The D.N.C. Gets Florida and Michigan Done
The only argument remaining is, did the DNC do it with a fork or a nail?
The way I understand it, the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee decided yesterday to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations to the Democratic conventions but with their voting strength cut in half. This takes one more leg from Hillary Clinton's pretense that she still has an open lane to being nominated to head the ticket in this year's presidential election. There was insufficient support for Clintons' demand that every Michigan and Florida delegate be seated with a full vote for each. In making the concession, the New York Senator not only settled for a net gain of just 26.5 delegate votes instead of 56, but gave up a crucial issue to take to the August convention in Denver.
IMO the stars of this protracted, and sometimes unruly, nine hour DNC meeting were governor Howard Dean and Congressman Robert Wexler (FL). Dean, in his introductory remarks was eloquent and moving - especially when he quoted Al Gore.
But Wexler, I came to respect the man. He had always struck me as has a hyperbolic shouter rather than a impassioned public spokesman. He was once referred to as “the human advertisement for the mute button.” He's always been the right (Progressive!) side of course, but verging on being too loud to be persuasive. Yesterday, Wexler was persuasive. A longer clip than what follows would demonstrate how richly Harold Ickes deserved this smackdown:Minutes after this exchange, Ickes left his seat at the table. After the meetings, Ickes said that Clinton campaign reserves the option of appealing to the Convention's credentialing committee. It was an empty gesture.
The way I understand it, the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee decided yesterday to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations to the Democratic conventions but with their voting strength cut in half. This takes one more leg from Hillary Clinton's pretense that she still has an open lane to being nominated to head the ticket in this year's presidential election. There was insufficient support for Clintons' demand that every Michigan and Florida delegate be seated with a full vote for each. In making the concession, the New York Senator not only settled for a net gain of just 26.5 delegate votes instead of 56, but gave up a crucial issue to take to the August convention in Denver.IMO the stars of this protracted, and sometimes unruly, nine hour DNC meeting were governor Howard Dean and Congressman Robert Wexler (FL). Dean, in his introductory remarks was eloquent and moving - especially when he quoted Al Gore.
But Wexler, I came to respect the man. He had always struck me as has a hyperbolic shouter rather than a impassioned public spokesman. He was once referred to as “the human advertisement for the mute button.” He's always been the right (Progressive!) side of course, but verging on being too loud to be persuasive. Yesterday, Wexler was persuasive. A longer clip than what follows would demonstrate how richly Harold Ickes deserved this smackdown:Minutes after this exchange, Ickes left his seat at the table. After the meetings, Ickes said that Clinton campaign reserves the option of appealing to the Convention's credentialing committee. It was an empty gesture.
posted by Vigilante at 6/01/2008 09:57:00 AM
2 Moderated Comments:
Quoting Gary Hart:
I hope to live to see the first woman president. But I also hope she will be an idealist, not only a gender pioneer but a bold, brave, and innovative leader who is not part of a flawed Washington system. I want America to send a powerful signal to a watching world that we have now taken a giant step into the global culture by electing an African-American. But my hope and dream also is, and has been since the days of John and Robert Kennedy, that this president will call us to a nobler mission and a higher goal, that he will remind us always of our Constitutional principles and ideals, that he will place us back on our historic path to the establishment of a more perfect union and a principled republic.
Hillary Clinton has raced a good campaign. She has made history. It is now time for her to step aside.
While it can be said that Hillary should take after the last two primaries, a well-earned vacation, I think she's entitled to hold on to her delegates until the Convention. Historical precedence definitely accords her the right to have those delegate votes cast for her in the roll call of states. Obamacans wouldn't object to her recording a record number of votes for a woman at a nominating convention. Would they?
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