Letters to the Editor
Alkaline
Published Letters: 854 Editor's Choice: 30
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@karenn22
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I hope Hillary challenges it because it sets a rotten precedent.
Rewarding a candidate who seems to be gaming the system isn't a very good precedent either.
If you want to play "by the book", then you should support the party's original decision to not seat the FL and MI delegates. If you felt that the rules were not fair and needed to be changed, you should not have expected changes that would have merely created a different unfair situation.
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@sesanders
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It is obvious the vote had little to do with being fair as much as it actually tried to ease Obama into the nomination without offending Michigan and Florida.
Please suggest a solution to the FL/MI problem that you think would have been fairer.
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@sesanders
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Since Florida Democrats really had no choice because the Republicans moved up the date, I think it would be fair to seat all of them.
IMO, Florida was the less contentious situation because all of the candidates were at least on the ballot. I'd be more interested in hearing your suggested fix for the more difficult Michigan problem.
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@sesanders
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The part of the Michigan decision that Hillary's supporters seem to dislike most is that Obama got pledged delegates. How would you have dealt with the fact that Hillary was on the ballot and Obama was not?
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@sesanders
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Obama chose not to be on the ballot. That was his choice.
I beg to differ. The Democratic Party asked the candidates to remove their names from that ballot. All of the candidates except Hillary, Kucinich and Gravel complied. Kucinich says that he tried to remove his name but was unable to. Hillary declined to removed her name and explained that it didn't matter because the MI votes would not count.
None of this would have mattered if the original decision to not seat FL and MI had been sustained, but Hillary subsequently reversed her earlier position and demanded that the delegates be seated.
I find it curious that people who claim to want fairness would think that Hillary should get her delegates despite ignoring the party's wishes, but Obama should be penalized for following the rules.
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@KDelphi5950
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'd have done a re-vote--another primary , entirely-in Michigan, for sure. In FL, maybe! Obama voted (sued?) to block this.
I have seen a number of people claim that Obama "blocked" the re-votes, but I cannot find any record of legal or party rules action to stop the re-votes. All I can find are some objections from Obama's campaign regarding rules about who would be allowed to participate in re-votes.
What are you saying that Obama did to actually prevent re-votes?
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@Only The Truth
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]On Senator McCain, I’m not scared of him. He is former military as I am, and at least he is not lying to us. I feel we (the country) can make him work for us, and with a strong Democratic Congress, we will have good control.
I beg to differ. Bush has demonstrated that laws have little effect when criminals control the enforcement of the laws. Giving the executive to someone who has promised a continuation of Bush's policies will likely be disastrous for our country, despite anything Congress tries to do.
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@sesanders
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Obama should have left his name on, too, particularly when Hillary did.
I don't think that is a workable suggestion. Taking one's name off a ballot is an action, not taking one's name off is inaction. Actions are observable when they happen, inactions are observable only after the deadline for acting has passed. Obama would not have been able to know that Hillary would not remove her name until it became too late for him to remove his own name.
Are you suggesting that Obama should have anticipated Hillary's failure to honor the party's request?
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@sesanders
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Had I been Obama, I would have waited to see what everybody else did, particularly Hillary.
That's exactly my point. A rational course of action might have been for everybody to wait until everybody else had committed, which means the deadline would have passed without anyone doing anything.
Candidates who withdrew their names did so believing the other candidates would do likewise. Can you suggest a reason why Obama should have expected that Hillary would not withdraw her name?
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@Stellaa
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Wow, so why is Obama taking the votes when he chose to not even have his name on the ballot.
Obama didn't "take" any votes. The Rules Committee gave him some delegates to try to restore fairness after Hillary reneged on her pledge not to participate in the MI primary.
Hillary agreed to the original rules, and later reversed herself to demand that the delegates be seated. She claimed that the rules had produced a flawed result, and she wanted the rules changed. Unfortunately for Hillary, the committee declined to make only the changes that Hillary wanted. They were apparently unwilling to replace one flawed result with another flawed result that would have be very advantageous to Hillary. They did this even though Hillary supporters held the largest block of votes on rules committee.
If Hillary wanted to play by the rules, she should have stuck with her original decision to deny seating to FL and MI delegates. Hillary wanted the rules changed, and this is what she got.
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@sesanders
[Read the article: The new math in Florida and Michigan]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Many Hillary supporters have turned away from Obama because his supporters are so expert at reading Hillary's mind and attributing the most nefarious motives when she does anything to run for the presidency that might get in Obama's way.
I think you should be careful about who you call Obama supporters. I'm pretty sure that we have professional trolls posting here to try to foment discord. Trying to embarrass a candidate by pretending to be an obnoxious supporter is a pretty standard trolling trick.
I do not think we should attribute any comments posted in this forum to the candidates themselves. Neither candidate has any control over who posts here, and neither should be held responsible for the content of any posts.