The Clinton Texas Cover up?



Clinton won the Primary votes in Texas 51% to 47%. The caucus portion
of the "Texas Two Step" has quietly disappeared from the media and the
results have ground to a halt with about 40% reported. Obama holds the
lead in the caucuses, 56% to Clinton"s 44%.

Where are the results? How is it that everyone continues to talk about
Clintons revival from her "Win" in Texas when a clear picture has not
been released?

The answer might lie in two overlooked tidbits. The first is a rumored
memo obtained from the Clinton"s caucus organizing materials, and the
second is an obscure rule in the Texas Democratic Party Caucus process.

The Clinton campaign apparently instructed their volunteers to get
control of administrative roles in the caucuses. When I read this I
wondered, why? Surely they couldn"t change votes, and the chaos of
Nevada not withstanding, could not change the outcome in this way. As
it turns out, what they could change was the way the outcome was
perceived and presented by the media.

According to Texas Democratic Party Rules, those persons controlling
the administrative materials for each caucus are not required to phone
in the results until the State convention. Like much of the process, it
operates on the "honor system".

So, is it possible that the 40% reporting number in the Texas
represents the percentage of administrative packets secured by the
Obama camp who diligently reported their results, while the remaining
unreported results are being covered up by Clinton people?

Unfortunately, it seems like a strong possibility.

In Ohio, Clinton"s early lead continued to diminish over the course of
the evening, settling finally at a strong, but not overwhelming, 10
point lead. Her victory in Rhode Island was the flip side of Obama"s
win in Vermont and they effectively cancelled each other out. It was
the declaration of a win for her in Texas that shaped the narrative of
the reporting, and launched her "comeback". If the caucus results hold
up, the results in delegate allocation could easily counter Clinton"s 4
point primary advantage. There is a very good chance that Obama could
win more delegates out of Texas when the results are finally released.

In the days before Texas and Ohio, the Clinton campaign launched
underhanded attacks on Obama, including photos of him in a turban,
exploiting a now largely debunked NAFTA memo. (The meeting that
generated the memo in question was a month earlier, long before Ohio,
and the Clinton camp has now been identified as having told the
Canadians to take her position "with a grain of salt".) On top of this
they ran the old "Red Phone" ad, a classic scare tactic, and tried to
embarrass the media with claims of bias in against her. The results
turned the momentum in the closing hours toward Clinton. Would this
have been enough to create the impression that she had made the
comeback without a "Win" in Texas?

It"s hard to gauge. What isn"t difficult to see is that the Clinton
camp is, in fact, willing to stoop very low in their effort to win the
nomination.

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Mark Jay Flanders