Clinton in Florida: “Let Every Vote Be Counted!”

Photo credits: AP

Writing for the Trail (Washington Post) Perry Bacon reports from Boca Raton, Florida on Hillary Clinton’s re-energized campaign following her blowout win in Kentucky last night.

Bacon quotes the second term senator from New York:

"We believe the popular vote is the truest expression of your will. We believe it today just as we believed it back in 2000 when, right here in Florida, you learned the hard way what happens when your votes aren't counted and a candidate with fewer votes is declared the winner," Clinton told a crowd at retirement home in Boca Raton. "The lesson of 2000 here in Florida is crystal clear: if any votes aren't counted, the will of the people isn't realized and our democracy is diminished."

Clinton’s talking history, Bacon reports:

“While counting the votes in Florida and Michigan, both states where Clinton won the popular vote, would help her candidacy, Clinton cast her cause in historical and moral terms in a speech that quoted the Declaration of Independence, described the struggle of blacks and women to earn voting rights and invoked the legacies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman. And her staging was even more clear, starting off talking to a group of seniors in Palm Beach County, the place known for the so-called dimpled chads and a confusing ballot that resulted in some Democrats voting for Pat Buchanan rather than Al Gore.

‘“I believe the Democratic Party must count these votes. ... Count them exactly as they were cast," she said. "I am here today because I believe the decision our party faces is not just about the fate of these votes and outcome of these primaries, it's about about whether we will uphold our most fundamental values as Democrats and Americans. ... I believe that both Senator Obama and myself have an obligation as potential Democratic nominees, in fact we all have an obligation as Democrats to carry on this legacy to ensure in our nominating process every voice is heard and every vote is counted. This is a core mission of the modern Democratic Party.’”

Bacon continues:

“Her tone was a departure from the fiery populist rhetoric of recent days, in which she has cast herself as an underdog. Instead, in a soft, almost pleading voice, she said she believed that ‘whether you voted for me or Senator Obama or Senator Edwards, each vote is a prayer for our nation.’”


Bacon summarizes Clinton’s rallying cry:

“The crowd of several hundred loudly applauded, as her supporters do all over the country when she takes up the issue of counting the Michigan and Florida delegations, which has become a central plank in her longshot campaign to overtake Barack Obama. Clinton wants to count votes in Michigan and Florida, which could allow here to overtake Obama in the popular. If she won the popular vote, her aides said, along with maintaining her strong poll numbers in states like Florida against Sen. John McCain, it would strengthen her argument to Democratic superdelegates to chose her over Obama, who has won the battle over delegates selected through Democratic primaries and caucuses.”