The increasingly negative tone of the exchanges between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, their staffs, and their supporters, isn’t the only bullet the Democrats need to dodge to avoid tipping the odds in John McCain’s favor. The brewing storm over the issue of whether the delegations from Michigan and Florida should be seated at the Democratic convention is the other obvious factor that could drive a wedge into the party that could cost them votes in November.
Florida and Michigan held their primaries early in clear defiance of the rules laid down by the Democratic party. The candidates agreed not to campaign in those states. Four candidates, including Obama, took their names off of the ballot in Michigan. Now the Democrats are concerned about alienating voters in those states if they are not represented at the convention.
If the delegates who were elected in those states' primaries are seated, it is clearly to the advantage of Senator Clinton, who “won” both primaries. If she were to get the nomination, helped by this sort of maneuver, there is absolutely no doubt that a sizable number of Obama’s supporters would not support her in November.
The primary discussion of what to do about this situation has focused on allowing some sort of “do-over” — mail-in ballots, caucuses, or even new primaries in both states. This is a bad idea for at least a couple of reasons.
First of all, any of these options will cost the party, at either the state or national level, a lot of money that could otherwise be used to try to win the general election.
In addition to the cost, a re-vote of any sort not only removes the punishment, stated in advance, for violating party rules, it actually rewards the renegade states. Florida and Michigan jumped the gun hoping to have added impact in determining the party’s nominee for president. With the contest for the nomination too close to call, giving them a re-vote at the end of the process gives them exactly what they were seeking to begin with - an out-sized role in determining the nominee.
Article comments
1 - Clavos
If the delegates from Florida and Michigan are counted under ANY scheme, it will be manifestly unfair to Obama, who observed the Party's rules to the letter in both states, and did not even set foot in either.
Hillary, on the other hand, came to Florida a couple of days before the primary, and though she did not openly 'campaign" per se, she DID hold and attend several fund raisers, which were widely reported in the press (of course), and thus served to not only help raise her profile here, but also to raise potfuls of money.
2 - Arch Conservative
True to form, as we are witnessing now with the battle between Osama Obama and the most hated woman in America, Democrats and liberals never pass up an opportunity to rmeind the nation that yes, they are in fact far more petty, spiteful, vindictive, vapid, and power hungry for the sake of power than Republicans and conservatives are.
Not that I mind one watching two different camps of moonbats wage war on each other. It's just that it would be so much more enjoyable if the GOP had actually picked someone that I don't loathe almost as much as I loathe Obama Bin Laden and Chelsea's mom.
As far as Clavos's remarks about fairness......The only thing the Clintons and their minions consider fair are those actions which would put the Clintons back in the White House.
In any event I think the Clinton's influence on American politics is in it's death throes. Either Hillary does not make it to the general or she does and loses to Mccain. Once America says no thank you to another Clinton administration they will be relegated to her having already reached the acme of her political career as a NY Senator and he going on speaking tours preaching to the choir that just couldn't get the job done for them in 2008.
I also think that Barack Hussein Obama is tained blue state meat as well. Between his aversion to the American flag, his wife's anti-American remarks, his audacity of inexperience, and his admiration for a racist anti-American preacher he can never agin be taken seriously as a presidential candidate.
So here's to the new American left. They can always be counted on to slit their own wrists.
Hip hip hooray!
3 - Jim Farrell
This proposal is a reasonable compromise.
Clearly it is in the party's best interest to have delegates from Michigan and Florida seated at the convention. However, the results of their elections cannot be counted, since they were not conducted fairly by any reasonable measure.
The party has the power to set its own rules for seating delegates. Michigan and Florida clearly violated those rules and cannot be excused by the party if the party is to maintain any authority.
If the convention is tainted by a bloody credentials fight, the eventual candidate will be hurt irreparably, harming all the voters in states which did follow the party rules.
4 - bliffle
It would seem to me that the only way the dems could acknowledge the FL and MI delegates is if they had benn punished AFTER the polling, but clearly, since the polling outcomes were queered by announcing them as null BEFORE the polling, they are inadmissable.
The dems have to stick with their decision or have an expensive do-over.
5 - Cannonshop
Well... sadly enough, I rather suspect that it's going to be a mess no matter what is done, though it would be rather refreshing if the Democrats stuck to their own rules for once, and trusted the "party faithful" in those states to back whomever the rest of the Party chose-it would show some class and maybe that elusive quality of Honour that seems to be so absent this year from BOTH parties.