Clinton Takes Early Edge in Puerto Rico Democratic Primary

[TomCADem]

Source: ABC News

Hillary Clinton jumped out to an early lead over Bernie Sanders in Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary on Sunday, as the front-runner drew closer to securing the number of delegates needed to win her party's White House nomination.

After a blowout victory Saturday in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Clinton is just 60 delegates short of the 2,383 needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press count.

There were 60 pledged delegates at stake in Puerto Rico, and Clinton would need a commanding performance to get them all. In early returns, Clinton led Sanders by more than a 2-to-1 margin.

"I'm for Hillary, girl," said 83-year-old Candida Dones. "I can't wait for a female president. She's one of us. She wears the pants. If we don't look out for our own interests, who will?"

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/puerto-rico-votes-clinton-closes-dem-nomination-39623229

[Actorvist]

1. if she wins all the delegates, she could clinch tonight

and tho I'd love to see that happen, IDK; but then she WILL clinch Tuesday. Game over.

[onehandle]

2. Presumptive Nominee!... Who am I kidding... MADAME PRESIDENT. nt

[Cryptoad]

3. Hey if we could win yuge in PR and get all 60 delegates

Madame Prez could declare to be the nominee tonite!...

Im so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

[antigop]

4. oh, good lord. Vote for her because she's female. Good lord. nt

[Gregorian]

7. Careful now

haha.

I"m surprised I can still post here.

[LanternWaste]

12. That is one, rather biased interpretation.

That is one, rather biased interpretation.

Literalism is often necessary to assuage soft and creamy brains with a nugget center when holding firm in second place.

[FlaGranny]

5. Looking out for our own interests because she's female?

Like that's a reason for voting for a president. Not.

[NNadir]

9. Ms. Clinton looks out for my interests, and I'm a old bald fat white guy.

If a news reporters randomly (or perhaps deliberately) picks out a person with those viewpoints, it neither reflects the views of the average Puerto Rican voter, nor the average woman voter who supports Ms. Clinton.

[FlaGranny]

11. Nothing against that lady

except that she is voting for the wrong reason. The sex of the candidate. The only reason for voting for any candidate for any office is that you think that person is the best candidate. If she believes that, then OK. Being a female, and an elderly one at that, I do not feel that Clinton is the better candidate. I prefer a liberal/progressive candidate who has always been a liberal/progressive to one who has suddenly taken on the attributes of one.

[NNadir]

13. And I prefer a candidate who is experienced and reasonable and living in the real world. n/t

[FlaGranny]

14. Your prerogative.

You prefer the status quo. I want progress before the end of my life (which isn't that far in the future).

[NNadir]

16. I'm no spring chicken myself and I have seen progress in my life, huge progress.

The problem with many so called "progressives" is that they are consistently negative, prominently one candidate who said he would run a "positive campaign" but apparently lied.

As for Progress:

We have an African American President, and I for one, remember a time when African Americans couldn't use the same water fountain as White Americans in this country...

There are thousands of things that have changed for the better here, and frankly your idea of "progress" and mine are very, very, very different.

Whining is very different than working.

Have a nice day.

[FlaGranny]

17. My idea of progress

is to improve Social Security, health care for all, renewable energy (no fracking), decent wages, rebuilding infrastructure, and improving the lives of all hard working Americans. My idea is to pay for these things by cutting military spending and cutting loopholes that allow the wealthy to avoid taxes. Are those things very, very, very different from your idea of progress?

If wanting all the above is "negative" and "whining", well, I'll be glad to accept the whining and negative labels you like to apply to those of us who have progressive values.

No one was prouder than me when we elected Obama. It was the best day ever, politically, in my household. He has done many things I am extremely proud of. He has also done some things I'd like to spank him for. Ms. Clinton has always been on the side of the things I'd like to spank the president for. Until recently, that is, when she has changed her tune to sound more like Sanders. Will she revert to her previous positions? I think so.

I can't imagine how FDR could be electable in today's Democratic party. They'd denigrate him for being a dreamer. Remember when they called those of us who were for Obama dreamers? Those were the Hillary supporters of 2008. Things don't change much.

