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Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Florida and Michigan Deserve a Revote


Courtesy MSNBC

In an interview this morning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the voting should continue through the primary schedule. She felt that a clear leader would emerge by the last primary in early June and that there would not be a deadlocked convention.

It appears that some in the Democratic party leadership are worrying too much about a close primary election for the nomination. The concern being that a continued close race will detract from the democrats chances in electing their candidate in November.

Now, there is analysis on the chances of Senator Clinton being able to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan at the democratic party convention in Denver this August. Here is a good read from Politico.com http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9298.html

The emphasis should not be on what the credentials committee will do. Instead the Democratic National Committee should be working overtime to ensure a revote in both Michigan and Florida. Only then will democratic voters be satisfied that democracy has been served. Otherwise, depending upon the outcome in the November election, the failure to count votes in Michigan and Florida will haunt the democratic party much more than the Supreme Court decision on the Florida vote in the 2000 general election.

Let the democratic process play itself out and the voters will be satisfied. Out of the pledged delegates won to date by the candidates, Senator Obama has 53% to 47% for Senator Clinton. Click here for RealClearPolitics.com delegate count. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_delegate_count.html

These two states, Michigan (128) and Florida (185) have approximately ten per cent of the total pledged delegates available in the democratic primary and they need to be included.

The issue is not simply can Senator Clinton catch up to Senator Obama but the more important belief of making sure all democratic voters are included in the process of determining their candidate for president.

Regardless of whether Clinton drops out prior to the convention or superdelegates meet in late June to decide the democratic nominee, the failure to let the voters in these states cast a meaningful vote will damage the democratic party.

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