 2 026 required to clinch the nomination.
- AFP
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US Elections Special Report