[rogus]

6. Sure

let's all vote for a woman that most people don't trust and polls show will lose to Trump because she's a woman. If Eliz Warren was running I'd vote for her but she's not.

[newthinking]

8. If she claims it before the convention via superdelegates there will be a storm

And it will be so offensive that it will certainly cause a huge bump in the growing rift.
If she is wise she will wait.

Just saying.

Let the process finish.

[NNadir]

10. Any different than the routine "Bernie's gonna win" storm we've had here for months?

How's the effort to convert all those super delegates to Sanderism going?

[FlaGranny]

15. How fair is it, do you think,

for all those superdelegates to pledge support to someone before they know who else may run? How fair is it for the party to decide who they want to run and then do everything in their power to give preference to that person? The whole system is undemocratic. Sanders may still have lost or may have won with a democratic primary system, but at least it would have been fair.

Using the word "Sanderism" shows that you don't understand what the Democrats of my childhood stood for, believed in, and accomplished. Are you willing to allow those accomplishments to be diminished, if not completely negated?

[NNadir]

18. Actually Granny, I'm fairly certain that I'm roughly your age, and I have a very, very, very...

...different view of what it meant to be a Democrat stood for when I was a child. I consider myself an Eleanor Roosevelt Democrat, and I've done a considerable amount of reading about the history of those times.

I'm actually kind of amused when anyone tries to insist that Bernie Sanders is the reincarnation of FDR. He's no such thing. He's a tired old Baby Boomer who hasn't had an original idea since the 1960's.

I was recently informed in this space that "FDR would have voted for Bernie" because Henry Wallace was his VP in the early 1940's

I had this response:

I suggest you read history before speaking for FDR.

Bernie Sanders is no FDR, and he certainly is in in any case, in no position to tell anyone else what a Democrat should be since he isn't one and has never been one.

He, and many of his supporters have made it perfectly clear many times that they despise the Democratic Party.

I very much doubt that Mr. Sanders could do anything to accomplish change. In contrast to him, we currently have a highly articulate, energetic, and well educated President whose efforts to effect change have been thwarted by an overtly racist right wing. How an old cranky man, clearly less articulate, clearly less skilled, could do better escapes me.

And let's be clear, if you want to focus on change, how about working to prevent the change that will come to the United States if a virulent racist is elected President?

Change for its own sake is usually a disaster. Change for the better requires not only significant diplomatic skills, but high intelligence and, frankly, a good deal of luck. I am satisfied with the high intellect of the Democratic nominee for President and was very pleased to be one of the first to vote for her at 6:00 am this morning in New Jersey.

As for my generation - I presume our generation - I want no part of what we are famous for smoking.

Have a nice evening.

[FlaGranny]

19. All I can say is

Bernie is much more a Democrat than the right wing of the party.

This is my grandson's first election and he is devastated. There are millions of devastated young Americans today. I told my grandson not to feel too bad, as Bernie has helped change the direction of the party. Even Hillary says his candidacy has been good for the party. Bernie has already caused Hillary's message to become more liberal, and with the help of his supporters I hope the party becomes less influenced by corporate entities and fights against any agreements with the republicans to cut Social Security. When Obama and Hillary floated that idea, they lost me.

[NNadir]

20. This was my son's first election; he agonized even into the voting booth. He decided to vote at...

...at the last minute for Sanders, somewhat to my disappointment.

When my son woke up this morning, found out about Sanders ungracious reaction to Senator/Secretary Clinton's unambiguous win, he was cursing himself.

No father likes an "I told you so" moment, but Sanders has gone a long way to proving that he is an incompetent and self absorbed politician. Hopefully my son learned something about politics from this unfortunate event.

I very much doubt Sanders cares about anyone as much as he does about his self-exalted view of himself. He would have proved incompetent to protect social security or anything else because he doesn't know how to listen.

The vote yesterday was pretty damn loud, and it is appalling he couldn't hear it.

