Excerpt from:  The View from Blunderstone
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Huh? Hillary Won Michigan?

I was surprised (sort of) to hear Hillary Clinton proclaim victory in Michigan during last night's primary speech in Ohio.

Hillary says she's on a roll... and maybe she is.  She says she can win the important battleground states like Ohio and Texas... and maybe she can.

But she also proudly proclaimed victory in Michigan (and Florida, which is in a similar situation)... and that's at best a careful spinning and at worst a calculated mischaracterization designed to do mislead (i.e., a lie.)

Hillary did in fact get more votes than the other Democrats in the Michigan primary.  But the Democratic Party asked all candidates to not participate in that primary (as part of its own silly power struggle with the state to control the primary schedules).  At the last minute, Hillary jumped into the primary, but Joe Biden, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson respected the party request and stayed off the ballot.

So, it is completely unclear that Hillary would win Michigan against, say, Barack Obama.  Or if she would win in November against John McCain.

What is clear is that Hillary is a political fighter, willing to do what (whatever?) it takes to get elected.  Don't get me wrong, she would make a 10,000 times better president than Bush (as would any of the remaining contenders).  But I do find her campaign tactics distasteful and disappointing.

The whole thing reminds me of when a football team wins a big game after having a questionable call go their way.  Sure, they may have won anyway... even probably won anyway.  But there's always that nagging "yea, but...", as John Madden likes to say, that will never go away.


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