By Faith Chatham - DFWRCC - August 12, 2008
I just received a copy of the 2008 Texas Democratic Convention Credentials Committee's report from TDP Staffer Jim Boyton.  The summary is below:

STATEMENT ON RULES AND PROCEDURES

The Committee heard heart-felt, dispiriting testimony from witnesses representing hundreds of challengers about improprieties at many county/senatorial district conventions.  Even though the Committee could not always ascertain the factual predicate necessary to divine a remedy that would deny the fruits of the wrongdoing to the violators without harming the effort of welcoming participation by tens of thousands of new Democrats and beginning the healing process, the Committee implores the Party to take stringent steps to prevent recurrence of the following types of infractions:
•  Abandoning the convention leadership’s responsibility to ensure credentials go only to those properly elected at the precinct conventions below as properly reflected on the precinct convention minutes returned in a timely manner;

•  Allowing participation by alternates or visitors in the voting in precinct caucuses or the voting on the floor of the convention;

This is my very first diary ever - I'm sort of new to the whole 'netroots' thing.  As a matter of fact, I only just recently understood what that word meant.  Something to do with plants, right??

Anyway, I decided that today would be the day that I write a diary, because something amazing just happened.

I'm going to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, but I'm not a Delegate . . .

Texas Democrats in convention in Austin last weekend passed on giving the people a true voice in picking presidential candidates.

Though they voted to "study" the system, basically, the Dems let stand the precinct conventions, which effectively give most voters only two thirds of a vote for their presidential candidate.  

Did HRC make a crucial mistake in the Super Tuesday states by focusing on the bign ones?? Maybe yes, but likely I would say no. The reasoning below the fold.

I am an Iowa voter.  Every time I see the "popular vote" count (as I did last night over and over again on MSNBC) and hear about it (as I did in Hillary's speech last night), I feel genuinely disenfranchised.

[cross-posted at Rumproast.com]

I found these photos of female Obama supporters on Flickr today. The pride and joy the women exude in the pictures speaks volumes. They were taken by Robert Kangas at the 7th Congressional District caucus in Seattle, WA on 5/17/2008.  Remember, women count. Enjoy.

ClinTon should be HAPPY that there were caucus states.  It is true that Obama ran up big margins in several caucus states like Minnesota and Colorado that helped give him his big delegate lead.  It is true that if there was a primary instead, the margin might have been smaller, thus a closer delegate count between Obama and ClinTon.

BUT, if you are using the popular vote as the metric of choice, then the fact that Minny and Colorado were caucuses HELPED ClinTon.  If you are using the popular vote, it's better to win 55/45 if there are 300,000 voters (like in a primary), then to win 65-35 if there are 100,000 voters (like in a caucus).  

So the fact that several of the states were caucuses that Obama was going to win anyway, hurt Obama if popular vote was the metric being used.

why doesn't the media bring this up whenever ClinTon stupidly brings up the popular vote?

Experts have pointed to the pathetic low turnout in caucuses as part of the reason why this system is no way to choose a nominee for the president.

5% of eligible voters have cast a vote in caucuses this year. 5%. Not a typo.
Obama supporters quicky get defensive, downplaying low turnout, arguing that said system is the best because the party gets to talk about the issues, blah blah blah.

Kos made the case for the caucuses as a very appropriate system yesterday or a couple of days ago, if I'm not mistaken.

But when approx. 13% of Puerto Rican registered voters, who can't even vote in the general in a contest that does not even elect their president, still go to the booth, all of a sudden turnout becomes a huge deal.

Congratulations, Hillary Clinton, on your impressive, lopsided victory.

May be I do not understand something, but there was something weird about Obama's effort in WV. Or rather, almost utter lack thereof.

This arguably luckluster effort did not go unnoticed by Obama's most prominent suporter in WV, Sen. Jay Rockefeller:

Rockefeller, an Obama supporter, predicts Tuesday's election results would have been tighter with more visibility.

"West Virginia is a very important Primary, but he hasn't had a chance to spend the time here and I don't how to explain that and I can't explain it," Rockefeller said Monday on MetroNews Talkline. "If he had, I think he'd get a lot of votes and I think he will get tens and tens of thousands of votes."  

http://www.wvmetronews.com/...

The polls in Guam opened tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern.  They close at 6 a.m. Eastern.

