{"id":1973,"date":"2007-07-13T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-13T17:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/clinton-edwards-seek-to-disenfranchise-voters\/"},"modified":"2007-07-13T11:15:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-13T17:15:00","slug":"clinton-edwards-seek-to-disenfranchise-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/07\/clinton-edwards-seek-to-disenfranchise-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Clinton, Edwards seek to disenfranchise voters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hillary Clinton<\/a> and John Edwards<\/a> want to exclude some of the other Democratic presidential hopefuls from future debates, a move that would disenfranchise a number of Democratic voters. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Their remarks, caught on tape by a number of television networks following Thursday\u2019s NAACP debate in Detroit<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, are outrageous.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

As reported by the Associated Press<\/a>, the two spoke at the conclusion of the debate, most likely believing they weren\u2019t in range of an open microphone.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cWe should try to have a more serious and smaller group,\u201d Edwards told Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

She agreed, saying the debates were \u201ctrivialized\u201d by some of the other candidates and by having too many on stage. She then said she believed \u201cthere was an effort by both of our campaigns\u201d in the past to limit the number of candidates in debates.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to get back to that,\u201d she told Edwards. \u201c\u2026 Our guys should talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Edwards agreed.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

You can watch the exchange by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Excluding candidates would be a blow to Democracy. Who isn\u2019t serious, Edwards? Who are you to judge who is serious about being president and who isn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

And Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, as the first woman with a real shot at being president, should be sensitive to ensuring that all who want to participate in the process have that chance.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Would they exclude Dennis Kucinich<\/a> and Mike Gravel<\/a>, the constant thorns in their sides who repeatedly criticize the other Democratic contenders? Would they exclude Chris Dodd<\/a> and Joe Biden<\/a>, who are also in the bottom-tier of candidates?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What about our own Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>, who finds himself floating by himself between the first and second tier of candidates? Does he get to play?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s bad enough that the powers-that-be make it so hard for minor-party and independent candidates to participate in the election process. Now these two want to exclude those within their own party who don\u2019t have their ability to raise tens of millions of dollars? Doing so would disenfranchise the left-wing of their party, which is better represented by Kucinich and Gravel, in addition to all supporters of other candidates whose campaigns don\u2019t have as much cash.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Shame on Edwards, who this week has renewed his focus on combating poverty and giving a voice to the disenfranchised. Shame on Clinton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, whose gender has been disenfranchised since this nation\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Kucinich rightly ripped Clinton and Edwards.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cCandidates, no matter how important or influential they perceive themselves to be, do not have and should not have the power to determine who is allowed to speak to the American public and who is not,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201c\u2026 Imperial candidates are as repugnant to the American people and to our democracy as an imperial president.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> hasn\u2019t released a statement on the issue.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

By the way, you can read about the debate by clicking here<\/a>. Barack Obama<\/a> stole the show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hillary Clinton and John Edwards want to exclude some of the other Democratic presidential hopefuls from future debates, a move that would disenfranchise a number of Democratic voters. Their remarks, caught on tape by a number of television networks following Thursday\u2019s NAACP debate in Detroit, are outrageous. As reported by the Associated Press, the two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}