Every State Counts

I live in California, a big, diverse state and an electoral prize. If I lived in one of the two dozen states that Hillary Clinton has claimed don't count in the nomination process, I'd be offended. Actually, I still am.

Solis Doyle's departure capped a rough weekend for Clinton after she lost the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska, Washington state, Maine and the Virgin Islands to Obama.

She said she never expected to do well in any of those contests, even though she had been favored to win Maine. Clinton repeated her criticism that the caucus system is undemocratic and caters mostly to party activists.

As for Louisiana, "You had a very strong and very proud African- American electorate, which I totally respect and understand," Clinton said.

She noted that the states she won on Super Tuesday were all states Democrats must win to succeed in the general election. Many of the states Obama won that night, such as Alaska and North Dakota, would not be competitive for Democrats next November, she said.

Clinton was up 57-10 in Maine at one point. Furthermore, their caucuses allowed absentee balloting, which kind of blows away that whole "undemocratic" argument (which I didn't hear her say a lot before Iowa or Nevada). "Caucus" is another word for "election paid for and run by the Party," and the rules are often very different from one to another. They are party-building exercises, important for the Democratic infrastructure, and most crucial, IN PLACE AND WELL-KNOWN before Clinton ever got into the race, so it's not exactly a shocker.

Furthermore, you do tend to campaign the way you govern. So Clinton is essentially saying that she'd only care about the big Democratic states in her Administration, is that what I can gather? I feel like we need to build the party everywhere so that we're not confined to this narrow set of states, and Obama's activism in these currently red states is going to leave infrastructure in place for decades. One looks like he's running to be the President of all Americans; the other is running to be President of elites. I mean, that's certainly what it looks like, and I REALLY don't want a President denigrating the work of the activists of his or her own party.

Last night at a forum Sen. Clinton claimed that Obama might not be willing to fight for Democratic values. Should we ask Democrats in Maine about that? Washington? Nebraska? Louisiana?

That really irks me.

UPDATE: Apparently Wisconsin's largely white, working-class female vote doesn't matter either.