How would Michigan work out since Barack Obama's full name or even part of his name was not on the Michigan ballot?
It seems unfair if Hillary Clinton would get even half of the committed delegates that went with her "win" in Michigan, and in Florida, recall voters were disenfranchised as the Primary took place since many simply stayed home believing their vote would not matter anyway since it was known beforehand the state Party had broken the rules.
At any rate, it's a political party game which we hope will be gone the way of the dinosaurs once independents and Third Party contenders are given equal access to state running of political party nomination elections.
Imagine if the Constitutional, Libertarian, Socialist, Green, et al, contenders for their Party nomination for President were all squeezed onto the same ballot in a Primary election funded in large measure by the state holding the election?
The winners in those contests would all get the same media treatment and validity to their candidacies.
The two majority parties don't want to see this happen because they would lose party participants to the Third Parties.
Eventually, a Third Party candidate might even take the prize, the White House.
Can't have that.
So watch the games being played. Enjoy.
Net the Truth Online
Delegate Dispute Could Alter Democratic Endgame
by FOXNews.com
Thursday, May 22, 2008
With those states, a 2,210 delegates would be the new threshold for the nomination, Ickes noted.
If that’s the case, then Obama would no longer be within 61 delegates of locking down the nomination. The latest Associated Press delegates tallies show Obama at 1,965 and Clinton considerably behind at 1,780.
But Obama is looking for a compromise that is a gesture to Clinton and both states — not one that would alter the balance of the race.
Plans before the DNC committee could be generous to Obama. The Michigan Democratic Party has proposed giving 69 of its 128 delegates to Clinton and 59 to Obama, a net gain of 10 delegates for Clinton.
A proposal from Florida would halve its 185 delegates. From that, Clinton would get 52.5 and Obama 33.5, a 19-delegate boost for Clinton.
And even if all the two states’ 313 pledged delegates were allocated, with no votes for Obama from Michigan, Clinton would get 178 to Obama’s 67, closing the gap by 111 votes, according to The Associated Press.
That means Clinton’s best-case scenario still wouldn’t catch her up, since she’s trailing, as of Thursday, by 185 total delegates.
Wolfson acknowledged that even if the Clinton campaign gets everything it wants from the committee, her path to the nomination still relies on convincing uncommitted superdelegates that she’s the stronger general election candidate.
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/22/delegate-dispute-could-alter-democratic-endgame/
How Clinton Shifted on Michigan, Florida Delegates
by David Greene
All Things Considered, May 28, 2008 · When Michigan and Florida moved their primaries ahead of the dates set by the Democratic National Committee, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton supported the party's decision to strip those states of their delegates.
Democratic Party officials are meeting this weekend to decide the fate of those delegates, and Clinton's campaign has been pressing to get at least some of them back. Clinton won both states, and having delegates reinstated would help her numbers.
But the senator's position on the delegate issue has shifted over time.
In September 2007, the crowd of Democrats running for president signed a pledge not to campaign in Florida or Michigan. The Democratic Party had punished those states for shifting their primaries and diluting the importance of early-voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.
At the time, Clinton was the front-runner, and she signed the pledge. Most candidates, like Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, went so far as to take their names off the ballot in Michigan. Clinton left hers on the ballot. During an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio, a caller asked Clinton what was up.
"Now, just this week most of your Democratic competitors removed their names from the Michigan primary ballot. But you didn't, and my question is why?" said the caller, who identified herself as Elaine. "It strikes me as this is politics as usual, where the politicians say one thing and they end up doing something else."
Clinton responded that she stayed on the Michigan ballot because she didn't want to totally dismiss voters in an important swing state.
"It's clear this election they're having is not going to count for anything," Clinton said. "But I personally didn't want to set up a situation where the Republicans were going to be campaigning between now and whenever. Then, after the nomination, we have to go in and repair the damage to be ready to win Michigan in November 2008."
But really, Clinton said, leaving her name on in Michigan wasn't a big deal.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90907222&ft=1&f=1001
Florida and Michigan May See Delegates Halved
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: May 29, 2008
An analysis by lawyers for the Democratic Party says party rules call for Florida and Michigan to lose at least half their delegate strength at the party’s convention in August, an outcome that could close off Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s last opportunity to cut significantly into Senator Barack Obama’s lead in delegates...
The legal analysis, sent late Tuesday to the party’s rules committee, is expected to guide a meeting this weekend where the committee will try to settle one of the most contentious issues remaining in the Democratic presidential race: what to do with delegates from Florida and Michigan, which violated party rules by moving up their primaries ahead of Feb. 5.
Mrs. Clinton had hoped for the full Florida and Michigan delegations to be seated, and for their votes to be apportioned according to the results in their primaries, which she won. But the lawyers’ analysis said that as punishment for the primaries’ being held early, party rules allowed the states nothing more than that their delegations be cut in half, or that the full delegations be seated with each delegate getting only half a vote.
As a result, Mrs. Clinton would appear to need all the more superdelegates to swing her way if she has any remaining hope for the nomination.
To that end, she stepped up her appeal Wednesday to superdelegates, the Democratic officeholders and party officials who could ultimately decide the nomination. In a letter, she argued that she would be a stronger nominee than Mr. Obama against Senator John McCain in the fall.
She leads in polls in swing states, the letter said, has support from regions and demographics that the Democrats need, is ahead of Mr. McCain in Gallup national tracking polls while Mr. Obama is behind him, and is better positioned to win in the Electoral College, mainly because she leads Mr. McCain in polls in Ohio and Florida.
The Democratic nominating battle has only three primaries left, and all take place over the next week, in Puerto Rico on Sunday and in Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday. Mr. Obama may be poised to claim the nomination after those contests, though he will need additional superdelegates to do so.
Mr. Obama is now a mere 51 delegates short of the 2,026 needed for the nomination. Those numbers do not count Florida and Michigan, and so they could be altered somewhat by the results of the rules committee’s meeting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/29/us/politics/29dems.html
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