By Suzanne Smalley
In case the press corps didn't get the message yesterday when Hillary Clinton's campaign spokesman Phil Singer accused Barack Obama of being "an accessory to disenfranchising" Michigan voters, the Clinton campaign today held a last minute "Solutions for America" event at a local American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees chapter in downtown Detroit.
Clinton made her case by trying to make a civil rights appeal: "It is the vote that has given voice to the voiceless and power to the powerless. It is through that vote that women, African- Americans, Latinos and so many others have claimed their rights as full and equal citizens."
The Clinton team has also been bombarding reporters with Michigan-themed mail. The morning update sent out daily by campaign press staffers notes that Clinton planned the Detroit stop "because the voices of Michigan voters deserve to be heard." Minutes later, the campaign blasted out another memo, this one asserting that Obama's failure to back a revote in Michigan proves his candidacy is "just words." The reason? In an offhand comment to the press in early February Obama pledged to support a new vote. Who is it that said Clintons don't give up?
The Clinton campaign's nearly singular focus today on finagling a revote in Michigan comes on the heels of news that Florida's Democratic Party has decided not to pursue a new round of voting and as the lack of momentum behind pushing a revote through the Michigan state legislature becomes more apparent. The stakes are high for Clinton in Michigan--she'll need a resounding win there, a state with no shortage of blue collar towns where she should find ample support, if she's to make her case to superdelegates that her mathematical disadvantages in delegates and the popular vote can be ignored come nomination time. Meanwhile, the Detroit Free-Press reported today that the clock is ticking: If no bill providing for a revote is passed by Thursday, when the Michigan legislature begins a two-week recess, there won't be a new Michigan primary.
Clinton is ratcheting up pressure on Obama now for all these reasons and one more: Michigan legislative leaders, many of whom back Obama, said yesterday that any revote legislation will need Obama's support before they will consider it. That may explain the Clinton campaign's decision to dedicate a 3 p.m. conference call yesterday to the topic of Michigan and, to a lesser extent, Florida. Clinton's take-no-prisoners adviser Harold Ickes and spokesman Phil Singer led the call, all but calling Obama a wimp, undemocratic, and hypocritical for avoiding a Michigan revote. "I have information from people I've been talking to in Michigan that Obama people are going around saying, you know, 'We don't need a rerun,'" Ickes said. "Senator Obama's campaign does not want a primary. Initially they indicated they did want one in both states. Now, they've changed course."
While Clinton's handlers work themselves up with manufactured outrage over Michigan and Florida, the Obama campaign appears to be standing its ground. With a virtually insurmountable lead in pledged delegates, the Obama campaign has little to gain by holding do-over elections in large battleground states, and a lot to lose. On yesterday's call, Singer argued that by shutting out Michigan and Florida voters from the nomination process, the Democrats may be sending them into the arms of John McCain. "I've been around politics long enough to know that if you disenfranchise voters in two states that are vital to our prospects in November, we're gonna have a much harder time winning in those states than we otherwise would," he said. Singer raises a good point that the Democrats need to be worried about the impact on the general election. But it begs the question--if Clinton is so worried about the Democrats' prospects in November, is this fight over Michigan and Florida helping?
