As Goes Clinton, So Goes the Party?
Congratulations to Hillary Clinton on her wins yesterday. I wish she had won with politics that didn’t involve aligning with John McCain by holding herself out as some kind of ‘experienced’ leader. After all, McCain can at least lay claim to military know-how, what it’s like to be tortured, be held prisoner, and the inside guts of banking, vis a vis the Savings & Loan crisis.
Why do I want a member of my party comparing herself to him? Answer: I don’t.
But onward. Clinton has promised a battle over the Michigan and Florida primaries. This whole issue really drives me crazy, because I believe that everyone should have a say, and disqualifying the delegates was a dumb move to begin with, for exactly the reason we see here. Yes, they moved their primaries up, but the candidates began their primary run in plenty of time to accommodate an earlier run, and now we have a divisive mess on our hands.
Howard Dean says, “Deal with it.” and lays out the landscape. Either re-vote or wait till the convention and we’ll allocate them accordingly. Those are the options. Here’s part of his statement:
The rules, which were agreed to by the full DNC including representatives from Florida and Michigan over 18 months ago, allow for two options. First, either state can choose to resubmit a plan and run a party process to select delegates to the convention; second, they can wait until this summer and appeal to the Convention Credentials Committee, which determines and resolves any outstanding questions about the seating of delegates. We look forward to receiving their proposals should they decide to submit new delegate selection plans and will review those plans at that time. The Democratic Nominee will be determined in accordance with party rules, and out of respect for the presidential campaigns and the states that did not violate party rules, we are not going to change the rules in the middle of the game.
“Through all the speculation, we should also remember the overwhelming enthusiasm and turnout that we have already seen, and respect the voters of the ten states who have yet to have their say.
The Florida response seems to lean toward fighting it out at the convention. The Michigan Democratic Party has not weighed in yet.
I have a real problem with seating any Michigan delegates without a re-vote. Florida, not so much, since all of the candidates’ names were on the ballot. But only Hillary Clinton left her name on the ballot in Michigan, guaranteeing that if a vote were cast for a Democrat, it would be cast for her. There is no other word for that than ‘cheating’.
The questions we hashed out today on Newsgang Live (until unexpected events caused me to have to drop off)are: Is going all the way to the convention good for the Democratic Party? Will Obama have to go negative on Hillary Clinton to regain an advantage? Does fighting it out give McCain an advantage?
What do you think?
Technorati Tags: election2008, Clinton, Obama, Florida, Michigan, delegates