The Way Democrats Count Every Vote

UPDATED WITH VIDEO.

Based on what the Press is reporting, about the Democrats' great compromise to allow the seating of the previously disenfranchised Florida and Michigan delegations, you may believe you understand that the Democrats reached a reasonable and fair compromise giving each Florida and Michigan delegate half a vote.

According to the press reports, the Democrats will allow each vote to count and still punish Florida and Michigan for violating the Party's rules about how soon primaries could be held.

That is what the Democrats did for Florida, but not Michigan.

No, for Michigan the Democrats decided to do a little of their creative counting of every vote.

According to CNN, Hillary managed to "win" the Michigan Primary:

Clinton - 55%
Uncommitted - 40%
Kucinich - 4%
Dodd - 1%
Gravel - 0%

Based upon the votes, Hillary earned 73 delegates and Obama none. Fifty five delegates should be uncommitted.

Instead of agreeing to seat a Michigan delegation based on the actual votes, the Democrats cut a deal to "let every vote count" that "allows" Hillary to have 69 delegates and gives Obama 59 delegates. That's right, even though Obama's name wasn't even on the ballot and therefore no one voted for him, the Democrats are giving him 59 delegates.

Watch Harold Ickes, one of Hillary's chief advisers, explain the undemocratic nature of the way the Democrats creatively counted Michigan votes:



The Rules and Bylaws Committee, 30 elite members of the Democrat Party substituted their judgment for 600,000 Michigan Voters and gave Obama four pledged delegates specifically won by Hillary and 55 delegates the voters said should be uncommitted.

Hillary supporters are not happy.

The Democrats' fuzzy math never ceases to amaze me. The way the Democrats decided to count every vote in Michigan reminds me of the way they tried to count Florida votes in 2000.

Democrats Try To Make Up With Florida And Michigan

The Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet today to undo the Party's disenfranchisement of Florida's and Michigan's Democrats.





Now that Obama leads Hillary by about 200 delegates, the Rules and Bylaws Committee is likely to compromise and, following the Republican Party's example the Democrats should have adopted last year, agree to seat half of the Florida and Michigan delegates.

Hillary is pushing hard to seat all the delegates:

Counting the two states' votes could bring Clinton close enough to Obama's total among pledged delegates which in turn could help persuade the party's "superdelegates" that she is the more electable general election candidate.

The Democrat's fight over the Florida and Michigan Delegates may not be resolved today. In March, Hillary threatened to fight all the way to the Democrat's national convention:

"I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don't resolve it, we'll resolve it at the convention -- that's what credentials committees are for."

Rudy Discusses Polls And Campaign Strategy With Russert

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was engaged in a brawl with host, Tim Russert. The show started off with a relatively friendly discussion about recent polls and Rudy's campaign strategy:

MR. RUSSERT: Let’s go right to it. Mason-Dixon, MSNBC have done some polling. First the Democrats, just to share with our viewers and give you a sense of that race. Here’s Iowa: Hillary Clinton, 27; Obama is 25; Edwards, 21--three-way dead race. New Hampshire, Clinton ahead by just three. South Carolina, Clinton over Obama by three. And the Nevada caucus, which is September 19th—November—excuse me, January 19th, Clinton, 34; Obama, 26.

Now the Republicans. Here they are, Iowa: Huckabee, 32; Romney, 20; Thompson, 11; McCain, 7; Giuliani, 5. Fifth place, is that a problem?

MR. GIULIANI: I wish you had shown Florida. It would—it would have—it would have looked better, where we have an 18-point lead. There are, there are some polls we’re behind, some where we’re ahead. I think there are 21, 22, 23 primaries and caucuses going up to February 5th. I think we’re ahead in 16, 18 of them. I don’t expect to win all of them. We’re going to work real hard in every single one of them, maybe surprise some people in Iowa, maybe in New Hampshire, work real hard there. South Carolina, Michigan, Nevada. Then we get to Florida, where I think the latest poll was 16 to 18-point lead, and we’ve had a lead there of that magnitude pretty much throughout. Every once in a while it slipped back to like seven or eight.

MR. RUSSERT: But in fifth place in Iowa, would it be better for you if Huckabee beat Romney in Iowa? Wouldn’t that be helpful?

MR. GIULIANI: The best thing is if you win. That’s the very best thing.

MR. RUSSERT: But that...

MR. GIULIANI: Who knows. Who knows. I—you’ve been through so many of these, Tim. You know that no candidate has won all the primaries in a, in a hotly contested one. This is one in which that’s not very conceivable, given all the good candidates there are. So if we can win a couple at the beginning, you know; win Florida for sure. We go into February 5th, then, ahead in New York, Illinois, California, New Jersey, Connecticut. We’re actually ahead right now, I believe, in Missouri. Kit Bond’s endorsement probably helped there more than me. But the reality is we’ve got, we’ve got a lead probably in, like, 15 of the 20 on February 5th, Florida, and we’re competitive. But we’ve got a long way to go in some of them. So we’re going to see. We’re going to work real hard.

