Now that Barack Obama’s nomination is a lock, it’s time to be magnanamous:
DENVER – Democratic delegates from Michigan and Florida were awarded full voting rights at the national convention Sunday, despite holding early primaries against party rules.
The convention credentials committee voted unanimously to restore the voting privileges at the behest of Barack Obama, the party’s presumptive nominee for president. The states were initially stripped of delegates for holding primaries before Feb. 5. The party’s rules committee restored the delegates in May, but gave them only half votes.
Democrats hope the gesture will strengthen their standing in two important battleground states while ending a contentious chapter of the nominating process.
“The only way we will be successful is if we are unified as a party and all Democrats know we are full partners,” said Chris Edley Jr., a committee member from California who introduced the resolution to restore Florida’s votes.
So, a dispute that began back in 2007 and threatened to turn the Democratic National Convention into something we haven’t seen since 1968 is resolved. Given the fact that Obama’s nomination has long been a lock regardless of how Michigan and Florida voted, this isn’t entirely a surprise and, it makes more sense than the 1/2 vote compromise that the DNC’s Rules Committee came up with in May.
