Obama Wants Full Voting Right For Florida And Michigan Delegates

New York Timers:

It seems like another lifetime ago, but remember all the fuss about Michigan and Florida?

After those states held their primaries in violation of Democratic Party rules, the party cracked down on them and said their delegates would not have a voice at the national convention in Denver. Then in May, the rules committee agreed to let their delegates have half a vote each.

Now Senator Barack Obama, the party's presumptive nominee, has asked the credentials committee to let the two states have full voting rights at the convention after all.

The request is likely to be granted since it comes from the all-but-certain nominee, who now controls the party apparatus.

Read the whole story: New York Timers

Comments

[AbbieXHoffman]

11:18 AM on 08/05/2008

Part 1a
I am okay with BO as the nominee, but you have all been fooled into believing this nomination was determined by the will of the people and no one in the media is going to report on this, so I will.

How was nomination fixed?

1. Deliberate Timing
The dems deliberately waited until just about the end of the primary to settle the FL and MI delegates because they wanted to make sure whatever they came up with one candidate (in this case BO) would win. (THAT is not the will of the people).

2. A Pledge Delegate Tie
Had they decided that the pledge delegates would have counted as they are now (full value), BEFORE they could manipulate the stats to BOs favor this is what the numbers would have been. (and I'll do this w/o MI to be more fair.)

BO pledged del = 1770.5
Clinton pledged del = 1657.5

That's a total of 3 pledge del!!!! The dems knew a 3 delegate lead would have been disastrous because then the SDs would have had to determine the nom and that would be political suicide for any SD who was an elected official.

[AbbieXHoffman]

11:18 AM on 08/05/2008

1b
3. Clinton would have won with the support of the SDs (according to the REAL RULES)
Now, about a week prior to determination of the FL and MI delegates, Clinton had by far more SDs on her side and would have taken the nom.

4. But the dems didn't want the people to believe the SDs picked the nom so they had to create a perceived notion that one of the candidates had won with the will of the people. How? The dems pushed certain dels to move to avoid this obvious problem of having the SDs decide this over the pledge del. They did this to cloud the numbers so no one would notice this.

5. But why did they chose BO instead of Clinton to appear to have the will of the people?
Because the threat of being accused of racism by the people over sexism is much more politically damaging. One of these accusations would have certainly occured.

[AbbieXHoffman]

11:18 AM on 08/05/2008

Part 2

6. Fear of taking it to the convention
Had this gone down as it should have with a tie in pledge del, Clinton would have been right about taking it to the covention. This is another reason the dems pushed certain already assigned SDs to Clinton and Edwards to move to BO.

I am fine with BO being the nomination, but don't be fooled into thinking the will of the people decided this nomination. It was a calculated move by the democratic party leaders and I expect them to produce a democratic president.

[Mustang Sally]

06:47 PM on 08/04/2008

An empty gesture now that there is no competition. But, hey, he looks good.

[sharonh]

03:17 PM on 08/04/2008

My take from this whole process is that is does not work, is secretive and does not speak for the people.
We need election reform, popular vote only. One SS number, one vote. Why can't I have a vote in anybody who runs for any party? Why do I have to affiliate myself to vote in a primary? Why? Why do delegates exist--no, I mean really. Voter reform.

[EinChicago]

12:06 PM on 08/04/2008

And of course, all those rabid kultists like Kevin7 and Olivia will, of course be protesting this move right? We've heard nothing but a mindless cacphonyt of "but the rools!!! but the rools!!! but the Rools!" from them for months. How could they not oppose this?

[Trollstakeyourmeds]

06:57 PM on 08/04/2008

Ummmm...(and I know you're being sarcastic)....they'll support this because it benefits their boy. Fnny thing is....if this is allowed and somehow Senator Clinton winds up on the ballot at the convention, they'll both be screaming bloody murder again. See how it works? For Obama=good. Against Obama=bad.

[EinChicago]

12:04 PM on 08/04/2008

Wow. This is a staggering coincidence. HRC states she wil not ask to be on the monimation, effectively making the Denver ballot a Stalinist ballot and Oboyo does a 180 on his prior stance. It's a good thing he doesn't have a spine or these sudden u-turns may hurt.

[jkminwa]

01:54 PM on 08/04/2008

Have you ever participated in party politics before? You do realize that the voters have already cast their votes, right? And did you call Bill Clinton a "boy" when he ran for President at age 46 in '92, a year younger than Obama? Just wondering.

[Rotwang]

02:58 PM on 08/04/2008

"Oboyo"? Fine, from now on I'm calling HRC The Clintoris. Goes well with Clenis.

Grow up.

[ESerafina42]

10:49 AM on 08/04/2008

How gracious of him - now that he knows he's unopposed.

