The Rules Commitee Results

My Top 3

So… as most people already know… The states of Florida and Michigan held their primaries earlier than set by the rules of the Democratic Party. So… The DNC rules committee decided to penalize the two states by taking away ALL of the delegates that would have normally been awarded to them after their state primaries. Must say that it was the dumbest decision the Democratic party has ever made!

With the close contests between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, this has made every single state count; Florida and Michigan especially since they are both large states and considered vitally important in a general election.

The Decision…

To account for the delegates from each state the committee decided to award each delegate from both states half of a vote at the convention. The delegates were awarded proportionally according to how each state voted. This also created another problem with the Michigan delegates where Barack Obama removed his name from the ballot. Of the 40% of the Michigan voters who voted “Uncommitted” they awarded Barack Obama with those delegates, since it was safe to assume that those would have been votes for Obama. Clinton was reimbursed with the other 60% of the delegates from the state which totaled, 69 Clinton/59 Obama.

Now that this ridiculous issue has been resolved, the candidate who appears to have come out on top is definitely Obama. Clinton has absolutely no way to win based on the decision from the rules committee. The Clinton plan was to hopefully receive all of the delegates from Michigan since Obama removed his name from the ballot. The Obama plan was to split the delegates of Michigan exactly half and half and forget the primary entirely. Even though the decision infuriated Clinton supporters, it seemed to be the best compromise available without having a revote in the state.

As the end result from today’s ruling, the finish line for the Democratic nominee has moved up from the original 2,026 to 2,118 total delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

As of right now Obama only needs 66 more delegates to win! Clinton will still need over 200, in order for her to win, which as of right now seems literally impossible. To make an educated guess, it is officially over for Clinton. Even though it has looked quite obvious it was over for her ever since May 6, it is now officially over. There will not be enough undecided superdelegates who will move her direction to get the 200+ needed delegates to win.

With the rules committee decision out of the way, one can likely expect to see even more superdelegates trickle over to the Obama camp now that he can confidently call himself the presumptive Democratic Nominee.

Only three more states/territories left to vote! Let’s finally end this stupid primary season and focus on the general election in November!