Letters to the Editor
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@SobeOne
Howard Dean . . .
. . . must be demoted in disgrace at once. What a poor showing of leadership. To think that this guy had a chance at the presidency.
Why? Because he believes party rules should be abided by? Personally I think he's been fantastic in this process.
Our delegates must be seated as they were elected.
No, they the vote was contrary to party rules. There is no reason Florida should be allowed to blithely break party rules.
1. We had a historic record turnout in Florida.
Good for you.
2. Hillary not only defeated Obama, but also McCain.
She wasn't running against McCain. . .
3. The election date wasn't picked by the local democrats, but by the Republican dominated local legislature, under threat of veto by the governor if any date compliant with the DNC rules was picked.
Democratic leaders were approached by the DNC to try and work out a way to hold the election in compliance with the rules but they refused to work with the DNC. You can try and blame the Republicans, but the Democratic leadership had the opportunity to fix the issue, but wanted to go ahead with the unsanctioned vote (apparently thinking they would be allowed to do so if they just insisted on it).
4. Obama violated his own pledge not to campaign in FL, with a blitz of TV ads in all major cable networks.
This is just disinginuous and has nothing to do with anything. He ran national ads which he couldn't block from Florida. If the vote wasn't going to count there was no need to insure that national ads didn't air in Florida since it wouldn't really matter.
As a Floridian my pledge is that I would vote for McCain if Obama is elected without the delegates of my state. If he is elected with the delegates of my state seated as they are I will simply not vote. Hopefully, I will not have to face either scenario and vote for Hillary Clinton as the 44th president of the United States.
So basically you're saying your a selfish child.
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SOB
There was no election in Florida; there was a thin sham that no sane person would find binding on the DNC. No one ran. There was no local campaign. The results are as significant as a high school popularity contest- actually, less significant. A horse running around a track alone is not in a race. Jeez. Hillary "won" the same way I knocked out Joe Louis. The event never occurred and there was no opponent. Get a life. And if you screw America just because you have a five year old's mentality, that's just great. Hope your Wall Mart job works out.
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Death knell
It's all over if there's no longer any center to hold. I'm afraid we're witnessing the death throes of the Democratic party, this country, the whole shooting match. Ah well, I shall just continue to watch spring unfold and wonder how many more we're likely to see.
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Is it true?
Seriously, is it true that the Republicans picked the date and the Dems had to go along with it?
If so, that sheds a whole new light on things.
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I don't think it's particularly fair
...but let's just cut the damn delegates in half and seat them as voted. I'm so done with this. Obama's my man, but he can afford to lose a couple dozen delegates. And it makes him look like the bigger candidate for agreeing to something that's obviously not in his self-interest, for the sake of not disenfranchising Florida Democrats. I think the whole thing's a pile of crap, and I lay the blame straight at the feet of the state legislature, but the Demos can't afford to look like they care less than the Repubs about primary voters.
And I hope that every one of those Floridians who have been whining about Dean and the DNC for 2 1/2 months now votes out every one of the state senators and representatives who got them into this mess in the first place.
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@ Dana
The Republican majority in the state legislature pushed to move the date up, but hardly more than a handful of Democratic senators and representatives voted against the idea. So it was a Republican idea that the Democrats rolled over for.
Haven't we had enough of this in the last seven--hell, fifteen--years?
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Less than a handful
If I read this correctly, exactly 2 in the Florida Senate voted NAY, and zero in the house.
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=35049
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Vote
The DNC also was trying to work with the Florida Democratic leaders to hold a separate election within the specified time period. The DNC was even talking about funding it, but the Florida Democratic leaders weren't interested. They were as much interested in moving the primaries up as the Republicans.
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Is it true? Basically
I would just add to what has already been said. Although the Republican majority pushed through the primary date change in FL, it's clear that the Democratic leadership in Florida wanted to move up the primary date as well. They were convinced (like everybody else) of the conventional wisdom that everything would be decided on February 5th. So they wanted to weigh in before that and make FL a decider. Little did they know....
You can google around and find quite a bit of editorals on this subject.
I think Dean's big mistake was stripping all delegates. He should have cut them 50% like the Republicans and let the primaries go ahead. Everbody would have campaigned and voted, and a penalty would have been applied. We would be in a different mess instead of this one.
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@ MaddieP: I've Heard Friends Say As Much
My Democratic friends and former colleagues in Florida are also pissed-off about this. According to one of them, even though the DNC "disallowed" their primary and delegates, Floridians voted (in record numbers) because they really thought the DNC would understand that it wasn't the fault of Florida Democrats, but the Republican-controlled legislature, and delegates would be seated.
I know I'll get flack for this, but I think Florida's delegates should be seated, period. No redo; no "splitting" the delegates. If none of the candidates supposedly "campaigned" there (although I've read that Obama went to a big fundraiser in Tampa and purchased national advertising in January that would reach Florida voters), there isn't anything else to lose at this point, except resentment from Florida -- a BIG state that Dems need in order to win in November.
Why should Florida voters pay for what Republicans did to their primary date? It was obviously political on their part. Now Democrats there have to pay the price? What is Howard Dean thinking?