The Maverick Tribe

Perhaps in deference to her dignity in the final days of Mrs. Clintons dying campaign, the press is letting her lie repeatedly without correcting the record.  When Mrs. Clinton says, daily, that she is ahead in the "popular vote", this is not the "Clinton campaign's position", it is not their "argument", it is not even political spin.  The claim that she has more popular votes is an objective falsehood, and I simply can't understand why the media doesn't call it this.  Even if you ignore the debatability of what the "popular vote" actually means in many states' complex caucus systems, the notion that Mrs. Clinton is "winning" is flatly untrue because it counts votes cast in the Florida and Michigan contests.

In order to count the results of Florida and Michigan, they need to be actual Democratic (and democratic) primary elections.  An actual D/democratic primary election is not one in which the candidates have previously agreed that it wouldn't count.  It is not one in which no one is allowed to campaign, run ads, hold rallies, and generally make their case to the voters.  And it is not one in which many of the primary contestants do not even appear on the ballot for Christ's sake.  To say that Hillary Clinton is ahead in the popular vote is to say that no one would have voted for Barack Obama had he been on the ballot in Michigan.

It is legitimate and correct to say the DNC fucked this one up.  It is legitimate and correct to say that Michigan and Florida should have a say in the Democratic primary.  It is even legitimate and correct to say the Obama campaign should have cooperated more in efforts to stage a fair re-vote.  But it is neither legitimate nor correct to say that the votes that did happen give Mrs. Clinton any kind of popular vote "lead".  In fact, it is an outright lie.

And it makes me want to barf.