You may not have been following the controversy over the Michigan and Florida primaries. Here are the basic facts.

Quote »Both Florida and Michigan are struggling to get their delegates seated because they violated the national party's attempt to impose order on the nominating process by mandating that any state not authorized to hold its delegate selection contest before February 5 would be subject to penalties if it moved earlier. In both states, officials tried to call the national party's bluff and moved their votes to January; the Democratic National Committee responded by taking all of the delegate votes away from the two mega-states that are hugely important general election battlegrounds.[/quote]Clinton won the primaries in both states in January. Now, the delegates she won will not be seated in the August convention. The answer would be to have do-over primaries. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like there are going to be any do-over this time around. Blame it on the states in their efforts to have the 1st. primaries. (somehow, I wonder why Florida always seems to be in the center of any controversy involving voting)

Maybe it is fair that Florida and Michigan not be heard at the DNC this time around.

What I don't understand is that as long as they follow Federal and State election laws, the State can pretty much decide when to hold their primaries. Who are the RNC and DNC to pull these two states' delegates? To be honest, these two states have been king makers during the Presidential Elections. If I were the RNC or the DNC I wouldn't be screwing with these states.

Also, I would like to see a National Primary Schedule where the country would be split into quadrants and these quadrants (made up of states) would hold their primaries on the same day. This would keep the candidates from having to criss cross the country to campaign. They could spend time in each region and have lasting discussions on the issues of each region. Just a thought.

Yeah, being from MI I don't understand why we had to take our delegates away. I didn't vote simply due to that threat because it wouldn't matter. I also don't understand why the candidates had to boycott us. But I also don't understand why we decided to move it ahead. What is the gain in that? But I also see why they wanted to. The state felt its voice should be heard because we are a very ailing state right now, but I don't know. The whole thing is confusing.

Florida has decided to definitely not do a redo. But MI is still thinking about doing it, whether by a mail-in vote or what, not sure yet. But they'd like to do it again.

This might sound like a silly question, but why should Michigan have to pay to "Re-do" the primaries, because the RNC and the DNC have imposed their wishes on the state?

I say make the parties pay for the re-do.

I don't know, they were pretty much warned what would happen. It seems all the states had to cut in line to have the first primaries this year, like elementary school kids in line for recess. Unfair, but rules is rules.

Well here's the hilarious part - it doesn't matter!

There are no longer enough pledged delegates to reach the 2024 necessary to win the nomination, with or without MI and FL.

From this point on, the only delegates that matter are the super delegates. PA doesn't matter, FL and MI don't matter. It's all to impress the supers.

Now here's something else to consider. If Obama is now ahead, and there is no longer any way that Clinton can catch him, why are the supers even considering? What is it they're considering? The ONLY thing it could be is overturning the will of the primary voters and giving the nomination to Clinton.

Otherwise, it should be considered a done deal, the supers swing to Obama and this nightmare is over. But ... no ... they're still "considering" as they sit by and watch Obama being done dirty. Where are all those high profile Democratic politicians who so openly endorsed Obama, now? Not one of them appeared to defend Obama. Not ... one.

(I'm a Republican, but this whole thing bothers me anyway)

rn79870 wrote:I don't know, they were pretty much warned what would happen. It seems all the states had to cut in line to have the first primaries this year, like elementary school kids in line for recess. Unfair, but rules is rules.

Again, who schedules the primary for each state? The RNC & DNC or the State Legislature? No where does it say that Iowa and New Hampshire have to be "first in line." The RNC and the DNC screwed up on this one trying to keep everything 'business as usual' by censuring MI and FL.

The GOP didn't boycott us. Just the Dems. I think they threatened because it threw off their ability to calculate and judge who the winner was going to be. That way they couldn't start focusing on candidates before the convention. That's just a theory of mine.

If I understood correctly, the GOP docked MI and FL a part of the delegate votes. The Dems pulled all the delegates.

Cold_Zero wrote:If I understood correctly, the GOP docked MI and FL a part of the delegate votes. The Dems pulled all the delegates.

You're right, the GOP pulled half of its delegates in MI. Shows how much I've paid attention to it all due to this "controversy". Didn't even vote in the primary because of it...what was the point?