Legal Commentary

What The Clinton And Obama Camps Said About MI/FL

By Big Tent Democrat

By Big Tent Democrat

On MTP:

[Clinton Supporter] GOV. RENDELL: . . . [L]et's revote in Michigan and Florida. Let's end all the suspense. If our campaign is wrong and we are not going to be the strongest in those states, let the voters choose it. . . . Let's revote, and let's see how we do.

MR. RUSSERT: So you would be open to primaries in Michigan and Florida?

[Obama Supporter] FMR. SEN. DASCHLE: Oh, of course. Absolutely. We would be.

Clinton surrogate demanding revotes, Obama supporter ACCEPTING revotes. It seems clear what the positions of the campaigns are. More . .

And Daschle was the only Obama surrogate even positive about revotes. On Face The Nation, John Kerry could not hide his distaste for the idea. Bill Nelson talked about the voters. Kerry talked about "the rules." See for yourself.

On CNN, the exchange went thusly:

BLITZER: Let me talk about -- let me ask both of you about the possibility of Michigan and Florida having a second set of primaries, coming up, presumably, in June. And I want to put some numbers up on the screen to give our viewers in the United States and around the world a sense of what we're talking about.

Without Michigan and Florida in the equation, and they were both punished for moving up their primaries to January, there are 4,047 delegates that would go to the convention in Denver; 794 of them, the so-called superdelegates, the magic number need get the Democratic nomination, 2,024. If there are makeovers in Michigan and Florida, then the numbers change dramatically. We'll show you what they are: 4,409 delegates would be at the convention. The superdelegates would go up to 843, and 2,205 delegates would be needed to clinch the nomination.

Should there be a do-over, in effect, Senator McCaskill, in Michigan and Florida? Should the Democrats in those two states be allowed to have primaries in June?

[Obama supporter] MCCASKILL: Well, certainly Barack Obama wants the people of Michigan and Florida to be heard from. . . . Now, we can't change those rules in the middle of this process. But if the people of Florida, the states of Florida and the DNC come up with a fair way to redo this, whatever they decide, the Obama campaign will respect . . . So I think some kind of do-over is appropriate. I think the Obama campaign is anxious to follow the rules regardless of what these states decide and the DNC decides, whatever the rules are, he'll follow them.

BLITZER: All right. What about that, Senator Menendez?

MENENDEZ: Well, Wolf, Senator Clinton has been on this for a good time now saying, look, they needed to be seated. The Florida and Michigan delegations need to be seated. A way needs to be found to do so. . . .

The Obama camp on its heels preaching rules while the Clinton camp is preaching let the voters vote and decide. Advantage Clinton.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 10, 2008 (boomark / email).