"How about a three-fifths compromise?"
Hey, it worked for the Democrats before
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in 2008 | Best Democratic Primary EVER! | How about a little PERSPECTIVE?! | Internecine Warfare — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Michigan and Florida, two states who violated Democrat Party rules and moved their primaries up to the beginning of this year in order to gain nominating relevance, did become extremely relevant; however, in a supreme case of electoral irony, the nomination battle between Sens. Clinton and Obama has gone on for so long this year that both Michigan and Florida, along with Pennsylvania, Oregon, West Virginia, Kentucky, and so many more, are -- and would have been -- relevant to the nominating process anyway.
We are being reminded of that relevance yet again today, as the Democratic Party is making its latest attempt to solve its Michigan and Florida problem without (a) giving the nomination to the "wrong person," thereby sparking an irreconcilable intraparty war in the run-up to November's general election; (b) rewarding state parties who willfully flaunted their breaking of DNC figurehead Howard Dean's primary-date rules; and (c) alienating two of the most important states to Democrats in this entire election.
The compromises being put forward included a proposal (by the Clinton camp, of course) to seat all 211 of Florida's human and super delegates. Obama superdelegate Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) responded to this with what he called "an extraordinary concession, in order to promote reconciliation with Florida's voters" -- the seating of half of his own state's delegates. Sounds like a recipe for half-reconciliation to me, but then again, I'm neither a Floridian nor a Democrat; for all I know, they may appreciate things being done half way down there (at least in Wexler's district).
Read on . . .
"We have suffered horribly," said Jon Ausman a Florida superdelegate whose failings, whatever they may be, clearly do not include a lack of perspective.
Ausman "recommended that the rules committee give all his state's superdelegates a full vote at the convention and grant one-half vote to the rest," in keeping with the longstanding Democrat principle that all votes are equal and should be counted, but that some votes (such as the supers vs. the humans) are more equal than others, and that others, even when counted, don't necessarily count.
"Moments later, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, a Clinton supporter, urged a full vote for all 211 of the state's delegates. He said nearly two million Democrats voted in the disputed primary, adding that they 'violated no rule. Yet they are the ones who would be unfairly punished. And they do not deserve punishment.'"
Unfortunately for Mr. Nelson, Mr. Ausman, and the millions of Florida Democrats who are likely still scratching their heads at the looming reality of their own disenfranchisement in an election that didn't even involve Republicans, somebody -- to paraphrase Harvey Keitel's character in the film National Treasure -- has to be punished.
That person (or those people) will either be Sen. Obama, Sen. Clinton (along with the legions of their respective supporters), the poor Michigan and Florida Democrats who just wanted to go to the polls to vote for their chosen successor to that dastardly Bush should he actually abdicate in January (something I really don't think some of them believe, even to this day), or the parties of those states who did follow the rules and not move their primaries up.
"We have both fought hard throughout the country, both of us, for delegates and the fact that we're willing to essentially cede her delegates [Auth. note: Which she won] we do not think is an insignificant gesture on our part," said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. "But we're willing to do this in the interest of trying to bring this to a close so we can focus on the general election."
In other news, Obama's campaign manager is still named "Plouffe."
And the Democratic Party's Spring (now Summer) of Pain continues, with no end in sight.