What do you do about Michigan/Florida? I think you MUST punish them somehow. Perhaps taking away all their delegates is a little harsh, but you must do something to them. You cant let that aggression stand, otherwise every single state will move their primaries up to July the year before the election. I dont hear the Florida republicans screaming about being "disenfranchised" even though they had half their delegates taken away. Is this "disenfranchisement" in the face of violating the rules only applicable to the democratic party? What would you do as DNC leader?
Florida is easy, halve their delegates. Michigan is a lot tougher, but you could probably give uncommitted votes to Obama and halve their delegates. Neither are great solutions, but probably good enough and wont change the outcome. The rules committee gets together in 3 weeks to decide. It will be interesting to see what they decide in Michigan. From what I've read Clinton has more support among the members who have endorsed one candidate or the other, but the majority haven't declared for either.
The only proper thing to do in Michigan and Florida is revote....nobody campaigned in Florida, and everyone was not even on the ballot in Michigan!
Here is what Howard Dean said on "Meet the Press"--the discussion about FL and MI is on pages 3 and 4 of the transcript.
brandons87: Cut their delegations in half and split them 50/50 between Clinton and Obama. The most important part will be to put a muzzle on Clinton, because her endless whining about it makes it 100x worse than it really is.
If the penalty is not upheld, next time plenty of other states are going to push up their primary/caucus. The best answer is the one given before anyone knew the race would become a very close and protracted contest. If my memory serves me, wasn't Hillary for imposing the sanctions before she knew she she would desperately need those delegates? 1. They should not be seated. 2. Hilary should go all out to convince DEMs in Fl and Mich to vote Obama in November.
