DNC: You cannot move your primaries up to January.
Michigan and Florida: We are going to move our primaries up to January.
DNC: If you move your primaries up to January, we’ll take away your delegates.
Michigan and Florida: We are going to move our primaries up to January.
DNC: Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
After the primaries…
Michigan and Florida: “We demand that you seat our delegates!”
What the hell is the matter with these people? Which part of, “Follow the rules or you will be penalized,” do they not understand?
Michigan’s and Florida’s state Democratic bigwigs are all in a dither about how “unfair” it is that the will of their citizens will not be counted at the convention. Well, whose fault is that, you morons?
Seating the delegates after the candidates were told that they wouldn’t be seated would be grossly unfair to the candidates who trusted the party to enforce its own rules and chose to defer their campaigning in those states until later in the campaign. If Florida’s and Michigan’s delegates are seated, and Obama ends up losing the nomination at the convention, it would cause an irreparable rift in the party and guarantee McCain’s victory in November. Why the hell can’t the people trying to get the delegates seated understand this patently obvious fact?
Some in Florida have been calling for a second primary. The DNC has said that it’s willing to consider seating delegates chosen in a new primary, but Florida will have to pay for it. The response is that the DNC should pay for it since (they say) it’s the DNC’s fault that the delegates chosen by the first primary will not be seated. It’s not the DNC’s fault, you morons, it’s yours.
There are Democratic state lawmakers in Florida who are threatening to pass a law removing the Democratic nominee’s name from the November ballot if the Florida delegates aren’t seated. Yes, that’s right, “If you don’t let us play at the convention, we’re going to give away our state’s electoral votes to the Republicans and thereby help to usher in another eight years of Republican control over the White House, continuing the policies of the current administration which we all agree have been disastrous for our country.”
This little spat is causing all sorts of rifts in the party. Once again, the Democrats appear to be getting ready to seize defeat out of the jaws of victory. Once again, instead of building strength and unity to fight against their common enemy, John McCain, they’re assembling into the standard Democratic formation, a circular firing squad.
Sheesh, people. Grow up. Stop acting like babies. Take your comeuppance for breaking the rules, and if you want to fix it, do it on your own dime.
+1 to both the OP and the comment. FL and MI Democrats are whacked, and the DNC is whacked for giving them the time of day.
If they want to hold a second primary at their own expense fine. Otherwise, I say f*** ’em.
They want an electoral mulligan. The big complaint I keep hearing it that the people of FL and MI deserve to have their voices heard. Damn straight they do AND they actually have. The democratic voters in both those states elected people to represent their interests who saw fit to ignore the rules of the national nominating process. The voters of FL and MI should have their say. They did and will. The next time they vote they ought to vote for people other than the knuckleheads that decided to disenfranchise them. 48 out of 50 states managed to get it right.