May 31st, 2008
07:23 PM ET
15 years ago
Full Michigan delegation with half-vote to be seated by Dems
WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws
Committee on Saturday voted to seat all Michigan delegates to its convention, giving each a half-vote and dividing them to give Hillary Clinton a slight edge over Barack Obama.
The 19-8 vote gives 69 pledged delegates to Clinton and 59 to frontrunner Obama - each with half a vote because Michigan was penalized, like Florida, for moving its primary ahead in the campaign season.
Clinton adviser and RBC member Harold Ickes said, "Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the Credentials Committee."
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i know she ( h r c )was all about her self oh this will not go convention,yah right.
"Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the Credentials Committee."
That's going to be a hard case to sell without the support of the Michigan Democratic Party (which voted unanimously for Sen. Levin's compromise).
tuesday is the end of the road...it should not be drawn out any more than it already has been. i admire hillary's tenaciuos spirit. now that same spirit must go forth to support barack obama as our candidate. when one door closes, another will open. she is deserving of something great where she can continue to contribute to our country in a meaningful way for all of us and for herself.
Great! The Republicans are splitting into bible-thumping authoritarians versus the sensible people and the Democrats are splitting whites vs. blacks (or men vs. women, or Obama-ites vs. Clintonites, or whatever).
With any luck at all, the whole strait-jacket two-party system will collapse and give real people real choices for the first time in decades.
I know it is a compromise not everyone will like but hope it is a compromise that most everyone can accept. I know I would have preferred to see the delegations from Michigan and Florida cast totally out of the Democratic convention, but I can live with the punishment meted out to them instead. I will be voting Democratic in November.
The DNC Rules Committee committed a travesty of justice today. Imagine they have decided to "award" votes to Obama, who received exactly NONE in Michigan? I don't believe this is legal. Awarding half-votes? Is a voter half a person? It reminds me of the ugly past of blacks in this country being declared 3/4 of a person! It was immoral then and it's immoral now. COUNT ALL THE VOTES! Anything less than counting all the votes is disenfranchising voters and that is unacceptable.
Michigan should have a revote on August 4 when they are already holding a statewide election. It's the perfect solution. Florida votes should stand as is with a penalty to Obama (according to the DNC's own rules, Obama broke the rules when he ran ads throughout Florida) and Hillary broke no rules in Florida.
Take it to the floor of the DNC convention in August, Hillary where you can and must prevail. The delegates are not "pledged" to anyone, they can vote however they wish. The job of the delegates is to nominate the most electable candidate for the general election, that candidate is and shall remain Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Obama is unqualified and unelectable. His latest "pastor" scandal reiterates the point that he has not been fully vetted and is too risky for the Dems to gamble with.
Go Hillary! This race will NOT be decided until late August in Denver!
This decision makes NO SENSE!
How can they give Obama more than 40% of the delegates when the uncommitted vote was 40% AND included Edwards and other supporters.
This is not a democracy when the DNC justs starts giving votes to whoever they want to.
SHAME ON THE DNC!
How can they give Obama delegates he didn 't even earn and then take 4 more from Clinton which makes a loss of 8. If the "uncommitted" column is suppose to be respected. How can the DNC suddenly change the rules when it benefits their candidate of choice. They should of let Hillary's delegates be seated as they stand, then if she should lose the nomination, no one would cry foul. Now that they blantantly fixed an election in front of our eyes, this will never feel fair! Outrages and shameful!
There were only two logical solutions to the Florida/Michigan problem: 1) Abide by the rules and not seat the delegates or 2) Pay for a revote. Changing the rules in the middle of the race is not an option. Can you imagine a pro football team petitioning to have the pre-season games counted because they didn't make the playoffs? How many people didn't vote because they were told their vote didn't count? The DNC should have thought about this before they made the rules, not after. They pride themselves on being the "party of change" but this sounds like the same ol' Democrat party to me.
