Practice Management

The Obama camp and the old media can distort numbers any way they want, but the truth now remains, according to The Fact Hub, that Hillary Clinton's decisive victory in Pennsylvania leaves more people having voted for her than Barack Obama.  According to Real Clear Politics, Hillary Clinton has received 15,095,662 votes to Barack Obama's 14,973,720, a margin of 120,000 votes.  Also, ABC News reports that "Clinton has pulled ahead of Obama" in the popular vote.  This count, of course, includes the certified vote totals of Florida and Michigan.

Here is the problem.  The Obama people were the ones that started this mantra that the Super Delegates should not be allowed to overturn the will of the popular vote.  It is an interesting take on the the rhetoric of the 2000 election, but it is not that simple.  Why?  First, we do not have a national primary.  Second, when we talk about popular vote, we have to ask what popular vote?  If it is the popular vote of each state that should dictate the Super Delegate vote, then Clinton should have already won.  Third, Obama only wins the popular vote now if you exclude Michigan and Florida, but how is disenfranchising people fair?  Those were legitimate elections, that were certified by the secretaries of state of both states.  Fourth, it is impossible to count the caucuses.  This is so because many of the caucuses do not release the raw vote so the political camps and news outlets can only guess as what that might have been, and it is all over the place.  Also, in places like Texas that had a primary and caucus, that would mean that some people get to vote twice.

In the long run, you have to be careful about that for which you ask.  Obama defined it as the national popular vote.  That was the standard he set, and now he does not have it.