Obama did not decrease social security benefits, but had he done so, it would still be small potatoes compared to a refusal to combine forces to fight the first openly racist candidate for the Presidency probably since Woodrow Wilson.

Have a nice day.

[FlaGranny]

21. I don't know how you

could have seen that as ungracious unless you expected a concession speech. He's not going to do that until after DC. He promised his supporters he would go all the way to the end. Don't worry, he will not allow Trump to become president if he can help it. I just hope that when Bernie asks them to (he will), most of his supporters will vote for Clinton, I really do. I don't think I'm going to be able to convince my own husband to vote for her. I'm trying. One can only hope that the general electorate sees Trump as the candidate with more negatives. I fear that many Bernie supporters will turn to Trump for his economic "message" and many will just stay home. Out of at least 12 million voters, I wonder how many that will be. That's a lot of potential votes. It just scares me when so many people do not like her.

And no, Obama did not decrease SS benefits, but he did put it on the table for discussion. Now, after Bernie, both Hillary and Obama are talking about increasing benefits. And decreasing SS is no small thing to those of us who have no other income but SS. Bit by bit we are buying cheaper food, wearing more threadbare clothing, cutting entertainment and other things out of our lives, but most of all we worry about the expense of keeping our home in our old age. And I just realized that I didn't include health care expenses in that list, but I will now.

[NNadir]

22. Well thanks for the rare honesty, that Sandersnistas may turn to Trump.

Their "positive" campaign has been, for quite some time, nothing more than a Clinton bash, really just a litany of negatives.

As far as I'm concerned, Susan Sarandon definitely represents that wing(nut).

I think in your post you - whether intentionally or not - reveal several important points about the Sanders campaign: 1) Racism isn't such a big deal over there. 2) They don't know very much about economics, given that they could even see an economic message in Trump. 3) That there at least some Sanders supporters who would go so far as to imagine that Trump cares about poor people. If there is any senior citizen on this planet who thinks he'll care about threadbare clothing on an elderly person, they're definitely in trouble.

One thing that's very clear about Trump is that he finds poverty, disability and race to be an amusement; he's a latter day Nero.

Number 3 seems incredibly absurd; then again, it's somewhat absurd that anyone could take either Trump or Sanders seriously.

I'm not worried though that Trump will win. He's an awful fool; such a fool that even Bernie Sanders would benefit by comparison, albeit not by much.

As for concession speeches, that bitter, tiresome old man Sanders did nothing, absolutely nothing to stop the booing of the Democratic Nominee for President during his speech, which may have well been delivered on the planet Mars. It would have been a gracious thing to do. Yes, I expected a concession speech, and his failure to deliver it strikes me as delusional. I mean, how does one actually leave a campaign with even less style than Ted Cruz?

I don't believe that he will lift a finger to stop Trump. He's running now on hatred and wounded ego and is in fact, being childish. It's very clear that he can't stand the Democratic nominee, mostly because she's a winner. People our age, when we get childish, we need to worry a little about dementia. Maybe he could find a good doctor. Howard Dean may be free, and he's certainly in Vermont, although I doubt that Sanders would consent to Dean as a doctor, since Dean, who ran as an insurgent but one with actual and real principles, is a Clinton supporter.

Have a nice evening.

[FlaGranny]

23. My honesty is not "rare."

And, truth be told, anyone who votes for Trump must be out of their heads, but some people just hear what they want, and Trump talks about economics like he would really do something. Yes, I do suspect some misinformed, low information Bernie voters will vote for trump - but not in large numbers. My major concern is his supporters will feel hopeless and stay home. Most of us, I suspect, will vote for Ms. Clinton with little enthusiasm.

You really believe Sanders should have made a concession speech before the end? Hillary certainly didn't in 2008 did she? Sanders is still campaigning because of his promise, which he made many months ago, to run as hard as he can until the end.

Why can't Hillary's supporters be as patient and sensible as Ms. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden, Ms. Warren and many others. in regards to Mr. Sanders? Mrs. Clinton has a lot more sense than many of her supporters.

Anyway, I'm done with this thread. Bye, bye.