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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Compromised?

posted by on March 13 at 14:34 PM

The Page at Time has news of a possible—repeat, possible—compromise in the Michigan-Florida delegate battle:

–Michigan’s 156 delegates would be split 50-50 between Clinton and Obama.

–Florida’s existing delegates would be seated at the Denver convention—but with half a vote each. That would give Clinton a net gain of about 19 elected delegates.

Why do I think most of the parties involved won’t actually go for this?

RSS icon Comments

1

No kidding. This is just going to make things worse, NOT better.

I hope that the Democrats realize that the primary system is substantively broken, and that this is the catalyst they need to start making wholesale changes. This isn't "democracy"... it's a circus.

Posted by bma | March 13, 2008 2:39 PM
2

democracy has always been a circus here.

no way hillary gets 19 delegates for florida. it wasn't even a contest. so if "most" of the parties = BHO, hell no they won't go for this.

Posted by max solomon | March 13, 2008 2:50 PM
3

I don't understand, why does that cunt get any fucking thing from Florida?

Posted by AMB | March 13, 2008 2:55 PM
4

because it's stupid, arbitary and undemocratic.

Hillary has informed the Obama campaign she could take a re-vote in both MI and FL.

Why isn't Obama saying that's okay?
Instead, he's acting like the current situation denying voting rights to millions of Americans is preferable.

Sure there are problems in any re-vote but it's better than dissing millions of voters in FL and MI.

Both sides need to be flexible. HRC is being flexible by saying a re vote is okay. Obama seems to have no positive solution on this except to rely on insider party establishment rules and decisions that fucked with people's right to vote.

This is why all this pretended outrage about who said what without being sufficiently sensitve blah blah blah is bullshit.

Millions of Democratics, no vote that counts, they're left out in the cold, Clinton open to a positive solution, Obama not.

Time to show some change and unity and hope.

Posted by unPC | March 13, 2008 3:00 PM
5

Tell Hils to suck it up and have a caucus.

A primary vote now would disenfranchise all the potential new voters, and would allow radical extremist religious churches to hold Vote Parties to force women and teens to vote the way the church "elders" want them to. Since it would be a mail-in ballot.

Posted by Will in Seattle | March 13, 2008 3:02 PM
6

and half a vote each for Florida delegates-- that's even worse than the 3/5 of a man disgusting inequality in the original US constitution.

Posted by unPC | March 13, 2008 3:04 PM
7

There are quite a few reasons why I think this plan wouldn't get off the ground. For one, Clinton's entire motivation regarding Michigan and Florida is to surpass Obama in delegates. Why would she settle for a half-half compromise for Michigan and 19 delegates for Florida?

Second, voters in both states are complaining that they didn't bother turning out because they believed their votes would be irrelevant.

Posted by Gabriel | March 13, 2008 3:09 PM
8

the dnc was wrong from the beginning. if anything we should let places like florida and ohio be at the forefront of the primary process, since those are super-swing states that we really need to court. revoting sounds fine, if they agree to do it in may or june then both parties have equal chance to campaign there. i don't really care how they do it, but voting by mail is what a lot of us do in washington, and it's the best way i've seen to vote yet. hell, send election workers from WA and OR down their to run the election if you think that mail voting won't work in FL. Or if its too expensive then just seat the delegates in FL and revote in MI. FL seemed a little fair-er.

Posted by um | March 13, 2008 3:12 PM
9

The Dem leaders/flock of Florida are stupid!!! Forget half a vote. They deserve nothing. The GOP owns FL, and if you think the state is going to vote for your Muslim and/or bitch, think again.

Posted by McCain/Crist '08! | March 13, 2008 3:13 PM
10

uh... ickes was one of the people who voted to strip florida of its delegates, without protest from clinton. she broke a pledge to not campaign in florida. she also allowed her name on the michigan ballot, even though edwards and obama both stuck to their promise to remove them. regardless of how you might "redo" anything, it's not going to be fair.

i was fully prepared to accept clinton as the possible democratic nominee, but i have lost every remaining bit of respect that i ever had for her and her campaign.

