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For me it is always painful to watch our American “Democracy” at work. I’m an independent and I think that allows me to see more clearly how even when they are combined the Democrat and Republican parties fail to do a good job of representing the country in terms of ideology or action planning. Today the Dems decide how to handle the votes in Michigan and Floriday after previously deciding to totally disenfranchise those electorates. It is certainly true that rules should matter, and true that both campaigns agreed to these rules, and Obama supporters are right to say that it’s not “fair” to allocate to Clinton votes that might have gone to Obama if Florida party hacks and national party hacks had not mangled this process, but it’s *even more unfair* to disenfranchise the Florida voters - again. I’m guessing they’ll do the 50% allocation thing - ironically the same idea the Republicans had for rogue voting states, though presumably with far less “processing” committee time. If they did allocate the delegates according to votes in Michigan and Florida here are some scenarios: Michigan popular vote: 55% to Clinton, 40% Uncommitted to Obama - Michigan split the uncommitted vote: 75% to Clinton, 20% Obama - Florida: 50% to Clinton, 33% to Obama. Clinton net gain of 36 delegates. Thus if we count these states Clinton would gain a net of either 59 delegates or 121 delegates depending on how you allocate the Michigan uncommitted vote. As of today 201 delegate votes (160 pledged) separate Obama and Clinton so even the rosiest picture for Clinton would still have her trailing Obama, throwing the election squarely to the superdelegates and more party hack back room wheeling and dealing. Welcome to Democratic Democracy? More of my views on this at President Picker
Can you watch the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting taking place right now? Yes you can (that’s a hint - Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic presidential nominee whether Hillary Clinton gets all the Michigan and Florida delegates she wants today or not). Go over to C-Span There’s a link from the top of the front page. The feed is a little gimpy, because so many people are trying to watch, but stick with it. There are important arguments being made. Right now, David Bonior, a Michigan Democrat from the Barack Obama presidential campaign is speaking in defense of the interests of Michigan Democrats who did not vote or were not able to vote for the candidate of their choice, because they were told that their votes would not count. “This was not a normal primary election, and did not produce a fair reflection” of Democratic voters’ interests. Share This
The DNC meeting continues. One of the more riveting questions raised this morning is: Indeed. Obama advocates are arguing for the need to be fair to all those Florida and Michigan voters who did NOT vote. They did not vote because they were told the election would not count, so the argument goes. And after the DNC finds a way to be fair to the folks who did NOT vote in the Florida and Michigan primaries, will they then find a way to be fair to the millions of voters who did NOT vote in the caucuses? Democrats were hashing it out until 2 am last night. Katharine Seelye at The Caucus has the great photo above of the ongoing demonstration outside the DNC meeting. And she has this telling quote from Allan Katz, “chief advocate” for the candidate: “.” Yeah, like all those dumb voters in Michigan and Florida actually cast “real” votes. “”
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05/31/2008 
