Monday, June 2, 2008

Michigan and Florida: Are they half citizens?

Well, I wouldn't classify myself as a Democrat nor would I classify myself as a Republican. Shiree and I joke that I am more of a Republicrat (or a Democan, but I like the first one better). On Saturday, the Democractic National Committee (DNC) Rules Committee voted to reinstate all of the Michigan and Florida delegates (both pledged and unpledged) but only give them 1/2 of a vote. I'll admit that I was pleased with the outcome that the voters voices were heard in those states. That is truly an example of the democratic system in progress. However, I was displeased with some of the comments during the discussion about the Michigan delegates that some of the committee members (Clinton supporters, ironically enough) felt that giving delegates to Obama was wrong and that people's votes were being "hijacked." Granted, Obama's name was not on the ballot in Michigan (who knows why he pulled it in the first place - in my opinion a poor judgement call), but still, just because his name wasn't on the ballot, does not mean that Hillary Clinton won the state of Michigan. Conducting a fair analysis of the voting results in Michigan, where we assume that the "uncomitted" votes were for Obama, is a logical conclusion. However, there were still other contestants in that race. From my knowledge, John Edwards was still in the running and his name was not on the ballot either. Florida was a little bit cleaner cut, because both candidates received votes. However, Michigan is a little more fuzzy. In the end, I think it was the best choice under these circumstances.

I was hoping that the Democrats would stick to their guns and not allow any of the votes to count, but that sure wouldn't win them the presidency in the fall. Hence, we saw right before our eyes the political game that must be played in the two-party system.

2 comments:

Shiree said...

Anything that gets Obama the nomination over Clinton is just fine with me. :)

tysqui said...

I was hoping that they would stick to their guns as well and not give the delegates a vote. Aside from Hilary none of the major candidates even campaigned in Michigan or Florida because the DNC had made it clear that their votes would not count as a punishment for moving their primary contests (which is stupid reason to punish them anyways - but that's another story). Anyways, none of it matters anymore and you are correct that they did what would help them the most come November.

I've enjoyed reading your political posts (and the Jazz posts, but not the Lakers posts). I've always enjoyed following the political races.