The Democratic Party has no one to blame for all we have been subjected to as voting citizens but leadership of the party. The leadership of this party has all but decided who will be the next candidate to represent this party. In the end, I feel the party will have a very rude awakening in November. If it doesn't decide that this election belongs to the people of this country instead of a group of super delegates who love having the power to make or break a candidate.
I had decided to vote Democratic this time instead of Republican. However, if this heavy handed bias continues I will vote as a Republican, or better yet as an Independent. Bob Barr is looking better all the time. This has nothing to do with 'race' or 'gender', but everything to do with democracy.
Harold Ickes exemplified the nastiness of the Clinton campaign as well as the Clinton supporters in the crowd that did not give the dew respect to the committee members
It was a difficult decision, and I'm in full support of the decision. The committee basically met both candidates half way. It was the most "fair to all concerned" decision they could have made in a seriously flawed primary contest in which Obama and other candidates names weren't on the ballot; one in which Hillary said "wouldn't count" toward anything before she was no longer the front runner.
Obama '08/12
Florida should have full vote and so should Michigan. Obama got the uncommitted so i dont know why they would give Us half a vote. I'm not Half A Vote. I'm going independent. Goodbye DNC
Keep fighting Hillary! All the way to the floor and beyond!
The DNC has just proved to the whole world while the democratic party is democratic. Am so proud of the DNC members and its about time the Clinton and Obama campaigns start the process of uniting the party. Its about time Hillary endorses Obama and goes for the VP. This is the only way out for her to lose with some credibility.
I can't believe that the so called "democrates " thought that today was democratic!!!. Not only did the democrates loose most of the cross over republic votes but also some long time Democrate voters. Thank God that Howard Dean never did become President if this is any indication of how he would run the country. Now we will be stuck with 4 years of McCaine. Thanks!
Hillary is going to bite off more than she can chew with this one.
On top of virtually destroying not only the Democratic Party itself, but also any chances of a Democratic president before 2012, this will not help her.
She wants to maximize delegates even though her chances are virtually zero. But if she decides to contest the MI decision, the DNC and everyone will be reminded that she was the only candidate who didn't pull his/her name off the ballot in that state. Most of the "uncommited" votes (based on exit polls) were for Obama (so somewhere near 40%); a 10-delegate lead is a huge concession considering the fact that they are seating delegates from an election where only one candidate's name was on the ballot. If Hillary decides to contest this, what will her argument be? "Yeah, I know Obama wasn't even on the ballot in this state, and you already gave me a 10 delegate lead despite this, but I feel I'm entitled to more!"
Why dont you put up the up to date numbers
Not everyone watches 24 hrs of TV
Get with it CNN
this committee was made up of mostly former President Clinton staffers who support her and then other uncommitteds. Is Hillary going to call them sexist and file a complaint against their decision?
That makes absoulutely no since. All the votes are counted for who Hilary and the candidate named uncommitted. I am just glad this mess is finally over and now it is time to move on to the general. Get em OBAMA.
I thought Hillary was for MI and FL voters but it now appears that it was all abou ther once again and her numbers, not the voters.
Was it not enough for her to try and disinfranchise the caucus states?
Obama chose to follow the wishes of of both states and I commend him for it. He shall have my vote.
Furthermore, the foul and cursing language used by Harold Ickes is appalling!
Florida and Michigan should be happy that the DNC were so generous
even consider granting any of the delegates. Let this be a lesson to
both states that they should educate themselves on the electorial
process so that they won't be taken advantage of by their OWN state
legistalors. If some of the behavior of "protesters after the meeting was any indication and representation of the voters of Michigan, it is now
clear how they found themselves in their predicament in the first place.
Now that this nonsense is over, lets get on with the business of
beating the Republicans in November.
Who is being treated unfairly now? Who followed the rules and is now being punished for it? I'm so sick of hearing the Clintons and their surrogates belly aching about being treated unfairly. Can you imagine if the situation were reversed what they'd be saying about Obama? Gimme a break.
Is this really a surprise? Now, can we move on to McCain and Obama?
Obama 08'
The whole definition of a settlement is no one goes home happy. I am relieved, now Obama can concentrate on the single issue of defeating John McCain.