The 2008 presidential field at-a-glance

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

A number of states are being "punished" by the democrats and republicans. According to the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7049207.stm

"The Democratic Party is punishing Michigan and Florida by refusing to accept their delegates at the national convention. So neither state's Democratic primary will count. (The main Democratic candidates have said they will not campaign in either state.)

The Republican Party is penalising Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Wyoming, by reducing their quota of delegates by half."

This is how we let democracy work in our own country, and we think we're in a position to put it in place in OTHER countries??!?

[Thetagirl218]

I am getting kinda mad that because our state legislature passed law when Florida's primary should be, the parties are punishing us? Why would they cut out the voice of the people??? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, and there are talks that Conventions will change their minds, but who knows! I do know this.....after the whole affair in 2000, I was in high school, and it was all that was ever discussed it seems; You would think more attention would be paid to FL instead of diminishing it. We are still a pretty big swing vote and have 27 electoral college votes....2 more than in 2000.

[honeychile]

My private fantasy: that at least two people from Greek Chat run for Delegate to their party's Convention - preferably one from each party. I'd love to hear the "insiders' reports"!

[Thetagirl218]

Originally Posted by honeychile

My private fantasy: that at least two people from Greek Chat run for Delegate to their party's Convention - preferably one from each party. I'd love to hear the "insiders' reports"!

Seriously, how do you become a delegate?

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by Thetagirl218

Seriously, how do you become a delegate?

My best friend made it all the way to our state convention as a delegate in 2004, and though she totally volunteered to do it, she said it was VERY boring. A lot of speeches, rules and voting and it took several hours. She said she'd never do it again.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by Thetagirl218

Seriously, how do you become a delegate?

I'd start out by calling your county's Democratic or Republican Committee - they'll tell you exactly what you need to do. I was just able to vote when I ran, and I'm not sure how it works now. I know that I had to get a petition signed by 250 people, and filed with the County Elections Department. Then you run on the primary ballot. At that time, if a woman got the most votes (me), then the man with the most amount of votes got the next delegate position, then the woman with the second-most number of votes, then the man with the second-most number of votes, etc. I don't know if it's still done that way or not. We had a meeting of about 10 delegations or basically 4-5 congressional districts, then a state one, then one in DC. Being so young, I had no big say in anything in those meetings, but when we finally got to the Convention, suddenly there were a lot of news crews asking my opinion about various topics, as I supposedly represented "the youth vote".

As for boring, there are also alternate delegates and you can run as an alternate. If you think the topics at a given time aren't your thing, you can always have an alternate take your place, while you do something else.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Thetagirl218

I am getting kinda mad that because our state legislature passed law when Florida's primary should be, the parties are punishing us? Why would they cut out the voice of the people??? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, and there are talks that Conventions will change their minds, but who knows! I do know this.....after the whole affair in 2000, I was in high school, and it was all that was ever discussed it seems; You would think more attention would be paid to FL instead of diminishing it. We are still a pretty big swing vote and have 27 electoral college votes....2 more than in 2000.

Yep, because the national party leadership want to punish the party leadership for a state, they basically punish and somewhat disenfranchise any regular party members in that state, and yet, the party members or anyone willing to vote in the primary and not have his or her primary or caucus vote fully count at the convention is still supposed to stay loyal enough to vote for the party's candidate in the general elections. Why does that seem to make sense to the party leadership?

If it had happened in my state, I think I'd very much feel like a complete free agent in the general election. (Actually, if Huckabee is the nominee, I would anyway.)

And why do we privilege Iowa and New Hampshire, anyway? If the parties' position was that we'd have all the primaries on the same day, that'd be one thing, but why are some states just expected to sit back to see if their candidates appeal well enough in the early states to even stay in the race until you can vote for them in your states primary? )

[DGTess]

What the parties will probably realize sometime in the next decade is that punishing members of a party organization does nothing but disenfranchise those who are registered to that party but do not consider themselves members of the party organization.

The rank-and-file, unfortunately, usually takes a long time to figure these things out, .