(Cross posted at The Dead Guy)

46 contests have come and gone in this Democratic Presidential Preference cycle. Only 8 states and 2 territories remain. And yet, per Politico.com, there are 248 uncommitted superdelegates - that's about 1/3rd of the total possible.

What are they waiting for? Are they leaders or are they cowards?

If your state has already voted in this year's preference contest - look up your state on Politico.com and find out who is still uncommitted and tell them to "Sh*t or get off the pot!"

This is an update to "The Cult of Popularity" from April 11 about the final ten contests in the Democratic Presidential Preference elections. Since we are just under one week until the Pennsylvania Primary - I thought now would be a good time for us to visit that "popular vote" strategy that Senator Clinton is trying to employ to sway delegates (both superdelegates and elected delegates) to her side.

I will repeat the same response I have whenever someone tries to rewrite the rules. The DNC determines the Democratic Nominee by only one measure: Delegate count in sanctioned, legitimate elections. However, to quell the cries, I've laid out the math of the popular vote scenario. Since the first post, Clinton has made a little headway in the projection (about 11,000 votes) due to a .8% increase in her Real Clear Politics average lead in PA and a new SurveyUSA poll in Kentucky. However, at the same time Obama has tightened the race in Indiana and increased his numbers in Montana and South Dakota while losing a smidgen in North Carolina.

I took time out from my Sunday call time to go to the Obama Delegate Selection Caucus for the 42^nd Congressional District and support those running. I'm glad I did for more than a few reasons.

What I first took as an personal obligation to help build the Democratic brand in Orange County and win a few votes turned into a lot of fun and an energy boost that'll serve me well.

Before we take the jump I want to revisit my post from yesterday. It scrolled off the page pretty fast but I'm grateful that it was rescued. That helped. When you finish this please take a look at it and help out a long time fellow blogger who came from the community to run for Congress. I can't do this without you; my campaign is not about me. It's about all of us coming together to make the changes we know need to be made.

My ask: click this link and be a part of the movement joining the netroots with the grassroots. Check out my endorsement page. I'm proud of them all. And yes, that is the Ambassador Joe Wilson.

Yesterday 101 of us competed in Congressional District 9 - (Berkeley and Oakland) for 4 Obama delegate slots to the Democratic National Convention. I think we had more candidates than any district in the state.

The sun was shining on a very warm east bay day as the line to register stretched for a block and a half.  Most of the candidates, like myself, worked the line handing out cheap home made flyers and/or cookies.  The wonderful diversity of our community was reflected in the candidate pool and in the line.  Many rode their bikes or brought their kids along to see democracy in action.  I don't have the official count yet, but my rough estimate is there were close to a thousand people, many there to vote for friends, others just to support Barack. Read about a near death experience below the fold

Today at 3:00 p.m., throughout California, Democrats met in caucus to select delegates to the National Convention in Denver.  Here is my report, as a candidate, about one caucus in very red Orange County.

Last week I proposed a solution for the Democratic Party nomination Process. It did not go well with the readers. This week I will try a different subject, The talking Points.

Sen. Clinton campaign to become the Democratic Party nominee started in Jan. 2006 when she announced that she is forming an exploratory committee for president, thereby launching a bid to become the first female chief executive of the United States. With great hope and confidence she declared that "I'm in, And I'm in to win " on a Web site, hillaryclinton.com.".  At that time Sen. Clinton enjoyed a substantial early lead for the nomination. And it seemed that the whole nomination process is secured and it will be a matter of time when the outcome will be known. I believe that, the campaign strategy was based on the assumption that Sen. Clinton is the eventual nominee. The campaign thought that all Sen. Clinton needs to do is to announce her candidacy seeking the Democratic Party for the President of The United States and the rest is history, per se.

In her latest efforts to change the rules, Hillary Clinton has insisted that the popular vote matters.  This idea seems to make sense - delegates are sort of like electoral votes, right?  

But this argument misses a key point - in different states there are wildly different ways of counting popular votes.  And if you think the popular vote is representative of the populace as a whole, I have a few numbers to share with you.

I live in Bittersville. I'll probably die here, too. So will most of the other people here now.

Bittersville's a town that used to have 1100 meatpacking jobs that paid $27.00 per hour - in 1972. By 1982 they were all gone. They made a movie about the strike at the meatpacking plant north of here. The movie won an Oscar, but the jobs still went away.

It gets worse..... in Bittersville: