Half of Puerto Ricans Won't Vote

why should they vote in the primary when they can't vote in the general election? i don't blame them. keep in mind, when writers rumble about "popular vote," they don't include caucus voters. but even without the caucus voters, obama still leads the popular vote so i don't get why hillary's running around saying she leads in the popular vote.

salon: So even though Hillary, Bill and Chelsea Clinton have spent enough time wandering around Puerto Rico over the last few weeks that you could easily confuse them with tourists who got a good rate on a family vacation package, it's looking like the turnout for Sunday's primary won't hit the mark Clinton needs to take a lead in the popular vote before the Democratic campaign finally lurches to an end on Tuesday. She may not even win with the kind of blowout margin that she's racked up in recent primaries in West Virginia and Kentucky, despite her familiarity among islanders built by Bill's eight years in the White House and her six years representing more than a million nuyoricans in the Senate.

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Some Clinton backers had been counting on Puerto Rico as a popular-vote mother lode, with its 2.4 million voters giving Hillary enough of a plurality to change the conversation, however briefly. As Clinton surrogate Rob Reiner told Salon in April, "People don't understand that Puerto Rico has a lot of voters ... We can pick up 400,000-500,000 there with the popular vote."

That kind of number could give Clinton a national popular-vote victory over Obama even without including Florida's votes. But that number depends on both a turnout and a Clinton margin that may not be achievable. Clinton supporters have grasped at the fact that 2 million voters showed up for the commonwealth's 2004 gubernatorial election and at the lopsided margins among Latino voters in earlier primaries. But a poll in Wednesday's El Vocero newspaper put Clinton up just 51 to 38 in Puerto Rico, and 50 percent of the respondents said they didn't plan to vote at all. Even counting Florida's outlaw primary, Obama leads Clinton by 163,000 votes nationwide, so she needs to win by more than 16 points, with turnout topping 1 million, to make up that ground on Sunday.

Bill Clinton Makes Last Ditch Scramble for Whitehouse

bill has stars in his eyes and can't wait to get back in that big white house. but it ain't going to happen.

he says there is a big "cover up" against hillary's chances of winning. he's saying superdelegates are being bullied to choose now.

i think bill and hill and their die-hard supporters are suffering a mass delusion. the incredibly shrinking clintons aren't what they used to be. nah, hill and bill know exactly what they're doing. they're using twisted logic to dupe people, exploiting those who don't know any better. her campaign has failed in strategy from the start because it discounted the rules. ever since, hill and bill have been trying to change the rules as they go.

on another note, i heard on npr today that although puerto rico is deemed as hillary's territory, it may not be so. puerto ricans view themselves as "mulatto," of mixed heritage, and identify with obama in that regard, according to a political analyst there.

interesting thing about puerto rico is it can vote in the primary but not in the general election, even though they are U.S. citizens, because it is considered a U.S. territory. some in puerto rico would like that changed. others want to become independent. the analyst made another interesting point. ironically, it might be puerto rico, not allowed to vote for president, that might give obama the delegates he needs to win when it votes on june 1. montana and south dakota go to the polls on june 3.

cnn: "I can't believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out," Clinton said at a South Dakota campaign stop Sunday, in remarks first reported by ABC News.

Clinton also suggested some were trying to "cover up" Sen. Clinton's chances of winning in key states that Democrats will have to win in the general election.

" 'Oh, this is so terrible: The people they want her. Oh, this is so terrible: She is winning the general election, and he is not. Oh my goodness, we have to cover this up.' "

Clinton did not expound on who he was accusing.

The former president added that his wife had not been given the respect she deserved as a legitimate presidential candidate.

"She is winning the general election today and he is not, according to all the evidence," Clinton said. "And I have never seen anything like it. I have never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running."

"Her only position was, 'Look, if I lose I'll be a good team player. We will all try to win, but let's let everybody vote, and count every vote,' " he said.

The former president suggested that if the New York senator ended the primary season with an edge in the popular vote, it would be a significant development.

"If you vote for her and she does well in Montana and she does well in Puerto Rico, when this is over she will be ahead in the popular vote," Clinton said.

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