Much of the discussion today on the Sunday talk shows centered on what to do about the twin problems of Michigan and Florida:
Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, warned today that a divisive nomination battle could cost Democrats the presidency in November.
“[T]he only thing that can beat us is that we’re divided,” Dean said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I have to run these rules so that the losing side feels they’ve been treated fairly.”
With the Democratic nomination battle largely on hold ahead of the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, Dean was one of several officials who addressed today whether Florida and Michigan should hold new votes so that their delegates can take part in August’s national convention.
Both states held primaries in January, in defiance of an election calendar set up by the committee Dean chairs. In response, the DNC said that Florida and Michigan delegates would not be seated at the convention. With Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) in a close race, those delegates now hold more significance.
Clinton wants the January elections, which she won, to count toward her delegate count. Alternatively, she wants new primaries in one or both states. Obama’s camp wants the delegates apportioned, either 50-50 or by another standard, but hasn’t ruled out favoring a new vote.
Dean expressed support for a new primary — possibly conducted through the mail — at least for Florida.
“It’s comprehensive. You get to vote if you’re in Iraq or in a nursing home,” Dean said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “It’s not a bad way to do this.”
It’s also open to fraud, abuse, and many of the same problems that Florida experienced during the debacle of 2000.
From a practical point of view, though, it’s becoming clear that there are two options that the Democrats simply can’t allow to happen.
First, the idea that they would go to their convention in Denver with delegations from only 48 of the 50 states is just absurd. Rules or no rules, it would do nothing but generate incredibly bad press, protests at the convention, and, most likely, resentment from the voters of both states in November.
Second, the DNC cannot agree to the Clinton Campaign’s idea of simply seating the delegations as they exist today. It would be unfair to Obama and it would be unfair to voters in both states who decided to stay home precisely because they were told that their votes wouldn’t count. Most importantly, because it would give Clinton such an obvious advantage in delegates it would likely be seen as unfair by Obama’s supporters and could hurt the party in November.
That leaves two options for the Democrats. Either they re-do the vote in both states — whether it’s through a primary or a caucus, or they apportion the delegates without another vote in some way that is fair to both campaigns (i.e., in some way that doesn’t really make a difference in over all count of delegates). The second option, while it would seem simpler than redoing the vote, poses the same risk of alienating voters.
Given all of that, I’ve got to think that, at some point, we are going to see new votes in Florida and Michigan, probably some time in June, and that the Democrat campaign is going to stretch on for at least an other three months.
March 9th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Howard Dean didn’t have to strip all the delegates, and with Florida, maybe he shouldn’t have. Check out the video we have up today at MobLogic (http://www.moblogic.tv/video/2008/03/08/how-the-dems-screwed-florida/) for the real scoop.
March 10th, 2008 at 5:39 am
Democrats Digging Deeper with Florida Mail-In Re-Vote…
This idea may dig the democrats even deeper into the morass they find themselves in. If people in Palm Beach County couldn\’t figure out a butterfly ballet, the same type of ballet they had been using for years without incident prior to the 2000 elec…
March 10th, 2008 at 5:46 am
This idea may dig the democrats even deeper into the morass they find themselves in. If people in Palm Beach County couldn’t figure out a butterfly ballot, the same type of ballot they had been using for years without incident prior to the 2000 election, then what makes them think they will be able to fill out their ballots, put a stamp on it, and send it to the Democrat party? Doing this through the mail is an invitation for fraud and mischief. There would be no way to verify the authenticity of the ballots. The fact that the ballets would have to be counted by hand by party operatives brings to mind the fiasco in 2000 when you had guys with thick glasses looking through magnifying glasses trying to divine the intent of the voter. Anyone with a brain can see the outcome of this. This is a no win non-solution because if Obama wins the re-vote then Hillary is going to court and probably will use many of the same arguments that Democrats decried in 2000. She will demand that the original delegates be seated because, even though the Party refuses to recognize them, they were legally elected under Florida law. There is a real potential of having two sets of delegates each for opposing candidates demanding to be seated at the Convention which would dig an even deeper hole.
How this scenario would become an absolute disaster is if Hillary wins the write-in elections in Florida and Michigan. If that happens then the word sham would blaze forth out of Al Sharpton’s megaphone like the shot heard round the world. Every African American in this country would rightfully see this entire affair as a conspiracy by the Democratic party to steal the nomination away from Barack Obama and hand it to Hillary. If this happens and Hillary is given the nomination as a result of these re-votes, aided and abetted by the super-delegates there will not only be riots in Denver, or just at the Convention center, but in every single major city in these United States. Imagine the terror that broke out in Los Angeles after the Rodney King, Police Trial. Now imagine that same thing happening in Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Memphis, Los Angeles, St Louis, Washington DC, New Orleans, Raleigh, Miami, and many other cities? There will be burning, rioting, killing, looting, shooting, and maybe even a brick thrown here and there. It will be absolute mayhem unparalleled in human history. This is how deep of a hole the Democrats are digging themselves, and for the entire country for that matter. They are digging deep. A new election is a disaster waiting to happen. The only way out of this quagmire by the Democrats is to keep with the rules they set out in the first place. They should not be changing the rules mid play because the candidate that has them by the testicles is demanding it.
They are digging ever deeper. digging their own political graves.
March 10th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
[...] an easy thing for an Editorial Board to say, as I noted yesterday, it seems just highly impractical to imagine that a major political party, especially the Democratic [...]