Not that the Clinton campaign values intellectual honesty, but her main argument for staying in the race completely undermines her argument for having the Florida and Michigan delegations seated "as is".  And this contradiction takes her campaign to new heights of intellectual dishonesty and cognitive dissonance.

Here is her argument for Michigan and Florida being seated as "voted":

"I am asking you to join me in working with representatives from Florida and Michigan and the Democratic National Committee to arrive at a solution that honors the votes of the millions of people who went to the polls in Florida and Michigan," she concluded. "It is not enough to simply seat their representatives at the convention in Denver. The people of these great states, like the people who have voted and are to vote in other states, must have a voice in selecting our party's nominee."  Link

You know Obama has run an amazing and well thought out campaign.  The only big mistake he has made....

I must be dense.

Florida and Michigan moved their primary dates in violation of DNC rules.

They were told that their primaries would not count and their delegations would be not be seated.

And now this:

Because of Barack Obama's large lead, he's in a position to agree to a generous settlement of the matter of Michigan and Florida: delegations that represent the will of those states' voters can be seated, with the same penalty that was assessed by the Republicans.

If this is done, Obama would retain an insurmountable pledged delegate lead, and a major talking point for both Clinton and for McCain is off the table.

Details after the jump.

Here is a simple proposal that could resolve the FL and MI delegation issues in a manner that would be fair to all: protecting the innocent and punishing the rule-breakers.

Provide a full allocation of the FL and MI delegations, but allocate all of them as super-delegates chosen at random from among all the democratic primary voters.  

Deny entry and voting rights to all the officials involved in moving the primaries up out of schedule.

A Red Herring is defined thusly:

In literature, a red herring is a narrative element intended to distract the reader from a more important event in the plot, usually a twist ending.
The term "red herring" originates from the tradition whereby young hunting dogs in Britain were trained to follow a scent with the use of a "red" (salted and smoked) herring (see kipper). This pungent fish would be dragged across a trail until the puppy learned to follow the scent. Later, when the dog was being trained to follow the faint odor of a fox or a badger, the trainer would drag a red herring (which has a much stronger odor) across the animal's trail at right angles. The dog would eventually learn to follow the original scent rather than the stronger scent.

(wikipedia)

Ever since Hillary lost 11 contests in a row, the states of Florida and Michigan have become an almost daily topic for her, a former president, even a former first daughter. Aping their points were Mark Penn, Howie Wolfson (almost daily, in the mornings), McCauliffe, Davis, Gurin, and countless others, pretending to wear the white hat, demanding equality for "Everyone", and somehow claiming that imposing rules that everyone agreed to was just plain unfair.

As many have noted, the Clintons keep moving the goal posts.
They have essentially 3 tactics/strategies that they are
employing in order to pull victory out of the jaws of
defeat.  The first tactic- strategy is to play the race card.
The second strategy is to bring up Obama's negatives so high
to make him appear unelectable. She will also do this through
emphasizing his demographical weakness to the Superdelegates.

Let there be no more doubt that Sen. Clinton intends to fight tooth and nail for the nomination.  Sen. Clinton has poured $11.4 million of her own funds into the campaign.  According to an analysis of campaign finance law over at Slate, Clinton needs to recoup that money BEFORE the convention in August or lose it forever.

Debt retirement gets a little more complicated when candidates lend their own money to their campaign. After an election is over, any campaign contributions that go toward repaying the candidate's own loans serve, in practice, as money directly into a politician's pocket. As a result, campaign law (PDF) now limits to $250,000 the amount a campaign committee can repay the candidate after the election. In the case of the Democratic primary, the election will end when a nominee is selected in Denver. So unless Clinton is able to raise enough money to pay herself back by then, she'll have to write off millions of dollars she lent to her campaign.

Money talks in politics.  As we've seen today, this fight is going to turn nasty...

Let me start out by saying the additional delegates/popular votes are irrelevant in this stage of the race.    

