This is getting annoying. Maybe it's because my parents, both in their 70s (very early 70s, I better add) waited in line outside of Portland High School for two hours in the snow to get to their caucus.
The Clinton campaign has been spinning away the loss in Maine, blaming the caucus system. The candidate herself bashed caucuses again yesterday
Clinton argued that caucuses are "primarily dominated by activists" and that "they don't represent the electorate, we know that."Someone on the campaign staff should have told Senator Clinton that Maine's Democratic caucuses don't just cater to "party activists." In order to increase participation, Maine Democrats actually allowed absentee balloting. That would seem to negate the Clinton campaign's spin at least for Maine -- but I haven't see anyone in the traditional media rebut the point.
More after the jump... Thousands of Maine Democrats availed themselves of the absentee voting opportunity according to the state party. So, Maine isn't just a run-of-the-mill caucus and that Clinton talking point fails:
[Howard] Wolfson was asked at one point why Hillary wasn't more competitive in Maine, where the demographics seemed to favor her. His short answer: It's a caucus. We do better in primaries, where the maximum number of voters can show up and express their preferences.Rep. Jim McGovern made the same claim in Maine on Sunday:
US Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, who addressed caucus-goers in Sanford and Freeport on Clinton's behalf, said the caucus format, which requires voters be present at a prescribed time and stay for as long as two hours, gave Obama an edge.People didn't have to spend two hours at the caucus. They could have voted absentee. Either the Clinton campaign didn't know that -- or they couldn't round up the votes.
"The people that Hillary’s reaching out to, those are the people who can’t afford to stay there for two hours," McGovern said. He said Democrats had "two great choices" but that Clinton had more experience.
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