[Ramirez]

11:29 AM on 08/04/2008

Played it safe.

O waited to be magnanimous until after Hillary directed her flock to stand down at the convention.

[NotPC]

11:30 AM on 08/04/2008

Do you think he will work as hard to make sure our folks in the military will have the opportunity to vote in this election? I understand there has been some foot dragging in this area, and many who serve our country will not be able to cast their votes. I would think this would be a wonderful issue for BO to become involved in as well. After all illegals vote here all of the time, and we seem to turn a "blind eye" to that issue. We should NEVER turn away from our military folks, and their right to cast their votes.

[wdw101]

11:44 AM on 08/04/2008

that will not happen

[jkminwa]

01:59 PM on 08/04/2008

Illegals vote all the time, do they? Where is your evidence? Why would an illegal alien, who is here for economic reasons, risk getting caught to cast a vote?

[Lesjoan]

10:43 AM on 08/04/2008

Politics as usual, Obama is a shrewd politician and knows he needs these 2 states to win!

[ArmyCentrist]

09:43 AM on 08/04/2008

I think Obama has an Abe Lincoln complex, that or the DNC is gonna give him one...the man has to secure his own party AFTER winning the nomination? Democrats act like crabs in a barrel sometimes, I swear...

[ArmyCentrist]

09:41 AM on 08/04/2008

Semi-sweet move Obama...may be too late though...

[ebanks84]

09:11 AM on 08/04/2008

We must always remember that "we are our brother's keeper" and to not always want to condemn our leaders when they are doing something to help others like us.

EVERYONE should have a right to vote, no matter what the circumstances that put their state in jeopardy of losing delegates. The PEOPLE did absolutely NOTHING to cause that situation to happen. They only did what they were told. Maybe the leaders should have gotten punished, but definitely not the PEOPLE.

Let everyone vote!

[ThunderclapNewman]

09:21 AM on 08/04/2008

This is only about the delegations to the convention.

Instead of half a vote each, they would have a whole vote each.

[Angelus2007]

11:47 AM on 08/04/2008

I agree, and I have said that since day one...Too bad all I heard from 0bama supporters is.."You gotta play by the rules."..."Hill is trying to steal the election"...ect...ect...ect... Now that he has the nomination wrapped up, everyone should have a vote. I guarantee if those votes gave HRC the nomination he wouldn't be saying this today.

[kaplan88]

12:03 PM on 08/04/2008

Uh i think the problem was that Clinton agreed to the same rules but when they didn't suit her purpose, as in Obama may actually have a chance to win, then every vote should count.

If she had opposed the decision by the Rules committee from the very beginning, a decision made partly by people who supported or were affiliated with her campaign, then her "every vote should count" mantra would have had a lot more credibility.

MY own position was that either:

1. stand by the decision and don't count any of the delegates
2. redo both elections
3. split the votes not 50-50 but split them evenly among whichever candidates were still in that particular election

What annoyed me was that the whole fiasco at the end had nothing to do with voters rights or fairness but had everything to do with politics. It would have been nice for someone to stand up and say...let's have some integrity and stand by the decision we as a party made and which all candidates had agreed.

[wdw101]

01:51 PM on 08/04/2008

i agree.......let's have a nomination fight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[nellie]

08:49 AM on 08/04/2008

Good move.

[WFV]

08:29 AM on 08/04/2008

They're getting what they wanted....why not just accept the gift and be happy about it?

[jrterrier]

01:33 PM on 08/04/2008

no, they/we are not getting what we wanted. what we wanted is to have the vote count when they were counting the votes. now, it doesn't matter.

it's like sending helicopters to rescue the katrina victims after they had either drowned or the waters had fully receded. or more apt, like voting present when the vote that counted was a yes.

[wdw101]

01:48 PM on 08/04/2008

it is all a scam........these votes count but those don't.......super-delegates fly in the face of a vote

[Sctt859]

08:31 AM on 08/04/2008

I am guessing one of two things

1. O does not want the presidency and giving full voting rights to FL and MI will give Hillary the democratic nominiation
2. O is taking hillary as his VP

[bdl0715]

11:02 AM on 08/04/2008

You are wrong on both counts. Giving FL and MI full voting rights will still not give Hillary more delegates. He is trying to pull the party together, which is what he is suppose to do.

[pleeezzze]

04:21 PM on 08/04/2008

Really !! Well I must say he's taken Months to get around to it .
I say it's a last ditch effort to WIN .

[belief08]

04:52 PM on 08/04/2008

Wrong on either point. Don't hold your breath Clintonites. I know it's a ploy on the Clintons part for 2o12, she's in for a rude awakening then as well.