MR. RUSSERT: Here’s New Hampshire: Romney’s ahead of—as you can see, 25; Giuliani, 17; McCain, 16. South Carolina: Huckabee is ahead 20; Giuliani, 17; Romney, 15. And Nevada, we’ll show you Nevada: Giuliani is ahead 25, 20, 17.

MR. GIULIANI: Now do Florida. Do Florida.

MR. RUSSERT: We, we haven’t done Florida. But we’ll, we’ll get there eventually.

MR. GIULIANI: No, but you look, you look at South Carolina, that’s, that’s a good place to be for someone who has, you know, campaigned all over the country. We haven’t concentrated on any one state. We’ve kind of had a proportionate campaign all over. Some of the candidates have concentrated on a state. We got a real good organization in South Carolina. That’s a very competitive place to be.

MR. RUSSERT: But if you lose...

MR. GIULIANI: New Hampshire.

MR. RUSSERT: ...Iowa, if you lose Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina, you’re still in?

MR. GIULIANI: I’m, I’m, I’m in, all right? The idea is you want to win the first one. If you lose the first one, you want to win the second one. If you lose the second one, you want to win the third one. And you want to be there for, you know, Florida, at the end of the month, big state. And you want to be there, certainly, for February 5th when we’re going to have more primaries on one day than we’ve ever had in our history. And some real big states, you know, New York, Illinois, California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to some important issues first.

MR. GIULIANI: Oh, and Michigan is in there, too. We shouldn’t miss Michigan is in there in January.

You can watch the discussion in the following video:




Rudy has a point. The race for the presidential campaign is wide open and theoretically Rudy can wait until Florida for his first win. But the dynamics and the polls will change as voters start to pick their favorites in the caucuses and primaries. The winners always get a big boost from the ensuing press coverage. Forida may be too long to wait.

Democratic Party Disenfranchises Michigan Democrats

Not satisfied with upsetting Florida Democratic voters, Saturday the Democratic National Committee voted to strip Michigan of all of its 156 delegates to the party’s 2008 nominating convention in Denver.

The Democratic Party leaders are punishing Florida and Michigan Democrats for scheduling presidential primaries earlier than the national party leaders think they should. Democratic Party rules allow only Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to hold 2008 primary contests before February 5.

I was surprised that the Democratic presidential candidates have sided with the Democratic National Committee, agreeing with the decision to disenfranchise the voters. Whatever happened to the Democrats' every vote counts mantra?

Gay Marriage Ban Likely On Florida's 2008 Ballot

In next year's Presidential election, Florida voters will probably also vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages:

Proponents of the ban are heartened by polls showing that the amendment has a good chance of getting the 60 percent of votes necessary for passage.

"People intuitively understand why marriage should be between a man and a woman," said John Stemberger, head of Florida4Marriage.

Gay marriage is already illegal in Florida because the state adopted the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Nevertheless. Some support the amendment to ban gay marriage so state judges could not find the current law unconstitutional.

Only 13,000 more voter signatures are needed to reach the required 611,009 to get the amendment on the ballot

Bill Vayens, secretary of the Florida Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Caucus, said opponents have a legal team ready to challenge signatures.

Castro's Choice - Hillary/Obama

Cuba's Fidel Castro tells Democrats the winning ticket is Hillary Clinton and Obama:

"The word today is that an apparently unbeatable ticket could be Hillary for president and Obama as her running mate," he wrote in an editorial column on U.S. presidents published on Tuesday by Cuba's Communist Party newspaper, Granma.

Castro also had kind words for former President Bill Clinton, saying Clinton was "really kind" when the two men shook hands at the U.N. in 2000:

He also praised Clinton for sending elite police to "rescue" shipwrecked Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives in 2000 to end an international custody battle.

Castro's favorite U.S. president is Democrat Jimmy Carter.

Democratic Party Disenfranchises Florida Democrats

National Democratic Party officials decided to disenfranchise Florida voters. Florida will lose all 210 of its presidential delegates, leaving the fourth largest state without a vote for the Democrats' presidential nominee, unless the state party agrees to hold its primary later in the 2008 election calendar.

Party rules allow only Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to hold 2008 primary contests before February 5.

Florida's primary date was advanced to January 29, by the state's Republican-controlled Legislature, to give the state a more prominent voice in presidential selection process. Florida Democratic party officials said they originally opposed the change. That may be, but they are now committed to January primary election because they fear less voter participation if Democrats hold a separate primary after January 29.

The Florida Democratic Party was given 30 days to comply with the national party rules by moving its presidential primary at least seven days later. In true Democratic fashion, the state party would rather sue than play by the rules:

Elected officials in Florida have said they would consider legal action and a protest at the convention if the national party barred the state's delegates.

[. . .]

Florida's congressional delegation has raised the possibility of a voting rights investigation in response to the punishment.

National Democratic officials insist there is no legal basis to force the party to seat delegates in violation of its rules. Florida officials could not say what law the DNC would have violated or where the case could be pursued.

Get creative lawyers and you can always sue. The question is whether you will win, and if so what will you win? Someday, Democrats may come to understand it is better to simply play by the rules.