Democrats Approve Deal on Michigan and Florida

I watched this live online last night until they broke for lunch at 4.15 their time and dinner time my time. By the time I was ready for bed they were still to return from their lunch, but I went to bed feeling that the Hillary side had no chance as their arguments sounded incredibly weak when put forward in this kind of context.

I woke this morning and am pleased that Obama's side have held fast and the compromise has been reached, which will seat the delegates but allow them only half a vote each.

The agreement, reached by the rules committee of the Democratic National Committee behind closed doors and voted on publicly before a raucous audience of supporters of the two candidates, would give Mrs. Clinton a net gain of 24 delegates over Senator Barack Obama. But this fell far short of her hopes of winning the full votes of both delegations and moved the nomination further out of her reach.

She now lags behind Mr. Obama by about 176 delegates, according to The New York Times’s tally, in the final weekend of campaigning before the nominating contests end.

Mrs. Clinton, who led the voting in the Michigan and Florida contests, which were held in defiance of party rules, picked up 19 delegates more than Mr. Obama in Florida and 5 delegates more than Mr. Obama in Michigan.

The deal prompted one of her chief advisers, Harold Ickes, a member of the rules committee himself, to declare that Mrs. Clinton’s fight may not be over, even though Mr. Obama’s advisers say he is only days away from gaining enough delegates to claim the nomination.

Although I am noting that Hillary, to the very bitter end, is reserving the right to challenge this decision.

“Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the credentials committee,” Mr. Ickes said before the final vote, raising the specter of a fight until that committee meets. His words drew cheers from Clinton supporters, including many who yelled, “Denver! Denver! Denver!” — implying that the fight could go all the way to the convention in that city.

When one listened to the Clinton team arguing in this setting their case seemed incredibly weak. They appeared to be arguing that because Obama took his name off the ballot, then he should be assigned no votes at all from Michigan. As someone pointed out, this was - in effect - demanding that Obama be punished for following the rules of the DNC.

Whilst watching this online I was simultaneously watching the comments as they appeared on Taylor Marsh's site - where some of Hillary's more deranged supporters gather - and it was obvious from there that "rules" have become a sort of swear word for these people, as anyone who demanded that they be followed was wildly jeered and ridiculed.

And the audience at the Marriott Wardman Park hotel were certainly partisan as well, with both sides cheering any point which was made which suited their candidate.

As the votes on the agreements were taken, one woman, wearing a blue “Team Hillary” shirt, shoved a man in a suit and tie wearing a small Obama button on his lapel. Another woman in a white Clinton shirt hung her head in her hands.

“That was a crime!” a man shouted.

“McCain in ’08! McCain in ’08!” a woman yelled from the back of the room. “No-bama! No-bama!”

So we are witnessing the very end of Hillary's hopes, the moment at which even she is even going to have to concede that the fight is up.

The committee voted to restore the entire Florida delegation but give each delegate only half a vote, a penalty for moving up its primary and a warning to other states that might consider doing the same in 2012. The vote was 27 in favor and 1 abstention. The committee first turned back a motion, by a vote of 15 to 12, to seat the full delegation and give each delegate full voting rights.

The committee reached essentially the same decision about Michigan, voting 19 to 8 to seat all the delegates while giving each delegate only half a vote. But the decision seemed even more tortuous than that over Florida because of the bizarre circumstances of the primary.

Mrs. Clinton received 55 percent of the vote, but Mr. Obama’s name was not on the ballot and 40 percent of voters cast their ballots for “uncommitted.” The committee approved a plan giving Mrs. Clinton 69 delegates and Mr. Obama 59.

The committee were jeered by Clinton supporters as they came to their decision. And therein lies the problem now for Obama's campaign.

How does one now unify the party when Clinton's supporters have been led up this dead end by their candidate and led to believe that victory was still within their grasp when, in truth, it's been over for Hillary for a very long time?

But the bitterness in the Clinton camp, and it's hatred of Obama, was evident from the comments left at Taylor Marsh's site:

obama makes me want to vomit.

If I hear the word "Rules" one more time, I'm going to barf.

i can't wait to work against DNC this fall

THIS PIG on the bylaws committee....this bought and sold, paid for PIG......

HAD THIS THING RIGGED AND WANTS TO LOOK RIGHTEOUS. YOU'RE A PIG.

It is simply undeniable that certain supporters of Clinton will not be able to bring themselves to support Obama come November as they have been told that he is practically the anti-Christ by Hillary and sites like the one run by Taylor Marsh.

These fools have been inventing illogical reasonings as to why a defeated candidate might still pull off the nomination and, now that this has failed, they will stoke the feeling that their candidate has been robbed.

This will make it virtually impossible for Obama to unite certain sections of the party and will only aid John McCain and hinder the Democrats. That is what Hillary and the Taylor Marsh's of this world have actually achieved.

They should be utterly ashamed of themselves. But I know that emotion is beyond them. Their behaviour to date has proven that point.

