Hillary Clinton, Robert Mugabe & her Zimbabwe Statement (fact Check)

A little over a week ago Hillary Clinton said the following in Florida: “We’re seeing that right now in Zimbabwe," Clinton explained. "Tragically, an election was held, the president lost, they refused to abide by the will of the people,”

This was of course her argument with regards to seating the Florida and Michigan delegates and counting the votes although common knowledge will verify the fact that she was in full support of the sanctions before her campaign predicament became apparent. However, being Zimbabwean and well versed in Zimbabwean politics, I would like to go ahead and take the opportunity to fully humor Senator Clinton and really draw a comparison to her political predicament and that of Zimbabwe.

To be frank, if this Democratic campaign was to be compared to Zimbabwe; Hillary Clinton would undoubtedly be Robert Mugabe. Mugabe, much like Hillary Clinton is someone who was always favored to win and more importantly, someone who felt entitled to the Presidency. Obama would undoubtedly be Morgan Tsvangirai, the new comer with “ no experience” running on the platform of Change promising a new brand of politics. Simba Makoni would undoubtedly be John Edwards, the politician that both sides like and would try to lure into their corner but would love to hate if they endorsed the other candidate.

Robert Mugabe’s ZANU faction has suffered defections as some of its members have lost faith in their brand of politics much like some of Hillary Clinton’s supporters have defected, Joe Andrew for example. When some of Mugabe’s party members left he called them “political prostitutes” and Dabengwa was then referred as someone who had “betrayed the revolution” much like Bill Richardson was called “Judas” by Carville although technically he had not said he was endorsing Clinton.

Clinton’s supporters as tend to be as easily hoodwinked as some of those who support Mugabe. Although I respect the passion these supporters have for their leaders, when evidence suggests that maybe the time is come to pack up then maybe some should heed the writing on the wall. Threats of vote disruptions and political deviance from Clinton supporters remind me of Mugabe supporters saying they will not support Tsvangirai and the democratic process unless its their leader at the helm.  The only difference is Mugabe’s supporters use violence while Clinton supports write threatening letters to Nancy Pelosi and promise to protest the RBC to get their way.

Here is your fact check. I am not a supporter of any of the Zimbabwean candidates and at no point did I think I would find myself arguing for Mugabe but here it is: to become president of Zimbabwe, a candidate has to attained the requisite threshold of 50 percent plus 1 votes; if the leading candidate fails to do so, The Electoral Act provides that in that event there must be a run-off between the two top candidates. Clinton maybe arguing that Mugabe is switching the goal post which would not be advisable considering the fact that she has been doing a lot of that since Obama became the front runner.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Any other time I would not sit down to write such a dull article, however, as a Zimbabwean, it bothers me when a political candidate uses the plight and suffering of the Zimbabwean people to push a political agenda that is not noble and purely vested in self interest alone. If she really was concerned about Zimbabwe she would have been outspoken about it when the trouble started in the 90s as Bill Clinton was hosting Mugabe at the White House.