I write this somewhat with tongue in cheek, but perhaps all Obama needs to do to hurt Hillary in West Virginia is remind West Virginians that Hillary loves Michigan.

Remember how Clinton said it was important to get Mi and Fla counted? Well apparently Hillary Clinton isn't happy. Here is the plan they came up with.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpoi...

The Michigan state party's executive committee voted to submit a proposal to the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee, to send 69 delegates for Clinton and 59 for Obama.

Hillary camp rejected it.

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpoi...

Hillary spokesperson Isaac Baker emails over this:

   "This proposal does not honor the 600,000 votes that were cast in Michigan's January primary. Those votes must be counted."

Every state would like to have their primaries early.  If a clear front runner is determined early in the process—which has often been the case—holding a primary early ensures that you have an influence over the selection.  States late in the primary calendar are left feeling like their votes don't matter.  It also ensures a state will have a moment in the national spotlight, get lots of face time with the candidates, and have millions of dollars pumped into the state economy.

To keep order in the process and keep everyone from shoving their way to the front of the line, the DNC has to set and enforce scheduling rules.  As Kos reminded us, Clinton supporter and former DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe made this point to Michigan in 2004 when they wanted to move up their primaries: "If I allow you to do that, the whole system collapses... I will not let you break this entire nominating process for one state. The rules are the rules."

After the jump, I'll explain how to distribute delegates from Michigan and Florida.

Per TPMElection Central, Hillary has said NO!

So what's the solution Hillary demands?

SEAT MICHIGAN AS-IS!

Yes folks, we have officially entered the looking glass. Hillary Clinton demands Soviet style election outcomes and demands them now.

Is there any longer any doubt she's setting herself up for a 2012 run?

Link

I'll make this quick. I'm happy to report a victory for the health of citizens of the Great Lakes State.

The Michigan Senate has just passed a ban on smoking in the workplace!

The bill passed 25-12 and will be returned to the House for a concurrence vote, after which it will be presented to the Governor.

According to the CNN political blog and Eric Kleefeld at TPM Election Central, the Michigan Democratic party has agreed upon a compromise plan to seat Michigan's delegates at the Democratic convention. According to the plan, the delegates are to be divided with a 59/69 split, with Clinton being awarded 10 more delegates than Obama.

If you read certain pro-Clinton sites over the last couple of days, you would think that Barack Obama is not only personally dedicated to to "disenfranchising" all the poor voters from Florida and Michigan, but is actually seeking to have the states removed from the union all together.

I understand Clinton supporters are disappointed, the rage being directed at the Obama campaign seems a little misplaced.  I think a quick review of the facts is in order here so perhaps we can all calm down.

I think it's about time we do it: it's time to count Michigan and Florida.

Now, I personally had been opposed to counting both of these states before since the primary was still going full force and who the nominee would be was still reasonably in doubt.  However, at this point Obama is so sure to be the nominee that even including Michgan and Florida would make no appreciable difference.

Add on top of this the fact that Clinton appears to be making statements that she'll drop out after the Puerto Rico caucus if Michigan and Florida is counted and, assuming she keeps her word, there is no reason to give her an excuse to keep fighting due to Florida and Michigan still being left out if including them makes no difference.

It also makes moot the point of "what number is needed for a majority."

It is beyond argument that the primary goal of the Democratic Party and, by extention, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is to see to it that the principles of the Democratic Party are advanced and that Democratic candidates are elected to office.  The DNC's stated purpose, aside from planning and operating the quadrennial nation presidential nominating convention is to "work[ ] with national, state, and local party organizations, elected officials, candidates, and constituencies to respond to the needs and views of the Democratic electorate and the nation."  Throughout the last several months, since the unfolding of events that have resulted in the embarassment and disenfranchisement of the Michigan and Florida electorates, the Party and the DNC has heard from the state parties, elected officials, national officials and the two remaining presidential candidatates.  Now you've heard from the Michigan Democratic Party (MDP), which, we assume, has a similar mission.