(no subject)
It seems as though the stark reality of the mind-numbingly long Democratic Primary process is sinking into Hillary Clinton's staff's heads.
There seems to be no retaliation from the Clinton camp when it comes to the DNC's decision to grant the state of Florida only half the original delegates they would have received if they had merely moved their primary, what, something like one week later? What upsets me the most is that Florida's decision was determined by a Republican majority. But then I start to think about it: the Republicans knew they were damaging their own primary, too. At the time, there were FOUR nominees vying for the nomination: Romney, Huckabee, Guiliani, and Thompson. (Although it is rather hard to take that whole Fred Thompson thing seriously...) It's almost as if the Republicans, at the time, were punished more for their inept action. And this is where I realized that I left McCain out of that list, so really there were five, if you want to count McCain's floundering campaign at the time.
The way that I see it, I think that the DNC messed up by taking all of the delegates, but were perfectly within legal and moral rights to take away some delegates. What I think would have worked better (and of course, hindsight is always 20/20) would be to do just like the Republicans did: take away 50% of the delegates and that would have encouraged campaigning to continue in the state. This would have provided a fair outcome, because let's face it: Florida's primary was anything but fair. (Not that it's Florida's fault: all major Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in the state, which created the most moot primary election of the year, with the exception of Michigan. And trust me, I'll get to that in a bit.)
But what upsets me the most about this situation is Clinton herself. Of course she agreed to not campaign in Florida, she was going to have the nomination wrapped up in February. She didn't fuss about Florida until she realized she needed the delegates. If I was in Florida, that would piss me off more than my vote not counting at all. "Oh, thanks, Hillary, for stepping up to the plate now. Where were you all those other months? You know, the months after you agreed to the DNC ruling and agreed not to campaign in our state?" Her whole "Save Florida" BS is about as genuine as me bumping into an ex and saying "It's so nice to see you." I literally chided the Clinton supporters on the computer today, telling them, "Can't you see she's using you?! Arg!" The childish antics of the crowd at the DNC RBC meeting today made me question my status as a Democrat. Seriously, if people vote for McCain (aka Bush 3.0) because Clinton doesn't get the nomination, then they are not a Democrat and need to quit wasting my time. Quit whining and get over it.
However, Michigan was handled rather poorly, and I think blame is mostly aimed towards the DNC and the Michigan Plan Committee, or whatever they were calling themselves. The representative at the meeting today said himself that the plan was contrived rather arbitrarily, but the DNC went ahead and just used it, almost as if they were tired of it all and just wanted it over. I also have to fault the Obama camp for pushing the 50/50 split. That was silly and unrealistic, mostly because everyone knew that both states' delegates were going to be halved, anyway.
Stay with me on this one. Everyone, before the meeting, knew that the delegates would be halved and there was no chance that the states would be granted full delegate strength. Obama had about five more supporters on the committee than Clinton. Sure, there were undecided members, but come on. And everyone knew that Clinton would not get what she wanted: delegates only awarded to her because she was the only name on the ballot. That's about as realistic as the above situation where I'm happy to see one of my exes. If the Obama camp knew it would go down this way, why didn't they just say, "Fine, whatever. You get 74 delegates instead of 69." I really wish the DNC would have awarded the delegates to more accurately reflect the vote: 74/54 instead of 69/59. It really wouldn't have affected anything with the delegates halved (oh no! 2.5 votes!) and it would have shut up Harold Ickes, who has become quite possibly the biggest douche I have ever seen.
What I really enjoyed about today, however, was Carl Levin. I adore him because he's pretty much a badass now. He really doesn't care about most folks and will say whatever he wants. He used his time to chide the same DNC committee he was addressing for granting New Hampshire a reprieve from punishment for having their primary first. I think he has an excellent point and I wish the DNC had punished New Hampshire as well.
Now, I hope that states will at least take the DNC seriously when they say that they will punish states that break the rules. It's almost as if so many people agreed to it, then when they found out it would actually happen, they got all pissy. That's not how the real world works, folks. When you agree to something, you stick with it.
On a quasi-sidenote, I totally made Josh raise his eyebrows at me today when I said, "You know what, if Hillary Clinton somehow gets the nomination, I will definitely consider not voting Democrat this year." I thought he was going to question reality for a bit. lol.
