POLITICS
A Solution to Florida and Michigan
by Stump Connolly
The solution to Florida and Michigan is to let both delegations attend the
Democratic convention in Denver this August, but make them all wear dunce
caps. Give them T-shirts that say “I’m The Biggest Jackass In
The Joint” and hang Kick Me! signs on their rumps.
The costumes may not be enough to distinguish them from the other 4,400 delegates. Put a couple American flags behind their ears and Hillary stickers on their cheeks and they’ll blend right in. So let’s also issue them honored guest credentials just like the other 10,000 lobbyists and big givers to the party get so they can attend all the important convention proceedings.
That way, the Florida delegation can still go to the opening reception hosted by the U.S. Sugar Growers Association. The Michigan delegates can travel about between parties in town cars supplied by Ford. And they can all partake in the barbeque at ranches owned by Archer Daniels Midland, get free BlackBerrys from Verizon, and enjoy all the other perks that go along with deciding the nation’s future.
Just don’t let them vote. That should not be too much of a sacrifice after all since it’s been more than 20 years since the Democratic Party ever decided anything on the convention floor.
Consider what happened only four years ago in 2004. John Kerry was nominated for president in a half-filled hall on a Wednesday afternoon (with the mayor of Toledo giving a seconding speech) and his running mate John Edwards was officially chosen after his acceptance speech –– in a roll call cut short by acclamation at 11:38 PM so everyone could get to their parties.
It is a dubious contention this year that the Democratic convention needs Florida or Michigan to make its nominee legitimate. Even if both delegations of pledged candidates are seated, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will still need a good percentage of superdelegates to win out over the other. That fact alone makes the argument the voices of Michigan and Florida voters are being muffled a sham at best and, more truthfully, simply a blatant power grab by the Clinton forces.
But let’s look more closely at what those voices said when they did vote.
In Michigan, all of the Democratic contenders – except Hillary Clinton and Dennis Kucinich– took their names off the Democratic ballot to show their support for the party sanctions. Even then, 40 percent of the Democratic voters who went to the polls chose “none of the above” over Clinton.
In Florida, Democratic party officials pushed their case for moving the Florida primary up from March 11 to January 29 even though they were told, three times, by the Democratic National Committee this would result in the vote not being counted. They filed suit in federal court to challenge the ruling and lost. But still they pressed ahead.
Only after it became clear to Clinton she’d botched her chances in South Carolina did she break her promise not to campaign in Florida; and she still won only 50 percent of the vote versus 33 percent for Obama and 15 percent for John Edwards, who abided by the rules of the game.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, the ranking Democrat in the state and a Clinton supporter, says the only fair way to count Florida is to have a redo. “Allowing the massive disenfranchisement of Florida voters to go uncorrected is not in keeping with your responsibility as head of the party,” Nelson wrote in a letter to Democratic chairman Howard Dean.
But who was responsible for that disenfranchisement? None other than Nelson himself, who led his party eyes wide open down a blind alley. And he did it ironically, when if he’d left well enough alone, Florida’s established March 11 date would have made that state the most important date on the Democratic primary schedule this year.
The debate over whether to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations really isn’t about the voters. Anyone who went to the polls that day not knowing their vote didn’t matter will not win any awards for sharpest knife in the drawer.
The real debate is whether the party hacks who
got Michigan and Florida into this bind should be rewarded for their stupidity.
There are 53 superdelegates in Florida and Michigan who, as Illinois politician
Paul Powell famously said, “can smell the meat a cookin.’”
And they don’t want to be left out.
So let’s give them a seat at the table. But keep them away from the
knives and forks.
