The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC will be meeting Saturday to hear challenges to the decision to strip Florida and Michigan of all of their delegates. Interested individuals were able to sign up to speak and I understand all of the slots filled in seven minutes! I think that is pretty amazing, and shows just how many folks are plugged in to this election.
One point I’ve not seen raised about the FL and MI situation and why it is critical not to ignore them: the sheer number of participants. It was expected that once the sanctions were announced, the number of voters participating in these primaries would plummet and that those who participated would not be a representative sample of the voters in the area. (Of course, we have no such problems with caucuses, right?) But FL’s voter turnout broke records and MI’s wasn’t too shabby, either.
I think the RBC will probably seat the delegates at 50%, as the original party plan allows. As for the delegate allocation, I think it is fair to award the FL delegates the way they voted. MI is a problem. Both the Edwards and Obama campaigns urged their supporters to vote uncommitted. Most agree that the uncommitted delegates are now likely to support Obama. I say award the delegates the way they voted here, as well, and let the uncommitteds declare who they want to support.
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I’ve been following the saga of the eaglet at Norfolk Botanical Gardens, which happens to be right outside my back door. For those unfamiliar, the NBG had an eagle cam (right now deactivated since the birds have left the nest), which allowed web viewers to watch them. A growth was spotted on the eaglet’s beak. The bird was removed and various tests were run. Today we learn that the growth, which has been described as aggressive, is avian pox. Interesting that everything I’ve read on the virus is that it is it is a slow developing disease.
I hope the eaglet recovers and is able to be released.
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Lots of dissing of Governor Kaine around the blogosphere, some of it deserved, some of it not. I have my own reasons for being disappointed in the Governor but I respect both the office and the man.
I have just one request of the Governor: include the resolution of the judgeships issue in the transportation special session. As I understand it, the GA cannot take up the issue unless it is included in the call for special session. The situation down here deserves resolution. Yes, I know transportation is important, but so is having fully staffed benches.
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Speaking of transportation, gotta love this headline: “Republicans attack Kaine’s road plan, offer no substitute.” I think that sums things up quite nicely.
Don’t forget that Kaine will be in Hampton Roads next Tuesday, June 3, for a transportation town hall meeting. The event is from 6:30pm to 8pm at the Virginia Beach Conference Center.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Vivian,
I agree on your Florida proposal however your proposal on Michigan is very disturbing. You say seat the delegates as they voted in the state. That to me means that HRC should get her delegates based on the 54% she received and the rest of the delegates should be given to Obama and not left out there to stay uncommitted. That would be fair since they obviously didn’t want to vote for HRC. the notion that the HRC people still do not want to give Obama one vote in that primary is preposterous. if This whole disaster could have been avoided easily by following rules and still could be avoided Saturday by just using some commonsense. Florida should give HRC her delegates based on the 49% she received, which means 51% didn’t vote for her in that primary.
Gene – if the uncommitteds declare for Obama, he gets the delegates, right? So what’s the problem with that?
As for him removing his name from the ballot, take a look at this for a possible explanation.
As for FL – HRC gets her 50%, BO gets his 33% and Edwards gets his 14%.
Mouse – try reading the links. Other states broke the rules and there were no penalties. And the penalty as per the DNC rules is supposed to be 50%. Have you bothered to read the challenges? As far as I can determine, neither FL nor MI are advocating 100%.
Vivian — your argument is that Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina should face the same penalties as Florida and Michigan? I have no problem with that — they all violated rule 11A.
Your argument is a good one for punishing Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, but a bad one for letting Florida and Michigan seat all their delegates.
So, what would the delegate count look like if all five of those states were only to get half of their delegates seated?
BTW, we must also look into who campaigned in those states, and when:
That’ll throw a monkey wrench into the party machine, eh?
Who said anything about seating all their delegates? Mouse, you have a reading comprehension problem.
And except for the ads run by Obama in FL, no one campaigned in those states.
“Who said anything about seating all their delegates?”
Sen. Clinton is, according to today’s Washington Times.
“[Except] for the ads run by Obama in FL, no one campaigned in those states.”
No-one campaigned in Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina before their primaries/caucuses? That’s remarkable.
Try reading comprehension, Mouse. This thread and every single post in it, has been about our opinions on the matter, not any campaigns. And we were discussing MI & FL, not the other states.
Read, Mouse. You just might learn something.
Sorry, that was the Post, not the Times.
As for “we were discussing MI & FL, not the other states,” YOU brought up the other states in your comment of May 29th, 2008, at 12:45 pm, and again on May 30th, 2008, at 9:52 am.
I’m sorry — I missed one. You first brought up the other states in your post of May 29th, 2008, at 11:18 am.
Meanwhile, HRC is up to 327 (344 with a MI win) in the current electoral college count!
http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Clinton/Maps/May30.html
Too bad was might just be nominating a weak GE candidate, one who will have garnered less votes than the stronger GE candidate. McGovern and Dukakis III in full immolation mode!
It will be good to get this delegate controversy behind us. Meanwhile, huffingtonpost gives Harry Reid’s quote of the day:
“The primary has been good for our country,” he said. “We started out with six great candidates on the Democratic side — and seven counting Kucinich, because he added something to the campaign.”
Seven counting Kucinich?