Obama’s Gesture
By Riverdaughter on August 5, 2008 at 5:00 PM in Barack Obama, DNC, Democracy, Democratic National Convention, Democratic Nomination, Florida, Michigan, Rules and Bylaws Committee
From my blog, The Confluence.
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What have we here? Obama has asked the Credentials Committee to seat Florida and Michigan at full strength? (Read the comments to see how the average reader interprets Obama’s letter.)
I can’t decide what I loathe more: that Obama all but acknowledges he stole the primary or that he assumes that the average Hillary supporter will be in any way assuaged by this obscene gesture of asking the credentials committee to restore full voting rights to Florida and Michigan now that he’s taken his victory lap and then poked us in the eye with his Grand European/Mid-East Tour.
Back when his “magnanimity” would have counted, he would have suffered small hit in his delegate lead and everyone would have been happy and impressed by his sense of fairness to the voters. But back then, no amount of pleading could convince him to ask for such fairness. He couldn’t even be moved to join in a revote effort.
The reason is very clear. Without Florida and Michigan, Hillary’s other states lacked the critical mass of delegates that would have put her on an even footing with him. In fact, if FL and MI had been counted fully from the beginning, it would have been all over by February 5th. Her substantial and decisive wins in FL, MI, CA, NJ, NY, MA, and AZ would have dwarfed his insignificant wins in the western caucuses.
The weightiness of all of those big D and swing states would have had him barely hanging in the race. OH and TX would have finished him off. We all know this. That’s why it was so important for him to screw FL and MI back in February. It doesn’t make them any less screwed now that he’s sent a letter.
No, instead, Hillary was forced to pole vault a 435ft bar all primary season while Obama was allowed to gently ease his way over a knee wall, assisted by a boost up from his friends in the media and the RBC committee. Obama successfully kept these two states out of the tallies until he could get the Rules and Bylaws committee to grudgingly give them half of their voting strength, while at the same time awarding Obama uncommitted Michigan delegates that should have remained uncommitted. And he stole 4 of Clinton’s delegates.
He must think we are really stupid if he thinks we can’t see through this meaningless gesture:
- He still selfishly retains 4 of Hillary’s Michigan delegates. He doesn’t give up a single Michigan delegate that should have remained uncommitted.
- The number of delegates needed for nomination has now changed. It’s a higher threshold number now but there is no acknowledgment that this is the case. Does he even qualify as the “presumptive nominee”?
- Unless there is a nomination for Clinton at the convention, the restoration of Florida and Michigan to full voting strength doesn’t count. They can only vote for one person, Obama, or their votes will count as “present”.
- If the delegates can’t vote for Clinton for nomination, even if she doesn’t win it, there is no way for MY vote in NJ to count. I am officially a non-voting voter as far as the DNC is concerned. My delegate has about as much of a voting right as a Berliner.
- It does nothing to achieve party unity. In fact, there won’t be party unity until every delegate has the right to vote for the person he pledged to and have that vote count. Otherwise, the convention is nothing but a sham, a Potemkin election where everything is scripted and a facade is erected to make it look like we are all onboard when nothing could be further from the truth. But the degree of the disunity will be felt in November when Obama goes down to defeat behind the unpopular party’s nominee.
Why bother, Barack? Are the numbers starting to frighten you? Did you decide you needed Florida and Michigan after all, as if any voter from these two states can’t see through this? How about you give back your ill-gotten booty in Michigan and take off the sash that says “presumptive nominee”? Why not leave it up to the voters in Denver to decide if you deserve that title? It would be the sincere thing to do, the honest thing to do, the courageous and unselfish thing to do.
Yeah, right. Why don’t you just brush those inconvenient Hillary voters off of your shoulder?

















