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DNC Rules Committee: Will Faulty Logic Fix Faulty Logic? May 31, 2008

There aren’t any states right now feeling dumber than Florida and Michigan. Instead of abiding by the predetermined primary schedule they decided to leap-frog Super Tuesday and have their primaries in January in an attempt to gain some additional influence in the process. However, due to their violation of the sanctioned schedule, both states were stripped of their delegates to the convention and in retrospect they could have actually gained more influence by moving their primaries a few months backward as opposed to a few weeks earlier.

Hillary Clinton won both primaries by a large margin, including Michigan in which only her name was on the ballot. At the time it was generally percieved that the results were electorally meaningless beyond any PR bump that might occur. Now, while trailing in convention delegates, Hillary Clinton, for several months, has argued to seat all Florida and Michigan delegates despite agreeing in the Fall to not campaign in either state. See below Clinton supporters protesting outside today’s rules committee meeting.

I think it’s pretty clear that this is entirely a political as opposed to a democratic point that Hillary and her supporters are trying to make. This has nothing to do with my support for Obama because I don’t think anyone can see these same people protesting were the results reversed.

Now that both campaigns are endorsing a move that would allow half of Florida and Michigan’s delegates to vote at the convention it seems that the issue will be somewhat resolved. But considering that the committee is violating its own ruling and the campaigns are going back on their fall pledges, the ruling will appear rather hypocritical and opportunistic. Also, the idea of converting the uncommitted Michigan delegates to Obama delegates is especially strange because they are essentially not the same thing.

But don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to sound like a stickler for the rules, but if the rules committee chooses to change the rules after the fact it shouldn’t be done to benefit one candidate or the other. But I do understand the argument for seating the Florida and Michigan delegates for the purposes of winning the general election. Sometimes rule reversals are OK so long as so long as they follow the party charter, however, it still doesn’t make the rules committee look very tough.

One positive result of this whole thing is that it is bringing about a total reevaluation of the primary process that so many people think to be flawed and undemocratic. In this way Florida and Michigan have actually done a service to the party and to democracy in the long-run, even though it’s causing a lot of headaches right now.

In conclusion, I’ll leave you with a recording of Hillary in October saying that everyone knows the Michigan election won’t count.