Lanny Davis Outlines Michigan, Florida Compromise

Here are two important neutral principles that should guide the Democratic National Committee's Rules Committee when they meet May 31 to decide whether to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations -- and, if so, how to allocate them between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

One principle is based in law, the second in pragmatic politics. Both principles result in the same solution: in some rough approximation, honoring the results expressed by almost 600,000 Michigan Democrats and more than 1.7 million Florida Democrats who turned out in record numbers though they were not responsible for the rules violations, were told their votes didn't count and don't want to be disenfranchised.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Thurber]

Lanny Davis's analysis is severely flawed

1.He wrongly claims MI voted in record numbers. If the MI turnout was close to that in neighboring states, we would get 2 million votes. We got 0.6 million so 75% of the voters stayed home because they knew the primary didn't count.
2.He blames the Obama campaign of running-out the clock on proposed solutions and ignores solutions the Clinton campaign refused. On March 6th Clinton opposed revotes via caucus. On March 13th Clinton opposed a vote-by-mail primary.
3.He imagines 7 delegates fort Kucinich and Dodd. The best the two of them ever did was 6.7% in MI-15. Far short of the 15% minimum to win a delegate.
4.He claims that Clintont "complied with party rules by allowing her name to remain on the ballot since she didn't campaign. But the letter, signed by Clinton, also prevents "participating." Face it, leaving your name on the ballot IS participating.
5.Davis suggests using polls to approximate the voters intent ... but not most accurate one, the exit poll done on the day of the election. It shows that 11.6% of Clinton voters would have voted for Obama and 3.8% of uncommitted voters would have gone to Clinton if all names had been on the ballot, i.e. Clinton would have got about 49% of the vote and Obama 45%. Break that down by precinct and you get a 51-49% delegate split.

[blustate135]

Stop blaming Obama -- he's merely kept his word in that agreement that both he and Hillary signed not to count the votes in Florida and Michigan, and to remove his name from the Michigan ballot. That's what I want in a President - someone I can trust!

[FlowerGirl]

Lanny, you lie a lot. But your compromise is rather funny. She gets all of her votes and more than half of those cast AGAINST her. Heads you win, tails he loses? But he is so far ahead that evernsuch freakish dreams can't stop his victory.
AND I HAVE NEWS for such stupid dreamers. You can cause all the trouble you wish, but you weon't force that thing on us; not now, and not in 2012. IF you persist in this creepy stuff, you might succeed in sabotaging him in November. BUT surely you don't think we won't rememberr your dirty game.
There are at least aa million or more better candidates than Miss FlunkedMy BarExam.

[Vern58]

Mr. Davis,
Along with your incessantly whining presence on MSM cabe news programs, i want to thank you for several of my HRC supporter freinds who have decided to make that decision to support Barack Obama, and YOU are part of the reason they decided. It seems Mr. Davis, that your "presence" is so nauseating to the avarage human being, that your way of presenting the Clinton cause is so objectionable, that it is working in our favor. I hope that when this long, expensive and divisive process i never see or hear you as long as i live.

[FlowerGirl]

But but but, she won in Bosnia, she destroyed snipers there.
Why not let her win win win here?
She wants to so bad.

[Vern58]

I have a better solution- Let her go down to Puerto Rico and convince them to ditch American style Republican Democracy and get them to vote for independence and a Constitutional Monarchy. Then she could be given a Coronation- for real- and Prez can spend the rest of his days as Prince Guillermo. Wouldn't Chelsea make a lovely Crown Princess.........

[IslandGyal]

This is even a better version: Hillary Clinton declaring victory by feb. 5th

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WsPmZ1zDeA&NR=1

What about OH, TX, RI, VT, PA, MI, LA, VA, MD, MT, GU, PR et al?

[XME]

Great video...just goes to show this whole thing is her own fault for assuming it would be a cake walk and that it was all but hers. Problem is she still seems to think that! Just what I've always wanted in a president: someone who's delusional, makes up stories, and who's incapable of accepting blame. Oh wait...that's what we have now...

[jimchap]

Always that creepy smile while on the verge of a tantrum, Davis and
Clinton share the same sense of entitlement and both are has beens.

It's over Lanny, go find an honest way to make a living.

