Although I have written about the problems created by the Michigan and Florida primaries even before either took place, I have not posted much on items like the trial balloon floated past TIME’s Mark Halperin yesterday as a possible solution.
The reason is is relatively simple, but best explained by two recent pieces from Real Clear Politics.
Jay Cost has a new post up, explaining why neither candidate has a rational self-interest in reaching a compromise plan — to which I would add that Clinton might eventually become desperate enough for some compromise that she might settle for some gain of delegates that Obama might feel safe giving her. But every day that passes without that compromise is a day closer to the practical elimination of having new primaries, so it likely would end up as a true back-room deal.
Reid Wilson has an article from earlier in the week that explores not only why the candidates have little incentive to compromise, but also demonstrating why, as a practical matter, a stalemate on the credentials committee could result in neither Michigan nor Florida being seated.
Accordingly, the reason I have not written much abouth the MI/FL impasse is that the near-daily proposals rolled out by various Democratic factions are almost certainly dead on arrival in the rival camps at this juncture in the campaign. It may well take the candidates and the DNC taking a long hard stare into the abyss before some back-room deal is struck.
[…] don’t get it. Like Karl says, neither one of them has a rational interest in compromising; I’d go a step further and say neither one of them (but especially Obama) has an interest in […]
No election in my life has ever generated so much fun! Nothing but Democrats running for President (John is a Democrat name)! The DNC will disrespect and disenfranchise MI & FL voters, causing the shadow-dimmicrat to win the presidency. Balack O’Brother is imploding with revelations daily about who he is and who is friends are: a bunch of black racist, white-hating, America-despisers. Hillary is still Shillary-Shrillary, and who wants to sleep with that bitch for four year, much less, God-forbid, 8 years, with Bill’s cigar-butts littering the White House. The only thing this circus needs is a good third ring to fill the Big Top, class act or clown (McKinney, Nader, & Paul have been seen squeezing into one of those tiny cars with a bunch of other nutjobs in wighats, auditioning for the gig.)
More popcorn, please! Mmmm, so buttery.
It is to me representative of the whole Democratic Party’s philosophy. Make all the stupid choices you want, and someone will try to fix the problems you created for yourself. And by “fix”, they mean find some way to screw it up in a different direction.
They could have avoided it by not cutting the delegates in the first place. They could choose to swallow the bitter pill and live with the totally foreseeable consequences. But no. There is to be none of that in Democrat world, ever.
The awesome thing about this is that no matter how it turns out, the eventual Democratic candidate is going to have an aura of “selected, not elected”. Either a) the Michigan and Florida voters don’t count or b) the primary rules get used as asswipe.
There’s way out. I love it.
They cut those delegates to support their primary strategy so they would have a strong nominee emerge early in the process. A lot what happened is the media didn’t calibrate I think. They got their Obama on and screwed the pooch looks like.
It’s not even just the media not playing along though.
The DNC was perfectly happy to let the taxpayers of Michigan pay for an election that the DNC was choosing to disregard. They were willing to watch people take their time and their gas money and whatever and go to vote in a contest that the DNC didn’t even plan to validate.
Furthermore, by not allowing campaigning in those states, they denied the economic benefits that come from a campaign. All those millions of dollars being spent in the primaries, and none of it in economically depressed Michigan.
It is such utter disregard for the voters and taxpayers it should be shocking. But it is the Democrat way.
Maybee, #3 is just perfect. much better than I’ve been able to articulate it.
on the other side, you don’t hear the Republicans complaining about MI and FL only getting half their delegates. admittedly the race wasn’t nearly as close, but I don’t think you would have heard any whining anyway.
They had no way of knowing the nominee-conception process this time around would come up twins.
It is to me representative of the whole Democratic Party’s philosophy. Make all the stupid choices you want, and someone will try to fix the problems you created for yourself. And by “fixâ€Â, they mean find some way to screw it up in a different direction.
That’s spot on, Maybee. They identify a “disadvantage” occurring to one of their identity groups and throw tax money at it. When the unintended consequence invariably arises, they shift into full bore “whack-a-mole,” never once considering action that doesn’t involve more government involvement.
It’s an on-coming train.