Monday, March 10, 2008

Why letting Michigan & Florida's delegates be seated is a BAD look

I know I'm an Obama supporter and I'm riding out until the clock is winded down and all that but see I don't think I'm really being overly biased because even if they gave Michigan and Florida a mulligan, I don't think Hillary would net more than a dozen or so total delegates in her best case scenario. Barack wouldn't stand to lose much at all. I agree Hillary would probably still win both states, but the margins wouldn't be much greater than maybe 10% to the tune of a 55-45 outcome.

In Michigan, voter turn out in January was probably suppressed to some degree because the ballot looked like Iraq's democracy under Saddaam. Some people didn't even bother wasting time best spent elsewhere (kicking rocks, watching grass grow among other things) to participate in something that wouldn't amount to much of anything. In Florida, at the time, people hadn't had as much exposure to Obama to form a real true palatable sense of the good Senator and where he stood on the issues and how he would be a differentiate himself from Hillary since it was agreed upon by the candidates that they wouldn't campaign the state. This unarguably tilted the scales in her favor in the Sunshine State because she already had high name recognition. But more to the principle, why should Barack Obama have to sit there and even have to have the score changed in any degree, however minimal it may/will be, because the refs want to have a change of heart in the middle of the contest and amend the rules of the game that everybody knew going in and seemed to have no problem agreeing on publicly last year? Both campaigns stood by the national ruling and towed the party line about Michigan & Florida's delegates being disqualified but now because there's an inkling to how the it would have resulted, Hillary's campaign is using those two states as part of a potential argument to move closer to Barack and bolster some sort of argument to the superdelegates assuming the battle goes to the convention. I think that's wrong to ask of the Obama campaign, quite frankly. They didn't fuck this up. Michigan and Florida did. The Obama Campaign shouldn't be penalized for abiding by the rules just because Florida and Michigan couldn't.

We're talking about serious stakes here. This ain't splitting hairs with your brother in the basement playing Madden when the PS2 freezes. This is real life, there are no do-overs. I'm saying, yeah I feel bad for the people of those states but we all have to follow the rules set by our superiors. If my boss told be not to leave work until 9:15 and if I leave at 9:05 anyway, I'd be facing very real consequences. If I got fired, docked pay or had my entire work card invalidated for failing to follow orders, my boss would be perfectly within his rights to consider any and all disciplinary action to my detriment to deter others from disobeying him and the other superiors. He wouldn't be trying to hear that do-over shit, give me 'one more chance' weak crap. There are rules for a reason. However small they seem to us [and I'm sounding real 'hall monitor-ish' right now but] there are real consequences for failing to adhere to the rules from above, even the ones we think are stupid. I feel bad for the people of Florida & Michigan, let me reiterate that people but I'd feel worse for the party I claim membership to if they fucked a good man that's the clear preference of all the states thus far that followed the rules and should be rewarded by having their votes counted within the guidelines of the Democratic system.

There's nothing good about this situation but there are rules in place that need to be followed and you need to have real consequences for not following them. The party officials from those states knew what was good when they went ahead anyway and disregarded what the national party was telling them. This should serve as a reminder to the democratic voters from those two states (and every state really) to make sure the people they're voting for reflect their ideals as well as have their constituencies best interest at heart in their decision making because if you don't keep up with how your people are performing once you've voted them in and pressure them into acting on the mandates you give them then you end up with this kind of mess. My advice to the people of Michigan and Florida is to write their representatives and call them and voice their displeasure with them and remember this when elections come around and hold them accountable for fucking this up for them.

I'm just happy that for the first time in a long while I can say that my state, which usually gets everything wrong when it comes to voting (most notably Bush in 2000, Bush in 2004, Clinton in 2008) finally got something right in being able to follow instructions and not get my vote disqualified here in Ohio. Michigan & Florida need to get their bars up.

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