I have been watching this most of the day.
The Obama camp's suggestion to just split the Michigan delegates 50-50 is easily the most bizarre and silly proposal- but the others all seem fairly well thought out, even though I think they are an attempt to fix something that is already irreparably messed up.
Whatever happens, I really think Florida and Michigan will get identical treatment. Obama did voluntarily remove his name from the ballot in Michigan. There was no requirement he do so, and it proved to be a very foolish move though at the time maybe there was a good strategy behind it.
The really screwy thing here is that if Florida and Michigan are reinstated fully, Hillary gets to claim the popular vote ONLY on the basis that all the Michigan uncommitted votes are considered just that. Assume those are for Obama, which presumably just about all of them are, and then Obama wins the popular vote still. But then Hillary gets to come back and claim that doesn't really matter since he took his name off the ballot etc. etc. etc.
This is a real mess. Unless they take this to convention and both these candidates end up on the same ticket (Barack for President and Hillary for VP), then I do not see the party uniting for the election and swing voters going Democratic.
The one thing this whole process has shown however is just how much the DNC power structure can control and manipulate the nominee through super-delegates, caucuses and now maybe inventing a final vote tally in primaries that were declared invalid before they took place. Contrast this with the Republican Party system which has no tiered selection processes or super-delegates.
It is more than a little amusing to see all this exposed in the party that is still screaming about Florida in 2000 and claiming the election was stolen, and that voters were disenfranchised despite all the massive recounts and legal processes which supported the actual outcome.
|