Bill's role with TX's prima-caucus

Posted: Monday, March 03, 2008 10:38 AM by Mark Murray

From NBC's John Yang and NBC/NJ's Carrie Dann
Late last week, Texas newspapers suggested that the Clinton campaign was threatening legal action against the Texas "Two-Step" prima-caucus, the state's combo primary-caucus contest on Tuesday. The Clinton campaign strenuously denied the reports. But one thing is for certain: Bill Clinton doesn't care for the system.

Here's a quote from him campaigning in Odessa late last month: "Now look, this system was set up years ago when Texas was late, late in the primary process. No one ever thought that the votes would determine the nominee of the party. And frankly, the party leaders set this up, so they could go in. They knew nobody else would go to these conventions, and they could make sure they had a fair share of the folks that went to the national convention. It was never intended to basically reverse the results of a popular election in the daytime, but it could happen."

Yet given that criticism, it's worth noting that, according to Texas Democratic Party attorneys NBC spoke with in the last few days, Bill Clinton's campaign helped write those rules for 1992, and Bill Clinton twice won the Texas primary using those rules.

EMAIL THIS

Comments

I voted for Bill twice in the 90s, but he really doesn't do Hillary's campaign any good by complaining aboout the system that is set up in Texas. That is insulting to Texan voters.

Enrique, Chicago (Sent Monday, March 03, 2008 1:37 PM)

the clintons will not gracefully bow out regardless of the out come of tomorrows vote, they have already shifted their campaign strategy from 'winning the primary' to 'stealing the primary', the only thing that they can accomplish buy 'stealing the primary' is assuring obama won't be president, they know by 'stealing the nomination' voters won't back them, and they don't care, they are what they are, a more selfish self-centered pair you will not find

MK,MO (Sent Monday, March 03, 2008 1:53 PM)

For Sen. Obama's earmarks, google "Sen. Obama's earmarks". Info is not hard to find out if you want to know.

K"Hussein"J, Dallas, TX (Sent Monday, March 03, 2008 1:59 PM)

Bill Clinton was impeached by the House when he was president. While it was the relentless pursuit by Republicans because he took the White House from them, he also played right into their hands. His wife could not keep him in check, why does she think she can manage a recalcitrant Congress? Her experience is a sham, and while she's certainly tried to do good things, she hasn't really succeeded.

Obama knows how to organize and bring people together - that's the best way to solve problems.

Kathy H., Honolulu (Sent Monday, March 03, 2008 3:02 PM)

The primary elections are in progress and not yet resolved. It seems counter productive for either Democratic Candidate to cast aspersions toward the other. If we really want a "United States", it should begin with our potential leaders being able to curb petty differences and focus on what is really important to our country and our people. There are many unresolved issues that have not even been mentioned let alone discussed by any of the Presidential Candidates. The "War on Drugs", the "War on Hunger", the "War on Poverty", real "Equal Rights", Rising Crime Rates including things like Identity Theft, Unethical Practices within and without the government, Gang related activities; the list goes on and on. Our country is so far removed from what the Founding Fathers envisioned it will take commitment, cooperation, and effort by not only elected officials, but the citizens of our Nation working together to fix it.

Clyde Massaro, Houston Texas (Sent Monday, March 03, 2008 3:45 PM)

<< Previous

SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

Your name, city and state (John Doe, Seattle, Wash.):

Your e-mail address (jdoe@msnbc.com):

Your website (it's okay if you don't have one):

Remember me? (We'll keep it private) Remember me?

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=724529