I never post here. I have maybe one or two previous entries.
However one thing I have to get off my chest is this notion that Obama or the DNC, etc is "disenfranchising" voters of Michigan and Florida.
Bullshit.
All of the Democratic campaigns were notified that Florida and Michigan would not count. As far as is known, none protested at the time. On August 31, all campaigns received a letter from various officials in the four early-voting states asking them to sign a pledge not to campaign in Florida and Michigan. Within a day, all campaigns agreed. Patti Solis Doyle, the recently fired Clinton campaign manager, said at the time:
We believe Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina play a unique and special role in the nominating process.... We believe the DNC's rules and its calendar provide the necessary structure to respect and honor that role. Thus, we will be signing the pledge to adhere to the DNC approved nominating calendar.
People in Florida and Michigan were unhappy, but everyone else was in agreement.
It wasn't until Hillary started falling behind that the cries to start seating the Florida and Michigan delegates started.
So things remained, until January 25, 2008. That day, seemingly out of nowhere, the Clinton campaign released a statement announcing that she now supported the seating of the Florida and Michigan delegates. What changed? The answer is obvious. In September 2007, Clinton was the front-runner and the all-but-inevitable nominee. By late January 2008, she was in trouble. She'd lost Iowa, won narrowly in New Hampshire and Nevada, and was about to lose South Carolina the next day by a two-to-one margin. She knew now she had a fight on her hands; she had to scramble for all the delegates she could.
In other words once here campaign of inevitability fell apart, then all of a sudden she started to care. So, who's fault is it that the delegates from these states won't be seated? Obama's? The DNC's? No.
Leaders of both major political parties have tried to enforce a calendar in which only a few states are allowed to hold their voting early. But several states, including Michigan and Florida, have bucked those rules, hoping to gain more influence over the nominating process by voting when the race is still wide open.
In August, the Democratic National Committee responded by stripping Florida of its convention delegates after the state scheduled its primary for Jan. 29. Yesterday in Vienna, the DNC's rules and bylaws committee issued the same penalty to Michigan for its Jan. 15 primary date.
They were warned, they didn't comply, they were penalized. The voters of those states have only their state party officials to blame.
Fuck, the Hillary camp for trying to paint this as voter disenfranchisement when actual cases are spread far and wide. Hillary's political ambitions do not and never will equate to voter disenfranchisement and to use the word to drum up super-delegate votes is beyond cynical, we're encroaching into wingnut territory here.