Is Hillary Clinton behaving ethically wrt these primaries? Is she breaking her pledge? Will she get the delegations seated?
If this goes to a brokered convention and Clinton managed to seat those delegations, Obama should sue the hell out of the DNC. They ordered candidates to sign a pledge to not campaign there. They told candidates that they would not seat delegates from those states. Then when their establishment candidates failed to get enough delegates to secure the nomination, they reverse to get her more support. Obama relied upon the DNC's penalties against MI and FL to his detriment. He has proven that in any race where he has competed, he will basically split the delegates with Clinton. See Nevada and NH. Thus, even if Clinton would have won those states, she would not have run away with them. Thus, their delegate total if seated would not reflect the amount that would have been but for the DNC's edict.
If, and only if, this goes all the way to the convention, HRC will have to do a couple of things to get them seated before the nomination is decided: a) have numerical control over the credentials committee, which is the only entity that can approve the seating of MI and FL, and to do that... b) she'd have to have a pretty big lead in delegates, in which case the whole issue could be moot if the wave is breaking for her. The way the rules are set up, I have a hard time buying any scenario where those delegates get seated before the nom is decided. Let's say HRC has 46%, Obama 42%, and Edwards clinging to 10% or so. That won't be enough to overcome Dean's 25 picks on the credentials committee along with Obama's and Edwards' picks. And it would cause a shitstorm in any event, since she'd basically be asking to be gift-wrapped the nomination with unqualified delegates while Obama and Edwards would be getting ****** over for playing by the rules. Spinning it as 'disenfranchisement' of Florida and Michigan voters - which she is already doing - would look pretty damn disingenuous since she knew the rules as well as everyone else did, long ago. Put it this way - if I'm in Denver and she tries to throw down that line of ********, I'll be a part of the walkout.
My wet dream for this summer is a credentials fight which will decide the nomination. It will, of course, be won by Hillary and a lot of prospective Dem voters will be, shall we say, unhappy.
I still can't believe the Democratic Party disenfranchised all of their party members in those states.
I just want an exciting and unpredictable party convention. I'm tired and bored out of my mind of the recent run of pep rallies where delegates voting are a simple rubber stamp.
The rules were known by those states before they changed their primary dates. They could have chosen another way to register their displeasure with the current system, but they didn't. They were told what the consequences of their change would be. In a way it's more correct to say that FL and MI disenfranchised their own voters.
Maybe the decision makers in FL and MI decided that if their citizens wanted to vote early that they should vote early. Why does the DNC think it should decide when each state votes?
because the primaries are a part of the DNC. it is their process. at least that is my limited understanding.
