February 6, 2008 /

The MIchigan/Florida Mess

This is becoming more of a mess by the day: It never did made sense to write off the Democratic primary votes in Florida and Michigan – and it makes even less sense now that Super Tuesday has brought forth a muddle in the delegate race. Even the party official who stripped Florida and Michigan […]

This is becoming more of a mess by the day:

It never did made sense to write off the Democratic primary votes in Florida and Michigan – and it makes even less sense now that Super Tuesday has brought forth a muddle in the delegate race.

Even the party official who stripped Florida and Michigan of convention delegates now seems open to revisiting their status.

When Howard Dean was asked on Tuesday in a CNN interview if he would support ultimately seating nominating delegates from the two states that he had punished for leapfrogging the primary calendar, the Democratic National Committee chairman said, “You want everybody on board.” And he went on to announce that the delegate dispute “will be revisited by a credentials committee not controlled by me.”

In other words, a bruising convention-eve credentials fight is brewing – which means that Florida and Michigan, the states once derided as meaningless, could actually put Hillary Rodham Clinton over the top in the final delgate count.

It never did make sense to strip the states of their delegates – a very poor decision in my opinion. The problem is that the decision was made none the less. Candidates changed their tactics regarding the party decision and that effected the outcome. For example – John Edwards and Barack Obama had their names removed from the Michigan ballot.

I said the other day that the only way they could make the delegates count was to hold a primary in those states again. Give each candidate 30 days to campaign in the two states and go from there. If the party decides to just let those delegates in, as they stand, then there is going to be tons of problems for the DNC. As much as I hate to say it, I think race will also be brought into the argument against them, and I can’t really deny that argument. The DNC needs to choose very carefully in this decision.

More IntoxiNation

Comments