There has been talk that Hillary is searching for a dignified exit. After tonight, I fear such a thing is simply no longer possible.

Click title for full article.

UPDATE:

Here's the reaction of one Clinton supporter:



This is how irrational many of Hillary's supporters have become. This is the anger which Hillary, and her utter stubbornness, has unleashed. I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive her.

UPDATE II

Sorry, but I will concentrate more on this story - at the expense of commenting on other things - as I think this is the biggest story going today. The reaction of bloggers who support Obama and Clinton have been interesting.

Booman, who supports Obama, has taken this from what happened:

Well...a remarkable thing just happened. We just discovered that the Clintons no longer control the Democratic National Committee. They were unable to win a single argument today.

I expected MyDD, who are big Hillary supporters, to have gone down the Taylor Marsh road of disgruntled outrage but was pleasantly surprised to find them saying this:

I was actually fairly shocked that they decided to seat Michigan as they did but seriously, why are Ickes and Flournoy bitching? This is about as good a result as Clinton could have hoped to get. Sure Obama took himself off the ballot in Michigan, but everyone knows a good chunk of the uncommitted vote was for Obama, so if the Clinton team is really making an intent of the voter argument then they should be pleased with this result.

The truth is that Hillary's arguments made no sense. It was ridiculous to argue that Obama should be punished for taking his name off a ballot that the Democratic leadership had stated would not count.

And, if the whole point of an election is to determine the democratic wishes of the people, how can you possibly say you have discovered that after you have told that same electorate that their votes won't count?

Some of Hillary's supporters have lost their minds of late, although the reaction of MyDD certainly gives me some hope that sense may prevail amongst some of them.

However, I note that Taylor's reaction is stoking the hatred still and promising devastation for the Democrats for not giving Hillary what she wanted:

You have no idea what you've done. The fury you have unleashed. Your arrogance is topped only by your ignorance and the sheer stupidity of this "compromise," which sends a message that you just don't get it. Oh, and by the way, you've also likely just thrown the 2008 election.

Taking myself out of the equation, as well as my support for Clinton which is unending, and to encapsulte the carnage wrought by Saturday's idiocy, you have simply given Hillary's supporters the reason they were craving. Outraged already, many of Hillary's supporters were waiting for a reason to raise a ruckus, and you just gave them one. A righteous one. They were already screaming for Clinton to go to Denver. Now the decibel level is ear shattering.

Let me enlighten you. Senator Obama is ahead in delegates. A gracious split of Michigan would not have jeopardized his lead. But instead, the RBC, in your infinite wisdom, decided to adjust the delegates just enough to infuriate the entire Clinton contingent that is now set on Defcon Activist Revenge.

The perception problem created is beyond comprehension. Honestly, you have no idea the fuse that's now been lit. But to give you an idea. I'm in the minority on my own blog when it comes to pushing back against a McCain presidency. This didn't happen because of anything Clinton did, my friends. You all cemented it all by yourselves.

Taylor refuses to even acknowledge that she - and the Clinton camp - have been pushing a lie since March 5th, telling people a Clinton win was possible when everyone knew that this simply was not the case.

And now she, and her supporters, are promising to punish the party.



I can only hope that they are part of a disgruntled minority. For any Democrat to promise to vote for John McCain is simply disgraceful. It's tough to lose. It hurts. But all the people that Hillary was fighting for, all those blue collar workers who need someone in the White House who will look out for them, won't be helped by John McCain.

Anyone who believed in Hillary's message must see that the only person fighting for the same values is Barack Obama.

UPDATE III

Despite the Clinton camp threatening to challenge this ruling, Walter Shapiro is arguing in an article entitled, "The new math in Florida and Michigan", that such a challenge by Hillary would not even be legal:

In theory, Saturday's rules committee Michigan decision can be appealed to a new body -- the convention's Credentials Committee, when it comes into existence in July. Ickes, in fact, raised just that specter in his final remarks on the Michigan vote and the Clinton acolytes in the audience chanted, "Denver! Denver!" But, in reality, a formal challenge of Saturday's decision can only be brought by a Michigan convention delegate, not by the Clinton campaign itself. The odds are prodigious that -- under almost any scenario -- the four votes that Clinton theoretically lost in the rules committee will not matter by Denver.

Here's hoping Hillary is getting ready to stop this nonsense.

UPDATE IV

On Saturday a video surfaced on YouTube containing an audio recording of Bill Clinton from a private fundraiser said to have been held on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 in North Carolina in which he discusses the Michigan and Florida delegate situation. After delivering an explanation of how the delegate deadlock came to be, Clinton concludes by saying, ""probably the only option is to seat them under our rules, as half delegates." This is significant in that the Clinton campaign has publicly insisted, right up until the DNC meeting yesterday, that it wanted each delegate restored in full.

There can be no complaint now from the Clinton's.

Tags: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, US election 2008, Democratic presidential nominee, DNC, Taylor Marsh