[adzeman]

If you brought that sophistry before me in a court, I'd find you in contempt for wasting my time.
The conditions of contest were approved 27-1. The largest bloc were Clintonites. Clinton herself in an admitted pander to Iowa and New Hampshire is on record supporting the sanction. You have NO argument on the votes taken. They are the fruit of an unsanctioned event. The committee, if they decide to seat delegates should ignore the vote. I am more concerned about the rule of law than the decision, but if they recognize any result there, it sends a dangerous message. Lost a primary? No problem, get a lawyer.
On the personal side, I think you are a despicable hack. Party realignment in your future? Hope so.

[frankifrost]

ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT
HIS NAME (LANNY)
SUITS HIM.

[ishok]

IF, IF, IF, IF...

[shubes61]

Bad news for the Clinton campaign:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5igrYLRrHG3P6lIbs2E7pSH0bxhvgD90UHJ189

Dem lawyers: Fla., Mich. can't be fully restored
By NEDRA PICKLER " 2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) " A Democratic Party rules committee has the authority to seat some delegates from Michigan and Florida but not fully restore the two states as Hillary Rodham Clinton wants, according to party lawyers.

Democratic National Committee rules require that the two states lose at least half of their convention delegates for holding elections too early, the party's legal experts wrote in a 38-page memo.

The memo was sent late Tuesday to the 30 members of the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee, which plans to meet Saturday at a Washington hotel. The committee is considering ways to include the two important general election battlegrounds at the nominating convention in August, and the staff analysis says seating half the delegates is "as far as it legally can" go.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Lanny, why don't we just do all the primaries and caucuses over since it will not be fair just to do two states over again?

[Piatt]

I used to respect this guy but he's obviously had too much Clinton kool aid. Obama did not kill the Michigan revote. The Michigan legislature did...in part because Clinton's tactics backfired. Local election officials had told legislators that the logistics involved in scheduling a revote were next to impossible. But more significantly, even pro-Clinton legislators were put off by Hillary's foot stomping hissy fit in the state on the day of the vote. They were also concerned about the perception that Clinton's millionaire backers were proposing to privately finance a public election.

I hope this primary is over after 6/3. Maybe we can get on with a discussion of national issues rather than an endless Clinton campaign about campaigning.

[realityczech4u]

Hillary would not only welcomely accept all the popular votes in MI and FL, she is demanding that they count. This after signing an agreement not to participate or campaign in those states. In MI, as we all know, Obama was not even on the ballot. In FL, he was, but by not campaigning there, had minimal name recognition, whereas Hillary was well known from her 8 years in the White House.(her performance as junior Senator from New York has been unremarkable from a national perspective, if at all, so I am not counting that). So she had a totally unfair advantage in MI and a very unfair one in FL. The fact that she would greedily scoop up these votes without blushing speaks volumes about her integrity and sensen of fair play.

Senator, go back to New York and 'serve' your constituents there. They elected you without dispute and deserve what they got. As to the rest of the country, well over 50% of us do not trust you, do not deserve you and will never accept you as POTUS. And if you do manage to finagle your way onto the ticket as VP, you wil destroy Barack Obama's chances of being elected. Don't go away mad, Hillary, just go away.

[claytonbell]

By Lanny's math, Hilary should not just get 100% of the delegates that would have been awarded to her in Michigan had it been a real and fair election, but she would also get exactly half of the uncommitted added on top of it. Jesus, why stop there Lanny?

Why don't you actually write out the delegate totals after you do your creative Michigan math? Is it because even you see how ridiculous it looks on paper awarding Hilary with like 75% of Michigan's total delegates and calling it a compromise?

The Florida part of his compromise is real cute too, just seat them in full as if the FL election was a real and fair election. Just pretend that there were campaigns and voter registrations, and rallies / speeches.

[olivia]

Lanny,

What part of SIGNED PLEDGE do you have trouble understanding?

What part of PENALTY is hard for you to comprehend?

[vincealy]

Contract what about the verbal contract that existed between all the candidates in regard to Mich. . Clinton admitted the terms when she said we all know that this votr does not count. Davies is no more than a Clinton shill about as neutral as Bill himself. Honesty matters Obama

[disgustedbyitall]

Nearly every state which held primaries and caucuses according to the rules of their parties saw record turnouts. Michigan and Florida were grossly underrepresented and the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of their state parties for deliberately violating national party rules.

Why are the candidates even involved? Why aren't the idiots in the state parties doing the perp walk? Their faces and names should be plastered all over the front pages for the nasty mess they've created, and they should be made to answer for it. Throwing them out of the party might be a good start.