"I came here for the vote of every American, and our Democratic Party threw us down the tubes," New Yorker Harriet Christian said after yesterday's meeting of the Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee.
Senator Clinton is the "best nominee possible" for President, said Ms. Christian, "and the Democrats are throwing the election away. For what? An inadequate black male who would not have been running had it not been a white woman that was running for President! And I'm not going to shut my mouth anymore!"
The committee, convening to settle a dispute over the votes of delegates from Florida and Michigan, decided on a 19-8 vote to allow seating the two states' delegates at August's Democratic convention in Denver, recording half a vote for each towards the final tally for a party nominee. The votes of these delegates, 368 in all, were at first voided entirely after their primaries were held in January, earlier than party rules allow.
Hundreds of demonstrators, whose ranks included supporters of both Senators Clinton and Obama, gathered outside the hotel where the meeting was to take place to urge a full tally of Florida and Michigan's delegate votes.
"I'm tired of it," Floridian Sharon Clark said yesterday. "I want to go and vote and know my vote is going to count."
"The right thing to do is to seat all the delegates," added delegate Beverly Battelle Weeks. "Anything less is not democratic."
"I can be called white, but you can't be called black," Christian charged. "That's not my America. It's equality for all of us; it's about time we all stood up for it.
"I'm no second-class citizen. And God damn the Democrats!"
"And they think we won't turn and vote for McCain," Christian added. She closed: "Well, I've got news for all of you: McCain will be the next President of the United States!"
Video of Ms. Christian's exchange with reporters is available below.
"I came here for the vote of every American, and our Democratic Party threw us down the tubes," New Yorker Harriet Christian said after