Hillary Clinton has made a last-minute change to her schedule for a stop in Detroit today to further try to persuade Michigan legislators to allow a do-over primary election.
She trails Barack Obama in both popular votes and elected delegates; without do-overs in Florida, where the proposal has been rejected, and in Michigan, where Obama was not on the ballot, she has virtually no chance of catching up. Not democratically.
Both states have been stripped of their delegates by the Democratic National Committee for holding primaries in January to try to increase their influence.
A Clinton spokesman said, “The Obama campaign is engaged in a passive-aggressive effort to disenfranchise the voters of Michigan and Florida.”
Reality check: The officials in Florida and Michigan who insisted on defying party rules — Michigan’s case ended up in court — are responsible.
The $12 million cost of a Michigan revote is one obstacle. Logistics and legality are others. The Legislature begins a two-week break at the end of the week and as of last night, the necessary votes to approve a re-do were said to be lacking.
March 20 update: The Michigan Legislature adjourned tonight without taking action on a new primary, effectively killing the proposal.
Also today, the National Archives will release 11,000 pages of Clinton’s schedules from her years as first lady. Journalists and a conservative watchdog group have sought the records, which detail meetings, speeches, trips and social engagements.
Clinton points to her years as first lady as evidence of her experience.
The Archives has said the delay in releasing the records is the result of the a time-consuming process to remove personal information, such as addresses, of third parties.
Update: The records have been available several hours now and they are very heavily redacted. See The Modern 18 1/2 Minute Gap at my other blog.
Related: Hillary Under Lock and Key
