Read the unbelievable story here.
The compromises by the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee called for both delegations, originally barred from the convention for violating party rules, to be seated in full in Denver but with each delegate casting only half a vote.
The actions by the committee were aimed at bringing the long and sometimes-bitter Democratic nomination battle between Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Clinton (N.Y.) to a close and to ensure party unity as the Democrats head into the general election. But the decisions prompted bitter and sometimes-tearful reactions from some members of the audience, who repeatedly shouted over the committee members as they voted.
Obama remains the heavy favorite to win the nomination, with his campaign hoping that he can secure enough delegates over the next week to do so. Puerto Rico’s primary will be held today, and the last two states, Montana and South Dakota, will vote Tuesday. The committee’s decisions represented a significant setback to Clinton, who had passionately called for seating both delegations with full votes.
The net result was a gain of 87 delegate votes for Clinton and 63 for Obama. Until yesterday’s action, the magic number for winning the nomination was 2,026 delegates. Now the winner will need 2,118. According to a count by the Associated Press, as of last night, Obama controlled 2,052 delegates to Clinton’s 1,877.
Even the most casual observers recall all the crowing about the corruption in Florida regarding votes not being counted in 2000. ‘One person, one vote’ they’d say. Well, the Democratic party is ready to cut ties with that most noble and worthwhile of ideals.
You’ll recall the 3/5 Compromise actually became an issue during the drafting of the Constitution in 1787. In trying to build a representative democracy, one of the main building blocks was the definitions to be used when proscribing census procedures. The census determines (among other things) how many legislators each state is apportioned in the House of Representatives and the Electoral College, thus the choice between counting the slave population in a state’s overall numbers was highly contested. The 3/5 compromise is so named of course because northern and southern states compromised to give each slave a three-fifths weight for census accounting purposes.
Well here it is mid-2008. The Democratic party led by Howard Dean wants to count each person in
Michigan and Florida as 1/2 for delegate apportionment to the Democratic National Convention. The Party had earlier sanctioned these states for moving up their primaries on the schedule and was prepared to give each person a 0 (zero) vote and not seat any delegates.
At a minimum the consequence of this “Great One-Half Compromise” is that the modern Democratic Party will not be able to credibly argue for 1 person, 1 vote ever again. That is unless we start adding asterisks.*
UPDATE: This nominating contest has no indication of winding down any time soon…
Filed under: 2008 Elections, Democrats, National Politics
[...] Are they really less worthy than slaves? I can’t imagine why. [...]
Once again, you do not get the facts of the case. Here, the issue is fair and is not at all related to the Florida robbery of 2000. In Florida, everybody played by the rules. In Michigan and Florida, the states did not play by the rules, therefore these delegates are worth less than everybody else’s delegates.
As much as I am enjoying watch the Democratic Party tear itself apart, this really isn’t an issue of “one person one vote”, and it never has been.
For both parties, delegate allocations have never been about proportional representation. The Democrats seem to allocate based on the results of previous elections, and I’m not sure how the Republicans do it.
But, anyway…..the more important point is that the DNC is a private organization and entitled to make and enforce it’s own rules in its own way. That’s why any lawsuit over MI and Fla. will be dismissed out of hand.
First of all, it is the Democrat Party, not the democratic party. There is nothing democratic about the Democrats. Second, the lawsuits will certainly not be dismissed out of hand. I could think of at least three causes of action that have nothing to do with federal voting laws that could be sustained all the way through discovery to summary judgment. As to whether Hillary does this or not is the only real question.
It is also good to see a leftwing nut correctly identifying himself/herself as being against patriots. Of course, one need only read the comments of Dick Durban and the soon-to-be room temperature Senator from Massachusetts to understand that the modern Democrat Party despises patriots and any who love this country. Finally, as noted by three leftwing newspapers after extensive investigations, there was no robbery in Florida, Bush beat Gore by any measure that could be employed.
We have just witnessed the disintergration of the Democratic party. Florida & Michigan democratic voters in the primary of 2008 are worth less than the blacks (slaves) when in 1787 the decission was to count each black as 3/5 of a person when deciding how many house members would be assigned to each state. Black, white, hispanic, oriental, indian, man or women are all equal to 1/2 a vote. This is progress???? I think not.
The voter did not break the rules, the Democratic leadership in these two states decided to violate the rules for scheduling their primaries. They are the ones who broke the rules so what is their penalty???? I’m waiting. When the phone don’t ring — you know it is the penalty being imposed.
Democrates who have half a brain should immediately change their party registration enmass just to show their displeasure with the leadership(?) at all levels.
They lie, cheat and steal, only on their best days, which are few and far between.
As candidates, most people will exagerate, fanticise, even bend the truth occasionally, but this we expect to get votes. BUT when they tell the truth (?) about bankrupting this country and at the same time taking from the worker class and giving it to the lazy. (Reverse robin hood).