Can't compete ? Change the rules.

... to deny a re-vote. I wonder how that would play in the general? I can see it now, McCain campaigning and telling voters "And the Democrats care about you so much... they wouldn't let your vote count in their primary!". Ooooh, that would go down pretty well, wouldn't it? An even better test -- ask anyone in the street, after explaining in just a few words (now, now -- no bias when explaining, just give the facts) whether or not they should be given a re-vote. I'd bet pretty good money the answer would be yes. Why? Simple -- all Americans believe that everyone's vote should count. There's your answer right there. All that political junkies care about (yes, that's you I'm talking about) is whether or not their candidate wins, and fashions their arguments towards that purpose. So all this back and forth is just more noise and static. They should be given the chance to vote again. Otherwise, you guys are really asking for it in November.

The state party leadership in Florida and Michigan knew exactly what they were doing, and they went ahead and did it. They just have to sit this one out. Nobody is suggesting that the votes from those states be discounted in the general election, so the voters there are not disenfranchised. The machinations of state party leadership is not an issue of voting rights, it's pure power gaming.

"Nobody is suggesting that the votes from those states be discounted in the general election, so the voters there are not disenfranchised."

A-ha! But will the Democratic Party supporters in those states believe that their voices were heard if their delegates are not seated? What you are doing is simply giving the wavering voters in those states another reason to not vote Democrat this November. What so many people here -- especially the Obama supporters -- don't realize is that the political parties _do_not_own_ their voters. The voters change their opinions. That's why Republicans have won so many Presidential elections -- because the Democrats always shoot themselves in the foot at crunch time. This is looking to be another repeat of history.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

A poster upthread claimed that the FL voters were "disenfranchised" by their Republican governor. I'd like to know how accurate that is. Did the governor unilaterally set the date for the primary? Was the state Democratoc party not involved at all? I'd be surprised if that was the case, since it's not at all unusual to see states hold different party primaries on different days, or use different methods to determine a nominee.

IF the governor somehow did this on purpose to weaken the Democratic presence in the state, and there was nothing the state party could do about it, then that's one thing. And even then, I'm inclined to say "tough...you need to reform your system so your party doesn't get shut out."

But that doesn't seem likely. It's more likely that MI and FL both got power-hungry, and it backfired spectacularly on them.

I don't believe in changing the rules in the middle of the game! No.......Florida and Michigan should not vote again and should not be seated.....

I don't believe in changing the rules in the middle of the game! No.......Florida and Michigan should not vote again and should not be seated.....

Hillary is back in the fight and as I reminded folks in this space last month, not all Democrats are enamored with Senator Obama, as many in the media would have us believe.

Since my last post to this blog, I have spoken with many Republicans who have told me they went and voted in the Democratic primaries for Senator Obama. Not because they think he would make the better President, just the opposite. They told me they voted for Obama, because they think he will make the weakest candidate against John McCain in November.

Here’s another couple of thoughts to ponder. As a result of yesterday’s vote in Texas and Ohio, Senator Clinton was shown to win white working class voters. In the Ohio Democratic primary, 63 % of those voting had no college degree and voted for Clinton 55 to 44 percent. In Texas 57% of the voters had no college degree and they went for Clinton by the same percentage. According to these exit polls conducted by Edison/Mitofsky for the National Election Pool, The Washington Post and other news organizations, 8 in 10 non-college educated whites said they would be satisfied with Senator Clinton as the party’s nominee.

Taking this information one step further, 24.4% of the US population holds college degrees and the White race is 69.1 % of the population. If Senator Obama is truly going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party he is going to have to expand his base beyond the majority of the college educated, Black, 18-44 age group that he is now pulling.

Finally many of these younger voters are coming to hear Senator Obama at these huge rallies, but are then not turning out to vote in the primary or caucus. Many of the young people of our country are going to hear Obama as they would go to a rock concert to hear their favorite band. It's the hook-up, social networking experience they are attracted to, but once the band (Obama) leaves the arena, their enthusiasm fades and they don’t go to caucus or the primary.

Where will they be in November?

There are several reasons you can't let FL & MI vote again. In no particular order:

- FLY & MI broke the rules by moving their primaries to early dates. The DNC warned, fairly & well in advance, that if they did that they would be stripped of delegates as punishment. Calling the DNC's bluff, both states continued w/ their protest. As a result, neither state now has delegates. The DNC, if it is to maintain any sort of credibility, must enforce this penalty. Letting them revote is essentially saying "well, we punished you thinking that your votes wouldn't really matter, but now that they may matter, we're going to take away the punishment and, as a bonus, actually let you make the final decision on who wins the nomination". It's clearly not kosher from this standpoint.

- As everyone has already reported in the news, this constitutes changing the rules after the game has been played. Everyone agreed to the punishement at the time, and now they are unwilling to live with the consequences - which is, in itself, part of what is wrong w/ america.

- If Hillary wins after letting FL & MI in, even if there is a "fair" revote, it will be perceived as "stealing the election" - which, in the irony of ironies, is what the dems freaked out about so badly in 2000. This would disenfranchise literally half of the democratic party, which last I checked was a greater % than the people in FL & MI.