Posted by skye | March 13, 2008 3:18 PM
11

Why should Michigan have to settle for 50-50 while Florida, although getting diminished delegates, gets to do it proportionally?

Posted by keshmeshi | March 13, 2008 3:19 PM
12

well, in mich obama wasn't on the ballot. so you are kind of stuck there. i'm okay with a re-vote. but would like them to ensure people who voted in the rep vote didn't also participate. i'm okay with a new caucus as well.

i don't think they deserve another shot after sitting by silently *after* their botched primary and only speaking up now... but if it helps put aside the animosity, go for a fair re-vote.

Posted by infrequent | March 13, 2008 3:25 PM
13

Obama: Man of the party establishment and disenfranchising enabler.

Now there's some hope!

I'll take the Raging Bitch over the Sanctimonius Douchebag, please.

Posted by Donolectic | March 13, 2008 3:36 PM
14

Please delete #13. It's extremely offensive.

Posted by Fitz | March 13, 2008 4:04 PM
15

Giving in to FL and MI just removes any incentive anyone has to not jump the queue next time. You're going to end up with 2012 primaries in February 2011, which is just sickening. You're rewarding bad behavior. You're also removing any incentive to fix the Democratic Party's hopelessly snarled process. Look at the joke that's happened in this state, or in Texas, where they've officially announced they have no idea how to count the caucus ballots and are stopping trying.

Posted by Fnarf | March 13, 2008 4:05 PM
16

There is no rhyme or reason to this. Splitting Michigan 50-50 effectively does NOTHING. Giving Florida 1/2 delegates is completely arbitrary.

Stupid. Either redo both, or honor the original rules. Florida and Michigan voters whining about DNC disenfranchisement need to look to their own representatives that allowed it to happen under clearly stated rules.

Posted by w7ngman | March 13, 2008 4:12 PM
17

#9, I noticed your comments have been getting more and more offensive. I'm thinking you finally realized that you fail in life as a troll and decided to ramp it up a bit.

Posted by w7ngman | March 13, 2008 4:24 PM
18

I think they should round up all the dumd fuck motherfuckers who made the decision to move the MI/FL primaries up in the first fucking place and make THEM come up with a solution. At the very least, no news cast or article should be produced without listing those assholes first. As in:

"because of the following douchbags, the debate about the MI/FL delegates rages on..."

Posted by Mike in MO | March 13, 2008 4:28 PM
19

Oh, and the first thing - the very first thing - any "compromise" needs is a REMOVAL of all Florida and Michigan's superdelegates.

Every.

Single.

One.

Payback's a bitch.

Posted by Will in Seattle | March 13, 2008 4:29 PM
20

Fitz - what part did you find offensive? I think there are plenty of people here on the Slog who would call Hillary a raging bitch and others who would call Obama a sanctimonious douchebag.

I personally like the fact that Hillary is a raging bitch and I dislike the sanctimonious douchebag that is Obama. They are both flawed in multiple ways and they both say (and have surrogates who say) stupid shit.

Posted by Donolectic | March 13, 2008 6:01 PM
21

@20: It's all offensive. Fine that you feel that way, but it doesn't mean that it's appropriate.

Posted by Fitz | March 13, 2008 7:46 PM
22

unPC, not surprising to find you drinking the Mark Penn Kool-Aid. The Clinton campaign agreed to these rules. She had the chance months ago to say it was stupid or unfair or undemocratic to strip FL and MI of delegates, but she didn't. She said these states wouldn't count. Now that she needs them, she says they should count. Clinton has shown a depressing consistent inability to stick with the rules. She kept her name on the ballot in MI, her campaign supported a challenge to the NV casino caucuses, now she wants a revote in FL and MI, but only as long as her buddies Corzine and Rendell raise the $40 million in mega-contributions necessary to pay for the elections. I wonder what Clinton has to promise donors to get all that cash.

Posted by anti-moron | March 13, 2008 10:40 PM
23

I'm pissed off that Clinton thinks that she can go back and change the rules she agreed to after the fact to benefit her campaign. It is a colossal lack of integrity.

We're Democrats and we play by the rules. Clinton is not worthy of our nomination for president.

Posted by montex | March 13, 2008 11:02 PM

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