ADullAche

“You know, there is no requirement that anybody vote for anybody…Every delegate with very few exceptions is free to make up his or her mind however they choose,” Clinton told Time’s Mark Halperin. “We talk a lot about so-called pledged delegates, but every delegate is expected to exercise independent judgment.” (washingtonpost.com, The Trail, 26 March 2008. She said it again yesterday while doing the “full ginsberg” on all the morning chat shows.)

If anyone knows the minutiae of the law, it’s the Clintons. And while what she said is technically true – as was the ‘technical’ definition of “is” was…is…was… – it sure as hell ain’t the way things are supposed go.

The whole point of sending delegates to a convention is to have them – at least for one round of voting – vote for the candidate they were sent to vote for. They represent the electorate.

Okay, during the past eight years no one’s really done a lot of electorate representing and we’re a bit out of practice, but isn’t part of our collective – and still putative until November rolls around and I see different – outrage at the state of the union, and our call for change, based on wanting someone to hear us.

I’m not saying Hillary’s been implanted with Cheney DNA, but looking into the camera and telling pledged delegates (not super delegates) they’re independent and don’t worry your pretty little heads about that word “pledged,” sounds a little like, “So.”

Maybe I’m a bit oversensitive, and should probably be more like Congress and ignore the overt criminality and egregious indifference to the Constitution we’ve lived through since 2000, but I’m a petty guy. I was hoping for something a little better this time around.

As the bard said, “World thy slippery turns.”

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