The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic Party is meeting in Washington D.C. today to decide what to do about the delegates from Florida and Michigan at the Democratic National Convention this fall. 
Supporters of Hillary Clinton are picketing outside, demanding that all the delegates be seated and given their full votes, as if the two states had not violated Democratic Party rules by holding their primaries early. Obama supporters are offering compromises, proportional assignments of delegates, seating all of them but giving them half a vote each. No compromise is going to be acceptable to the Clinton camp.
The funny thing is that Obama is going to win the nomination anyway, and many Clinton supporters are going to go away mad because of that – even if they are given everything they ask for in today’s meeting. Once again Will Rogers’ is proved right, wen he said “I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”
Update: the Rules Committee has decided to seat half the delegates from Florida and Michigan. Update again: CNN says that they have seated all the delegates but given them half the votes.
This is going to lead to a bloody floor fight in Denver and may kill Obama’s chances in November. What a bunch of jackasses.
May 31, 2008 at 4:53 pm
How could any political party deny the voting right of any voter? If democracy is to work, every vote should be counted. Moreover, with so many states changing their voting date, why these two critical states for the national election were denied the right to chose their own. What kind of nonsense rule that created this mess. A party that does not give all voter their right is one looking for their demise.
May 31, 2008 at 8:49 pm
This has been nothing so much as high school food fight from the very beginning. Because it is state law in New Hampshire that they must have the first primary in each Presidential election cycle and because of the tradition of Iowa having the very first even with their caucuses, it was feared that those two events, for the 2008 elections, would have to take place in December of 2007. Why? Because Florida and Michigan were insistent that they could go first if they wanted to.
The rules committee decided to nullify the Florida and Michigan primaries, because they broke ranks. Maybe that was a bad idea, but once that decision was made it should have stuck. Now we are back in the food fight again. The teacher has lost control of the classroom.