Super Tuesday Part III: A way out of this mess?
Wed Mar 05, 2008 at 07:56:45 PM PDT
First, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a rabid Barack Obama supporter who has been very unhappy with Hillary's behavior as of late. With that said, I am still a staunch Democrat who will vote for our nominee regardless of whom that might be in November. Most of us who frequent this site fall into that category. Given the fact that John McCain would continue our current policy of endless war and further swing our Supreme Court to the right, the stakes are simply too high to even consider not voting for the Democratic nominee. As someone whose primary concern is making sure that we win in November regardless of our nominee is, the thoughts of a bitterly contested primary continuing on through June and even possibly into the Democratic convention makes me cringe. Remember 1968, 1972, and 1980? We really don't want to go there. So if I were in Howard Dean's shoes I would do the following:
First, I would announce a major reshuffling of the remaining Democratic primaries and caucuses tommorow. In particular, I would allow the Wyoming caucuses and the Mississippi primary to go forward as scheduled, but the remaining primaries would all occur on April 22, 2008. In addition to all of the remaining primaries and caucuses holding their votes on this day, I would announce that both Michigan and Florida will have a re-vote on those days as well. The media would no doubt dub this day Super Tuesday III. Given the fact that this is more than a month and half away, there would be more than enough time for the campaigns to adjust to this new schedule, and the national and local parties would have more than enough time to set up these votes. Ending this thing in late April rather than June or on the convention floor would help by giving us time to unify our party around our nominee.
Second, next Wednesday (after the Mississippi primary), I would hold a meeting with both Senator Clinton and Obama in private in order to set a few ground rules. Howard Dean should demand that both of these candidates stay positive towards each other as much as possible and to focus their attacks on John McCain. When the candidates do point out differences between themselves, they should always highlight the fact that even though they may have slight differences with each other, those differences pale in comparison when compared to the differences between their positions and the positions of John McCain. He should also get them to enter into an agreement that whomever has won the majority (or plurality in the event that the delegate count is closer than 27) of pledged delegates after all of the votes are cast on Super Tuesday III should concede. After all, with legitimate votes from Florida and Michigan included in the tally, there really isn't any excuse to not recognize the candidate with the most popularly elected pledged delegates as the nominee. Finally, he should get them to agree that whomever loses the nomination and concedes will be the Vice Presidential Candidate in order to bring this party back together and put an end to this bickering.
Anyway, that's my proposal. So what do you all think? I am particularly interested in getting feedback from Hillary's supporters.
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