S.I.U.

Roland Martin says, "Florida and Michigan, suck it up."

Posted by Maggie at 3/12/2008 11:35:00 AM  

2 comments:

DRock said...

I couldn't agree more.

I don't blame the voters I blame the legislators for their clear disregard of the rules. I wish something could be done for the voters so they don't feel disenfranchised.

However, as a voter, I feel like if Florida and Michigan go again then the Democratic Primary will be dragged out to the bitter end and I, and I'm assuming others, will feel disenfranchised because there is such a split.

I think the split in popularity will cause much more hurt (especially since Hillary has practically endorsed McCain) when it's go time. I want to see this primary end, and soon, so the Democrats can focus on not blowing it this year.

Plus this complete nonsense idea of mail in votes will be an absolute disaster that most people won't be able to move beyond for a number of years to come.

March 12, 2008 at 2:34 PM
JP Burke said...

Political realities are different from "deserving." I agree that they don't deserve a revote. It's tough to point the finger on this clusterfark, but that doesn't mean some people aren't to blame.

The governors who are now harping did not make an attempt to veto their respective bills when they had a chance. Why? In Michigam I think it's because the governor thought dumping the votes there would help Hillary, and she's a supporters. In Florida (where I have a little more sympathy) there's a Republican governor (Crist) and his main interest is causing as much angst as possible to Democrats. That much was clear on TV this weekend.

But, back to political realities, perception is at least as important as who is to blame when it comes to politics. And the perception is that an unfair situation exists.

Sometimes, when an unfair situation exists, there is no fair solution. This is one of those cases. No matter how you look at it, somebody is going to lose something to fix this situation. And all of the possible somebodies are Democrats.

The states are not going to pay for revotes, and this must thrill Republicans. Every dollar spent to rectify this clusterfark is a soldier who does not make it to the battlefield against them in November. Because that money is goign to have to come from Democratic party donors.

I could go on and on about this (and have before) but just saying "disenfranchise" does not make it right.

So we are left with the question "what is the most fair?" And the most fair situation is to say, "suck it up." Now we're worried that Floridians and Michagainians (?) won't be able to suck it up.

Is revoting more fair? No. If it wasn't close, we wouldn't be considering a revote. How can the fairness depend on whether it's close or not? It's not fairness to get a second chance, it's privilege to get a second chance when a certain unforseen situation arises.

Now that it's close, maybe other states would like to revote, too. Who knew it was goign to be so close at this late date? If FL and MI can't be faulted for not seeing the future, Massachusetts can't be held to not deciding to also break party rules.

There really ought to be some consequences.

The second most fair thing to do (aside from letting the situation stand) is to distribute the delegates either according to the popular vote count or the current delegate count. Essentially, a 50/50 split. This allows the delegates themselves to be at the convention and participate. And it doesn't cost the party any money.

Hillary supporters don't like this because it doesn't give Clinton a shot at making up her deficit so that we can plunge into a battle on the convention floor, as enticing as that sounds. Also, it's undemocratic. Like the superdelegates who Clinton is lobbying hard to swing her way if she can close the popular vote gap. So, we acknowledge that it's not a democratic nomination system when it suits us, but when we need the FL and MI vote counts that we agreed would be excluded, we are upset that it's not democratic.

FL and MI are a side show. It's a knife that FL and MI stuck in the side of Democratic voters everywhere so that Republicans like Crist could twist it every once in a while.

Gee, thanks FL and MI.

March 12, 2008 at 3:09 PM

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