Hillary Clinton Pushing DNC to Reconsider Florida, Michigan Penalties

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Hillary Pushing DNC to Reconsider Florida, Michigan Penalties - In a move that will most likely prove fruitless, democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign is asking the Democratic National Committee to reconsider their decision to strip Florida and Michigan of their delegates and the Democratic National Convention. These delegates were taken away because both of these states decided to hold their primaries before February 5th.

It is a very obvious move for Clinton's campaign to try to have the DNC reverse their decision because she won. The delegates that she would have collected could have proven useful down the line, when the race for the delegates is down to the wire. Clinton has nothing to lose in asking for these delegates to count, but her efforts will be in vain.

The only side with anything to gain from these delegates being counted is Clinton. These delegates could possibly mean the difference between her winning the nomination and not, but that seems very doubtful.

The Democratic National Committee is very unlikely to change their decision on this issue. That is because they have penalized these states for moving their primaries to before February 5th. If they take these punishments back than more states could make the same move that Florida and Michigan did this year and cause complete chaos in the next primary season in 2012. Other states will see that Michigan and Florida were not actually penalized and they will bank on the same kind of decision being made about their state.

States would love to move up as far as they could on the primary calendar because the more towards the front of the primary season your primary is held, the more of an effect it will have on the race and the more time and money is spent on their state.

In the end these delegates will not mean that much. I do not see Barack Obama winning by such a slim margin to make the delegates from these two states the only difference between a Hillary or a Barack nomination. If Barack Obama does win the nomination it will be by more than that margin.

If, in fact, the race does come down to a margin that is small enough for Clinton to have won had these delegates be counted, you may see the DNC look into their decision and what it would truly mean in the long run. Unless that happens, I do not see them even thinking about reconsidering.

Michigan and Florida should not count. All of the candidates involved knew about the penalties before the primary and they did not complain then. If Clinton had lost in both of those states, do you think she would be fighting to have the delegates counted? I thought not.

These delegates not being counted does not hurt the Democratic Party in the national election. For one, both of these states are pretty red and I do not see that changing next election. Second, even without their primary meaning anything, democratic voters came

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  • Connie Wilson3/10/2008

    Quotes from Tom Daschle on "Meet the Press" on March 9th, Sunday: "What would it say to the world and to the country if we overturned the will of those people who have voted. It would be a travesty for the party and for the country." This is my big concern. Daschle (who is National Co-Chair of Obama's campaign also said): "...the bottom line is that we all agreed to play by the rules, and one campaign, now, has broken those rules and has decided not to abide by them and our campaign has decided to abide by those rules. We recognize that these are 2 very important states and we are committed to working something out. We'll be competitive, whatever it is. If there's a fair approach that can be worked out, we're for it, we'll work for it, we'll do it. But it has to be fair and it has to be worked out in concert with the parties and abide, as much as possible, with the rules that everybody worked out six months ago."

  • Connie Wilson3/10/2008

    I don't think your oft-repeated conclusion that there won't be some sort of "do over" for Florida and Michigan voters is accurate; at least, it is not supported by the vast majority of "talking heads" on Sunday. At one point, you state, "The Democratic Party is unlikely to agree to a revote," when it was reported that (Dr.) Howard Dean had proposed exactly that and had pointed out that "soft money" could be used to pay for it.

  • Nebu3/5/2008

    Yes, and heaven forbid that we go back to that era of economic prosperity, balanced budgets, and respect from around the world

  • cathiesbloggs1/30/2008

    When I look at this woman, I can't help but remember that she was the "Brains" behind Bill (her hubby) while he was in office..enough said !!...Great Article !!

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