There seems to be no retaliation from the Clinton camp when it comes to the DNC's decision to grant the state of Florida only half the original delegates they would have received if they had merely moved their primary, what, something like one week later? What upsets me the most is that Florida's decision was determined by a Republican majority. But then I start to think about it: the Republicans knew they were damaging their own primary, too. At the time, there were FOUR nominees vying for the nomination: Romney, Huckabee, Guiliani, and Thompson. (Although it is rather hard to take that whole Fred Thompson thing seriously...) It's almost as if the Republicans, at the time, were punished more for their inept action. And this is where I realized that I left McCain out of that list, so really there were five, if you want to count McCain's floundering campaign at the time.
The way that I see it, I think that the DNC messed up by taking all of the delegates, but were perfectly within legal and moral rights to take away some delegates. What I think would have worked better (and of course, hindsight is always 20/20) would be to do just like the Republicans did: take away 50% of the delegates and that would have encouraged campaigning to continue in the state. This would have provided a fair outcome, because let's face it: Florida's primary was anything but fair. (Not that it's Florida's fault: all major Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in the state, which created the most moot primary election of the year, with the exception of Michigan. And trust me, I'll get to that in a bit.)
But what upsets me the most about this situation is Clinton herself. Of course she agreed to not campaign in Florida, she was going to have the nomination wrapped up in February. She didn't fuss about Florida until she realized she needed the delegates. If I was in Florida, that would piss me off more than my vote not counting at all. "Oh, thanks, Hillary, for stepping up to the plate now. Where were you all those other months? You know, the months after you agreed to the DNC ruling and agreed not to campaign in our state?" Her whole "Save Florida" BS is about as genuine as me bumping into an ex and saying "It's so nice to see you." I literally chided the Clinton supporters on the computer today, telling them, "Can't you see she's using you?! Arg!" The childish antics of the crowd at the DNC RBC meeting today made me question my status as a Democrat. Seriously, if people vote for McCain (aka Bush 3.0) because Clinton doesn't get the nomination, then they are not a Democrat and need to quit wasting my time. Quit whining and get over it.
However, Michigan was handled rather poorly, and I think blame is mostly aimed towards the DNC and the Michigan Plan Committee, or whatever they were calling themselves. The representative at the meeting today said himself that the plan was contrived rather arbitrarily, but the DNC went ahead and just used it, almost as if they were tired of it all and just wanted it over. I also have to fault the Obama camp for pushing the 50/50 split. That was silly and unrealistic, mostly because everyone knew that both states' delegates were going to be halved, anyway.
Stay with me on this one. Everyone, before the meeting, knew that the delegates would be halved and there was no chance that the states would be granted full delegate strength. Obama had about five more supporters on the committee than Clinton. Sure, there were undecided members, but come on. And everyone knew that Clinton would not get what she wanted: delegates only awarded to her because she was the only name on the ballot. That's about as realistic as the above situation where I'm happy to see one of my exes. If the Obama camp knew it would go down this way, why didn't they just say, "Fine, whatever. You get 74 delegates instead of 69." I really wish the DNC would have awarded the delegates to more accurately reflect the vote: 74/54 instead of 69/59. It really wouldn't have affected anything with the delegates halved (oh no! 2.5 votes!) and it would have shut up Harold Ickes, who has become quite possibly the biggest douche I have ever seen.
What I really enjoyed about today, however, was Carl Levin. I adore him because he's pretty much a badass now. He really doesn't care about most folks and will say whatever he wants. He used his time to chide the same DNC committee he was addressing for granting New Hampshire a reprieve from punishment for having their primary first. I think he has an excellent point and I wish the DNC had punished New Hampshire as well.
Now, I hope that states will at least take the DNC seriously when they say that they will punish states that break the rules. It's almost as if so many people agreed to it, then when they found out it would actually happen, they got all pissy. That's not how the real world works, folks. When you agree to something, you stick with it.
On a quasi-sidenote, I totally made Josh raise his eyebrows at me today when I said, "You know what, if Hillary Clinton somehow gets the nomination, I will definitely consider not voting Democrat this year." I thought he was going to question reality for a bit. lol.