Bill pitches popular vote
Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 6:00 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Matthew Berger
SAN JUAN, P.R. -- Bill Clinton also said winning the popular vote “will prove she’s the popular choice of the Democrats,” despite ending with less delegates than Obama, the former president said in an impromptu press conference on the streets of Old San Juan.
“And the party will have to decide whether they believe the caucuses -- where you get about one delegate for 2000 votes -- are more important than the primaries where you get one for 12,000,” he said. “And that this really astonishing race, where both have run amazing campaigns, they’re gonna have to decide how to resolve this.
“But at least she will have been able to make her best case there,” he said.
Clinton also reiterated his calls for delegates from Florida and Michigan to be seated by the Democratic National Committee when it meets this weekend.
“We should find a way to let everybody vote and have all the votes be counted and have a decent and honorable slate of delegations from Florida and Michigan,” Clinton said. “Those people are important to our future. It's hard to imagine how we bring America back without their involvement and it's hard to imagine how a Democrat could run for president without their support. So she, Hillary's for them to be seated and to be seated in a fair way all the way along. She's offered to go there and run again, that was turned down. She's offered everything in the world to help them, so I think it's up to the Democratic committee to do the right thing.”
Clinton was mobbed through the narrow streets of the Puerto Rican capital’s shopping district. Local police and Secret Service formed rope lines on each side of the street, and the former president and daughter Chelsea walked several block shaking hands.
The crowd was so loud that most of the president’s answers to press questions were inaudible. The campaign arranged for a second press conference several blocks away, so Clinton could promote Hillary’s trip back to Puerto Rico this weekend.
He said he was gratified by recent polls showing Clinton winning in Puerto Rico.
Earlier in the day, he and Chelsea visited with students at a photojournalism school for children. Flash bulbs illuminated the stage as most of the students took pictures of the president as he spoke and invited them to shoot Hillary’s Friday night rally in San Juan. At the end, he was presented a camera and began shooting his own images of the children.
