Democrats Flounder in FL and MI …

2008 election season, Common Sense, Liberal, Politics

One wonders what is really going on in the inner circles of Democratic politics these days. Half of the Left’s talking heads argue Florida and Michigan should revote and the other half disagree.

I’m a little confused as to what all the ruckus is about. Isn’t this a simple internal Democratic issue that could be solved as easily as it was created? Can’t the party just decide, on its own, what it’s going to do about its delegates? Perhaps they don’t know how to react since they can’t tie Bush to this one.

Did no one see this coming? When Hillary was the presumptive nominee it was no contest! The DNC smacked down Florida and Michigan to look good punishing their own for stepping off the reservation. It seemed a “no downside” call since the delegates wouldn’t matter. It has to have happened that way. Because if the DNC really meant what they first said, they’d insist Florida and Michigan abide by the decision. Or they could own up to not meaning it and take their lumps. They’ve done neither and are taking lumps for that. I can only assume the political calculations are that these lumps are less damaging than the other lumps.

Mrs. Clinton now passionately argues the delegates must be seated. Where was her advocacy months ago when Democrats were originally disenfranchised? Was she too busy to care then? Was the electoral process not as important then? Did Michigan and Florida voters matter less then? Seems Mrs. Clinton thought it was a no downside call, too. It’s OK to make the states pay a price if there’s no downside for her personally. I wonder what Democrats in Florida and Michigan think about her 11th hour conversion? Are they that blind?

In Florida, the Dems have wiggle room. So says Ed Rendell on CNN. They didn’t move the primary. Florida’s Republican legislature did. The ultimate in plausible deniability! But I don’t recall Florida Dems screaming at the time about how the GOP was savaging them by moving the primary. Perhaps they liked having primary influence more than they hated it being forced on them. Still, wiggle room vanishes when you remember it was Democrats themselves who unseated their Florida delegates. Why did the DNC add to the insult when Florida Dems had done nothing wrong? The DNC has all those lawyers with nothing to do until November. Could none of them be turned loose to fight for every vote to be counted in Florida? It’s not like they’re inexperienced in that particular election law fight, after all. Or perhaps it’s not that simple.

Perhaps it’s more like Michigan than they let on. Perhaps the state party moved the primary and got spanked by the national party. That was a DNC response acceptable to all at the time. And that should settle it, then and now. Except it hasn’t since politics has entered the political arena.

Given how this mess started, it seems an easy fix. The DNC made the original ruling, it should decide now and that will be that. Instead, we have polling, reporting, stumping, accusing, posturing, punditing and on and on and on. Why? The decision was made, announced and accepted by Dems from the top of the party to the bottom. Until it mattered. Now, it’s like the Dem’s Vegas union catfight writ large. Rules and party leadership are fine until they have consequences. Then you can’t get a Democrat to lead or decide because they look bad regardless. In Vegas, the courts had to decide. Who knows how this chapter will end?

Forget who voted for the war and then against it. Forget who endorsed his pastor and then repudiated him. The delegate debacle is Presidential political flip-flopping of the first magnitude. That the Party won’t put teeth into their own decisions makes even the candidate agreeing with the original decision look bad. It explains so many actions by the Left, including the war. They’ll say and do anything if it’s meaningless talk. But if they must live by their own decisions - well, they don’t do that very well. But they do want to make decisions for all 50 states and expect us to believe they can lead. They seem to be interviewing badly after presenting an impressive resume.

Maybe some good will come of all this. Maybe the Dems will pick up some great new campaign slogans. Something catchy for bumper stickers and sound bites that they can still use in 2016. Something like “The 2008 Democratic Presidential candidate was selected, not elected!” or “The DNC lied, candidate X died!” Howard Dean could hold a press conference with a banner reading “Mission Accomplished!”

Get the popcorn. We’ve got front row seats to a comedy of errors. Unable to determine their values or whether or not they’ll abide by them if they finally do, they look silly. That look is compounded as they pretend this is deadly serious and not merely something they could solve in 5 minutes if they understood leadership. If you’re a Republican, it doesn’t get any better than this.

Blue

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Blue Collar Muse @ March 21, 2008