There's been a lot of back and forth with regards to the primary delegates that will be coming out of Florida--and the one in Michigan because they had the temerity, for whatever reason (there are different ones).
HRC, not my favorite candidate (actually none of the top three are my favorite candidates...but I will vote for any one of them in the GE as I did in 2004), has taken a great deal of heat for making this statement:
Statement by Senator Hillary Clinton on the Seating of Delegates at the Democratic National Convention
"I hear all the time from people in Florida and Michigan that they want their voices heard in selecting the Democratic nominee.
cont'd below the fold...
"I believe our nominee will need the enthusiastic support of Democrats in these states to win the general election, and so I will ask my Democratic convention delegates to support seating the delegations from Florida and Michigan. I know not all of my delegates will do so and I fully respect that decision. But I hope to be President of all 50 states and U.S. territories, and that we have all 50 states represented and counted at the Democratic convention.
"I hope my fellow potential nominees will join me in this.
"I will of course be following the no-campaigning pledge that I signed, and expect others will as well." (my emphasis)
That's got Kossack riled, angry, pissed off for a number of different reasons...including the old standard "Rules are Rules."
What if I pointed out that during a fund raising trip this past September another candidate that we are all very familiar with went to Tampa, met with some folks and kinda sorta said--at least according to his spokespeople that
According to Sanchez and Tom Scarritt, Obama was asked during the event about making sure Floridians have a role in the nomination, despite the DNC sanctions and the pledge. Scarritt said Obama responded that he'll "do what's right by Florida voters."
What did that mean? Was he hinting that maybe...just maybe...there'd be a shot for Florida in the convention should he get the nomination nod?
That was September. This is now.
And it seems that "what's right by Florida voters" isn't really all that relevant anymore:
"Our position and the position of the DNC is clear -- neither the Florida nor Michigan primaries are playing any role in deciding the Democratic nominee and we are not campaigning in either state," said the Obama campaign memo.
So we're back to Rules are Rules for Obama.
And the Michiganders over at the Detroit Free Press don't appear to be that thrilled either at being told they don't count:
"Our position and the position of the DNC (Democratic National Committee) is clear — neither Florida nor Michigan primaries are playing any role in deciding the Democratic nominee and we are not campaigning in either state," the memo read.
Now...there are hints in that memo that Clinton plans to campaign in the Sunshine State. Indeed, there is at least one diary up suggesting that she's already doing that by going down to a couple fund raisers...ones that are permitted under the rules of the pledge. The campaign's response has been a memo of its own stating that Clinton will adhere to the pledge that she took back in August not to campaign in the state of Florida:
"Let us be very clear," it says. "Senator Clinton signed a pledge that she would not campaign in any state that violates the DNC approved calendar. Therefore, we did not campaign in Michigan, nor will we campaign in Florida in violation of the pledge. We have two small scheduled fundraisers in South Florida on January 27, as explicitly permitted by the pledge, but we will not hold any open public campaign events... (my emphasis)
I don't know what the right thing to do is.
But it seems to me that both the Clinton and Obama camps have tried (in spite of an accidental presser) to adhere to the pledge that they signed, and are still in a very tight race for the nomination.
As such, perhaps we should all just chill out and stop accusing folks of cheating when they are doing things inside the guidelines.
If either he or she breaks the pledge, then let them hear about, as my grandfather would put it, "what kind of trees make shingles."
Till then, cool it with the accusations of cheating...
But in the end...as Trapper John notes on the FP:
But I do believe that, as a matter of party policy, the idea of having a couple hundred thousand people who aren’t even necessarily Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire – and, to a lesser extent, Nevada and South Carolina – select my party’s nominee is completely insane, not to mention undemocratic.
And frankly, when you have 2 states vote and that knocks out 3 folks with some real oomph when it comes to things like FISA, the Constitution, diplomacy, and tactical thinking, there's something very weird about the way our current primary system works.
No, I'm not just saying this because my parents are registered Dems in Florida (had they asked, I would have told them not to). No, I'm not just saying this cause I preferred the bottom tier to the top tier.
But I am concerned that we have inadvertently ceded GE ground in Florida to the GOP.