Bill Burton is playing into Hillary Clinton's hands in Michigan, making it look as though Barack Obama is blocking a re-do of the primary there.
It's stupid and it's unnecessary; and it may end up giving Hillary the justification among superdelegates she needs to take the nomination away from Obama.
Here's my reasoning...
First, the Democratic House delegation from Florida, a super-majority of whom are Hillary supporters, oppose re-running the Florida primary.
A re-do of the Florida primary isn't going to happen. So whatever Obama does, he doesn't have to concern himself with that delegation.
Second, even allowing for the miniscule Markos Monkeywrenching in the Republican Michigan primary, which will prevent those voters from voting in a Democratic Michigan re-do, Hillary would have to win all of Michigan's 156 delegates to be able to approach Obama's committed delegate totals. That's just not going to happen.
So where does Bill Burton get off saying,
"This letter from some of Clinton's biggest campaign contributors eliminates any pretense that Clinton's efforts in Michigan are about anything other than an attempt to bankroll an election in which they appear more than happy to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters."
That's just freaking stupid. Burton should SHFPH.
The Obama campaign needs to do a 180 on this issue yesterday. Barack Obama himself must step up and offer to raise $6 million dollars to pay for half the cost of a new Michigan primary (and do the same for a Florida primary, in case Hillary's supporters in the Florida House delegation magically stop fighting it)), so as to eliminate the appearance of impropriety that having Hillary supporters alone finance it would cause. He could do that in a few days on-line, easy -- especially since all his maxed-out donors could contribute to this fund, which, in the event a primary re-do doesn't happen, could be re-committed to some Michigan-based charity. Lord knows, metro Detroit could use all the help it can get.
If he does this, he disarms Hillary entirely on the issue, and takes the moral lead. Re-do, or no re-do, it's a win-win for Barack Obama to do this.