Legal Commentary

On Re-Do Primaries: Carville v. Wilhelm

By Big Tent Democrat

By Big Tent Democrat

Here is the transcript of the Carville (a Clinton supporter) v. Wilhelm (an Obama supporter) discussion of funding and holding redo primaries in Michigan and Florida. As you can see, Wilhelm is utterly on the defensive and Carville is relishing the role of urging counting the votes. This dynamic will dominate this issue. The key parts of the transcript on the flip:

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: So far, more than 29 million Democrats have voted in the 2008 primary election. That’s already almost double the voter turnout from the 2004 primaries, and there’s still more contests left. Even in Florida where Democratic voters knew their votes probably wouldn’t count, more than twice as many people cast ballots on primary day, 1.7 million voted this year compared to 750,000 back in 2004.

Let’s get some more now on a possible do-over for the Florida and Michigan primaries. We’re joined by two top Democratic strategists, CNN contributor James Carville, who supports Hillary Clinton, and David Wilhelm, a former Clinton campaign manager who now supports Barack Obama.

James Carville, I know you love Hillary Clinton. There’s no doubt about that. You’ve worked with her. David Wilhelm once worked with the Clintons, but he now supports Barack Obama. I want to get back to this do-over in Michigan and Florida. You heard John Zarrella’s piece where he’s laying out some obstacles that may not be overcome. Can the Democrats get their act together in these two states and redo the elections there?

JAMES CARVILLE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, of course they can. I heard a guy say we don’t have voting machines. Well, how did Abraham Lincoln get elected president? How did they do that? You can have paper ballots. You can count them. And by the way, in terms of the funding, I’ve talked to any number of Democratic funders today, they’re ready to put up serious money. Senator Obama raised $55 million this past month. Senator Clinton raised the money. Let’s let these candidates get a little skin in this game. Let’s go around, raise some money, and let’s show the world we can do this.

You know, we’re telling people all over the world to have elections. And the United States of America is saying, well, we can’t afford to have an election in Florida and Michigan in the most exciting, highly contested and important Presidential election probably in the history of this country. We look ridiculous. I mean, let’s just get together and have the DNC put some money up. Have Senator Obama put some money up, Senator Clinton’s people put some money up and let’s go out and raise the money. We can do this easy, pass some paper ballots and count them.

BLITZER: You ready to accept that offer, David?

DAVID WILHELM: Well, I hope we can figure this thing out. What I — I’m glad about is that I think — it sounds to me like Senator Clinton’s campaign is finally getting off this notion that the illegal election, or the election that was run in contravention of party rules should not stand, and that is a very good thing. The posture of the Barack Obama campaign is tell us what the rules are. We’ll play by the rules and …

CARVILLE: We’ll raise it (ph). We’ll raise — we’ll put up $15 million. I’ll guarantee $15 million and have the Obama people put up $15 million. And let’s go to the polls come on June 7th. I’ve got fundraisers that are lined up ready to go. I think the Democratic party is going to look absolutely absurd if they don’t have primaries and let these people in Florida and Michigan vote. . . .

WILHELM: Well, this — you know, ultimately, I don’t think this is up to the campaigns. I think this is …

CARVILLE: Sure it is.

WILHELM: …up to Chairman Dean — the campaigns are part of the discussion, but it’s up to the people of Michigan, the state party of Michigan, the National Party, the state party of Florida, and I’m sure we can all …let’s go, we — all we want to do is know what the rules are, play by the rules.

CARVILLE: No, the rules are these campaigns we can put on a primary. I just love Florida. Every person that I talk to in Florida wants to participate in this process. It’s been racked by the subprime crisis and foreclosures. Look at Michigan. We’re going to say (ph) we got rules here and we’re going to have some kind of cockamamie (ph) thing, or we can go and have a primary and let these people weigh in. This is the United States of America. Let people vote.

WILHELM: We have nothing to fear from a primary if that comes to it. . . .

CARVILLE: I’ll pledge $15 million.

WILHELM: I am praying and hopeful that we can figure out a way to get this to happen.

CARVILLE: It’s easy, it’s easy. Print some ballots, let’s raise some money and let’s get going and tell this guy in Florida, I don’t have any voting machines, then get some people in and count. Say here’s one ballot here, one ballot there and count them. That’s the way they used to do it. We can do that.

BLITZER: So, basically, what the challenge is $15 million — he says the Clinton campaign and their supporters can raise — David, you think the Obama campaign can raise $15 million? You got $30 million. That’s more than enough to handle new primaries in both Michigan and Florida.

WILHELM: I’m not here today — I’m sitting here in Columbus, Ohio. I think that this is something that can get worked out, that will get worked out. I think the state party and the National Party need to come together. I’d be a little suspicious of the various attitudes of the campaigns on this. This needs to be done in a judicious, mindful way that is fair for all parties …

BLITZER: But you know, but David, let me interrupt — David, let me interrupt because Howard Dean says he’s ready to oversee a new primary in both states. He just doesn’t want to pay for it. The governors of Florida and Michigan say they’re ready to see new primaries, but they don’t want the taxpayers in those two states to pay for it. So, James has just come up with a proposal whereby individual supporters of your campaign, supporters of Hillary Clinton’s campaign say, you know what, we’ll come up with the money and we can organize this.

WILHELM: Well, I guess that would be one of the options on the table that needs to be worked out in conjunction with the national party and the state parties. I — I don’t think the right place to hammer this out is on your show here today. But I think it’s one of the options. . .

And so on. Carville had a lot of fun in that segment obviously.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 08, 2008 (boomark / email).