Posted by justingerman in Uncategorized.
Tags: 2008 Democratic Primaries, 2008 Presidential Election, DNC Rules Committee, Hillary Clinton, The Democratic Party
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.
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Posted by justingerman in 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, The Democratic Party.
Tags: 2008 Presidential Election, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, NAFTA, Presidential Primaries, The Democratic Party, The National Journal
The National Journal has a great article this week about how the Democratic Party is transforming before our eyes. Gone is the party that nominated John Kerry in favor of a younger, more affluent, more Latino, more female, more evangelical and more liberal party. Though I certainly think that the growth of such groups is unequivocally a positive thing for the Democrats, I worry about the remnants of the New Deal Coalition that for so long has been the heart of the party.
I think this is the reason we see Hillary and Obama bashing NAFTA so much these days, especially in manufacturing centers like Ohio. Despite the fact that they probably realize that the aggregate effects of NAFTA are a positive for the US in the long run, it’s important to comfort those who are afflicted in the short term. However, this is not the right post to be discussing trade policy.
Ultimately what this transition means is that the Democratic Party is becoming more knowledgeable and passionate about politics. Passion has long been a problem for the Democrats, which was typically realized by the fact that high overall turnout in any election was usually a good thing for the Democratic candidate. This is due to the fact that passionate Republicans were always going to vote, but more apathetic Democrats were harder to get to the polls.
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