Friday, January 25, 2008

Hillary wants to seat MI and FL

Well, of course she does. Michigan, and most likely Florida will default to her.

Early on I asked Leah Daughtry about the possibility and she suggested they would follow the will of the nominee. Of course, that was when it looked like we would have a defacto nominee going in. We still might, but it may be uncertain enough that Hillary is starting the push to bring the renegade States in. Personally, I wouldn't be undermining Gov. Dean at this point who oversaw the difficult choice to punish the states, but that is easy to say from the sidelines. Despite my Michigan roots, I am not likely to be getting a lot of delegates myself.

From Hillary.com (with Guam emphasis added)
Statement by Senator Hillary Clinton on the Seating of Delegates at the Democratic National Convention

"I hear all the time from people in Florida and Michigan that they want their voices heard in selecting the Democratic nominee.

"I believe our nominee will need the enthusiastic support of Democrats in these states to win the general election, and so I will ask my Democratic convention delegates to support seating the delegations from Florida and Michigan. I know not all of my delegates will do so and I fully respect that decision. But I hope to be President of all 50 states and U.S. territories, and that we have all 50 states represented and counted at the Democratic convention.

"I hope my fellow potential nominees will join me in this.

"I will of course be following the no-campaigning pledge that I signed, and expect others will as well."


I am all for people having their voices heard. A nice start would be to give full voting rights to all of the Guam delegates before giving delegates to the people who broke with the party. While some Guam delegates are getting only fractional votes, it seems unfair to dilute their voice with those of delegates from Michigan who were chosen from a nearly empty ballot.

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