Letters to the Editor
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HIllary Clinton didn't give a damn about the Michigan re-vote until she needed it to catch up
Early on, Clinton was quoted as saying she agreed with not making the Michigan vote count and wasn't concerned about those delegates.
ONLY when Clinton ended up behind in delegate votes and needed to make them up did she start expressing concerns about the "disenfrancising" of the voters.
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Rules are rules
If we don't work hard to follow 'em, we all end up as fools.
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Florida and Michigan's votes don't count?
They violated the rules knowingly. No "do-overs," they knew what would happen. Those 366 delegates should be removed from the picture. Reduce the number from 2024 needed to win to 1841, done.
It's not like they won't be part of the action in November. Maybe if they fix things we'll let them play again in 4 years. But for now, they need to sit in a corner and think about what they've done.
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The views of the people are more important than rules
I don't give a damn if Michigan and Florida violated "rules". Those rules were bad to begin with, the primary system is unfair, and the whole reason we do this is because we believe in democracy -- rule by the people.
In the end what should be important is that the candidate chosen represents the view of the majority of voters. Delegates are an abstraction of that and allows a level of horse trading. Superdelegates are an aristrocatic attempt to limit democracy, and should be done away with. And any "rule" that stips away the ability for people to legitimately choose a candidate is unfair, undemocratic and unAmerican.
If there is no revote that should bring shame upon us all.
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To those that don't know...
The Michigan early primary was a republican decision.
Our once republican, and lover of Gerry Ford, Jennifer Granholm signed the legislation that created the mess because she backs Hillary Clinton.
Why did the re-vote die? Republicans. Pure and simple.
Why did Florida move their primary? Republicans. Why did their re-vote die? Republicans.
Here's hoping that the republicans have done enough damage and that at least the democrat candidate that they have chosen does end up beating John 'McSame as Bush' for president but I predict a vicious voting day in November with MUCH dirty tricks and nasty crap from the republicans. Looking at John McCain, oops, John McSame, he really needs all the help that he can get...
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Blame those States' Democratic Parties
Don't blame either of the candidates; they aren't the ones who broke the rules and knew the consequences of doing so. The rules are made based on what national party leaders believe is best for the presidential candidates at the national level.
Michigan and Florida are the ones trying to hose the national election by breaking the rules. Don't reward them. If the Dems lose the national election because they lose Florida and/or Michigan, again, blame it on the state party leaders!
Dipshits!
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Please
These people had their primary, they took steps to move it, that had their chance, now they're done. Michigan, and for god's sake Florida (yes, still angry at you for 2000), shut up and go away. You made this bed, now lie in it.
Voters, if you don't like it, vote OUT the people who did this the first time. Use your system (either state have props like CA?). But stop whining. What did you really think was going to happen when the primary moved??
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A voting technique
Michigan and Florida could hold a vote; A two-day unassembled caucus, with absentee mail-in voting.
Calling the technique a "caucus" is a misnomer. It would be a party run primary. Here is how to do it: Designate as many sites as necessary. Call for would be participants to show up at any hour from, say, 7 am to 9 pm on Saturday or Sunday. Maybe Friday night also. The voter shows his driver's license, fills out a form stating his/her name, address, tel# (optional), age (exact or 18 or older by Nov 8 (or is it 7?) and anyhing else the Mi/FL State Democratic Committee wants to get, require the voter to sign a pledge to vote for the Democratic nominee (unenforceable) and mark a ballot -- Clinton or Obama.
Absentees: Letter or fax. Email would probably be too easy to cheat massively. Make the letter or fax be handwritten. In cases where the voter is a long way away, require that there be a local contact that can be called to vouch for the voter.
Note that the idea is to force any cheating to be done retail as much as possible.
For the life of me, I can't see how it would cost much. Draw up the ballots, etc, on a word processer.
Polling places: Whoever would donate space. Maybe take your chances and have some caucus locations be in parking lots, with voting in tents if necessary.
It would be a great party builder. My city had to come up with a nominee for an umticipated city council seat. We had an unassebled caucus from 2 pm to 9 pm on a Saturday afternoon in June. It worked great.
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Obama Ignores the Will of the People
"Obama spokesman Bill Burton, meanwhile, had a statement of his own, in which he said, "We support a fair solution that allows Michigan Democrats to participate at our National Convention this summer, and we look forward to working with the Michigan Democratic Party and the DNC to achieve that goal."
The Michigan Democratic Party and the DNC, huh? What about the people of Michigan who want their votes counted? If Michigan and Florida delegates are not seated, based on the voice of the PEOPLE of those states - not the DNC - the Democratic Nominee will forever be tainted by this disenfranchisement of legitimate voters, particularly if the nominee is Obama, who continues to block any chance that the people from these two states can be heard. What a coward...
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Some lessons have to be learned the hard way
In retrospect, Granholm may be wishing she had never signed that legislation. While Republicans in both MI and FL certainly had a hand in planting the seeds that sprouted this mess, the state level Democratic Parties failed miserably and it's obvious they can't accept the responsibilty of thier folly. There were options available to elected Democrats in both states to make attempts to derail these measures before enacted and they passed the buck. Now they continue to take the cowardly route and blame Obama, Dean, and anybody else who had enough respect for the process to follow it's rules. It was laid out well in advance by the DNC what the consequences would be if MI and FL attempted to circumvent the process and that state elected Dem leaders needed to take a stand before rather than cry like babies after.
At least Dean held firm and showed a backbone on this one because if he hadn't, there's no doubt other states with weak Democratic legislatures would be pulling the same idiotic stunts in an endless charade of leapfrogging. Caving in to MI and FL would have been a slap in the face to the 48 states that did play it legit, and that definitely would have been an even bigger insult to the overall process. It's also obvious that a revote in both states isn't going to decide the delegate winner now regardless, so it's pointless to waste even more money especially if there's a chance it would be taxpayers that had to foot the bill a second time. FL is already having to make drastic spending cuts just to keep it's budget's deficit from spiraling out of control as it is and MI has been in the tank for years. Maybe MI and FL voters ought focus on that instead of whining that national leaders like Obama and Dean aren't bailing them out of mistakes that MI and FL state leaders failed to address.