Hope and Fail

Hillary: 2000 U.S. election like Nigeria’s rigged elections

Who needs to send Joe Biden abroad when you’ve got Hillary Clinton?

Speaking in Nigeria today, the secretary of state answered a question about Nigeria’s election problems. In response, she said the U.S. still has lots to learn about democracy and referenced the 2000 Florida recounts as an example — implying there was hanky panky between then-candidate George W. Bush and then-Florida-Gov. Jeb Bush:

ABC News explains the situation in Nigeria thusly:

Nigeria is considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Wide-spread voter fraud was reported in Nigeria’s last general election in 2007, which saw now President Umaru Yar’Adua declared the winner. Accusations of missing ballot boxes, inflated voter counts and even some voters being shot at polling stations were made by opposition candidates.

International criticism of the election was swift and harsh. The Chief European Union election observer, Max van den Berg, said the election fell short of international standards, was poorly organized and lacked transparency.

“The process cannot be considered to be credible,” he told reporters.

And that’s the same as the Florida recounts?

The State Department tried to smooth it over, but it’s still a tenuous comparison. From the Guardian:

The state department stood by Clinton’s comments about elections, saying that she made the comparison to stress that, in spite of the arguments in 2000, there had been a peaceful transfer of power.

“The point she is making is that it’s about a disputed result and then the willingness of the candidates to accept a flawed result rather than, say resort to violence,” PJ Crowley, a state department spokesman, said.

Add this to her snap in the Congo, and you’ve gotta wonder how long it will take the administration to find a muzzle.