Letters to the Editor
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MI and FL
These states' own party officials disenfranchised the states' voters. It wasn't Barack Obama's campaign or anyone else. FL and MI party poobahs broke the official rules. And this is what happens when you break the rules, just like in an athletic race: You get thrown out!
Next time, FL and MI's Democratic Party officials, and any other states', need to keep the official party rules in mind. They are compulsory. No one gets a pass for breaking official rules. This issue is only consequence to those passionately in favor of Hillary Clinton's candidacy because they now believe they are being forced to grasp at straws. She's losing.
FL and MI's own party officials broke the party rules well in advance of the contest! Everyone had agreed to these rules! The states broke them and were disqualified! They got thrown out! Get over it! Everyone has to play by the rules! This is why Obama, with approximately 150 more pledged delegates, will win the nomination! Even in politics one must win by playing by the rules.
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@slc
Well, guess what, some of us aren't exactly crazy. Yes, the platforms are pretty close. But ability to carry out what's promised in those platforms? Some of us believe Hillary is head and shoulders above Obama as far as governing ability goes. And therein lies all the difference. What if I believe that Obama doesn't have what it takes to be a sound president?
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@Mark
You forgot a pretty salient point re MI & FL: Obama has been doing his damndest to make sure they disappear from the primary map.
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Oh, slcgrad...
Even if we all agreed to give Clinton 100% of the votes and delegates from FL and MI, it wouldn't satisfy the likes of Kate, Shawn, W.E.S., lolcait, etc. They'd scream she should get double the original votes and delegates because... well, because... because she just should, damnit!
Hell, earlier today Kate said:
Obama may be slightly, yes slightly, ahead in the numbers - if you discount FL & MI, but if you factor in those voters (and there are legions) who would not have voted for Obama had they known more about him, then Hillary would almost undoubtedly have won the game long before this.
That's right, we now need to count "legions" of votes for Clinton that went to Obama in earlier primaries but would now go to Clinton because, supposedly, earlier voters now know more about him. *sigh*
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FL and MI will not make up the difference even if they're counted
Even if you give Clinton her 105 Florida Delegates and her 73 Michigan delegates, she would have to win the remaining primaries by 70 to 30 to get more elected delegates than Obama. Wins by the margins of Pennsylvania and Indiana will not get her close enough for Michigan and Florida to ever matter. Her only hope is some sort of super-delegate sweep that effectively nullifies the primaries.
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@Shawn
A handful of ads on CNN is not the same as campaigning in a state. The margin in Florida would have been different if Obama has been able to utilize his strengths: rallies, organizing, and GOTV efforts. I know the difference may be lost on people whose candidate was running a top down campaign.
It never fails to astonish me that Clinton supporters, whose candidate was First Lady for two terms and the two term Senator from New York (or "where I lived before I retired" as Floridians refer to it), cry foul that Obama ran _Nation Wide_ advertisements on a National Cable Channel in an attempt to raise his name recognition prior to Super Tuesday and didn't make Herculean efforts to have them blocked from cable subscribers in Miami.
Stop crying. This nominating contest was Hillary's to lose right from the start. Her biggest booster was a popular two term president. She had hundreds of millionare Hillraisers to fuel her campaign. She should have walked away with the nomination if she was really as qualified for the job as she would like us to believe.