The 2008 presidential field at-a-glance

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I am so mad about the whole Michigan primary debacle but I don't know if the rest of the country knows what's going on here. Bottom line, we aren't really having a primary. Here's the deal:

Under Democratic National Committee rules, only Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina are allowed to hold primaries before February 5.

Michigan Democrats moved their state's primary date to January in an effort to increase the state's influence in the nominee selection process, arguing Iowa and New Hampshire unfairly dominate the process.

Obama, Biden, Edwards, and Richardson took themselves off the ballot since it was an "illegal" primary. Clinton and Dodd are still on the ballot, but Dodd has dropped out of the race after last night's Iowa caucus.

On our ballot will be Clinton, Dodd, Kucinich and Gravel (who???). We can also vote "Uncommitted" or we can Write In. However, write ins for the candidates who dropped off the ballot WILL NOT COUNT.

Additionally, since the Michigan Democratic Party did not follow the Democratic National Party guidelines, the DNP has voted to exclude our delegates from the Convention anyway.

Why even bother???? Most are saying to just go and vote Uncommitted if you don't want to vote for Clinton. The MDP needs some new leadership.. ugh!

I'm LOL at your Gravel comment! A politico friend of mine is a great friend of Mike Gravel (pronounced grah-VELL), and he asked me about a year ago to see if anyone had heard of Sen. Gravel on any and all message boards/blogs I'm on (here's the GC question). Former Sen. Gravel was from Alaska, and you can read about him at Gravel 2008, and he also has blogs on myspace, facebook, YouTube, etc.

Again, I did this for a friend, not because I'm involved in any way with his campaign.

BTW, that really stinks that Michigan is being treated like the redheaded stepchild of the DNC. I've been saying for years that some of the bigger states should be more involved in the early primaries. I heard that Romney poured $10 million into Iowa alone!

[Drolefille]

Wasn't Florida getting threatened with the same fate?

[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."

[Drolefille]

Gotta love the BBC.

Very interesting.

[NutBrnHair]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Wasn't Florida getting threatened with the same fate?

Poor Florida and their hanging chads -- now this.

[AGDee]

See, and I don't necessarily blame the DNC either. Why MUST we have such an early primary? It's our fault that Iowa and NH had to move theirs so far forward too. I think it's ridiculous that we choose our candidates so far in advance of the conventions. It sounded like it was good in the "olden days" when you actually found out who the candidate was going to be DURING the convention. Now it's a big deal if they wait til then to announce the VP candidate.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by AGDee

See, and I don't necessarily blame the DNC either. Why MUST we have such an early primary? It's our fault that Iowa and NH had to move theirs so far forward too. I think it's ridiculous that we choose our candidates so far in advance of the conventions. It sounded like it was good in the "olden days" when you actually found out who the candidate was going to be DURING the convention. Now it's a big deal if they wait til then to announce the VP candidate.

I like the idea of a rotating primary system where it's set up so that different states get to be earlier each election. (And Iowa/NH/SC can still go first if that's oh so necessary, I've seen models that do both) Then we could all stop playing the "I'm moving MINE a day earlier" "No ME" "No ME!" game.

[jon1856]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

I like the idea of a rotating primary system where it's set up so that different states get to be earlier each election. (And Iowa/NH/SC can still go first if that's oh so necessary, I've seen models that do both) Then we could all stop playing the "I'm moving MINE a day earlier" "No ME" "No ME!" game.

I would like to see the primary system go even one step beyond that.
Set up rotating groups of sectional/regional areas.
Would save money and increase the time candidates are in a given area.
This would never happen.

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by jon1856

I would like to see the primary system go even one step beyond that.
Set up rotating groups of sectional/regional areas.
Would save money and increase the time candidates are in a given area.
This would never happen.

Yes, even though it's utopian, it's a good start. I'd like to add having 5 Super Tuesdays of 10 states each to your model - held every other week.

Also utopian is having ONE six-year presidency, instead of a four-year term, defined by running for reelection for two of those years - but I'm all for it.

[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.