The Democratic Party's Rules Committee did the best job it could Saturday in determining how to include primary votes and delegates from Florida and Michigan. Sen. Hillary Rodham's Clinton's campaign personnel and supporters must stop calling it a "hijacking" of delegates and abide by the party's rules.
Saturday's nine-hour political theater resulted in the Rules Committee's unanimous decision to seat the Florida delegation based on the outcome of the January primary, with 105 pledged delegates for Clinton and 67 for Sen. Barack Obama. Each delegate will get half a vote as a penalty for the state moving ahead its primary in violation of party rules.
The Michigan decision was not nearly as easy. There was no way it could have been.
Michigan's primary, also held early against the party's orders, was extremely flawed because Obama was not on the ballot but Clinton was. The Clinton campaign pushed hard for their candidate to get 73 pledged delegates and for Obama to get none. The remaining 55 would be "uncommitted." Obama's campaign wanted to split the 128 delegates in half with Clinton.
Neither campaign's solution would have been fair, and the Rules Committee ultimately went with the Michigan Democratic Party's solution to give Clinton 69 delegates and Obama 59. The Michigan Democrats came up with those totals through a formula that considered "uncommitted" votes for Obama, added write-in votes for Obama that weren't counted in the primary and took into account exit polling support shown for the two candidates. Michigan's delegates also will get half-votes at the party's August convention in Denver.
The party's solution was far from perfect, as the committee's 19-8 vote showed, but it was as fair as any dealt that could be struck.
Clinton supporters at the committee meeting loudly protested the decision. And committee member and Clinton adviser Harold Ickes said "Mrs. Clinton has told me to reserve her right to take this to the Credentials Committee" at the convention.
"Hijacking four delegates is not a good way to start down the path of party unity," Ickes said.
What no one on the Clinton camp seems willing to acknowledge is that the party could have counted no delegates from either of the two states. Instead, it bended its own rules to allow Michigan and Florida votes to count, in as fair a manner to the party and both candidates as possible.
The onus of creating party unity for the November election no longer rests with the party itself, but with the Clinton camp, which almost certainly now has lost one of the most extraordinary primary campaigns in U.S. political history.
Saturday's nine-hour political theater resulted in the Rules Committee's unanimous decision to seat the Florida delegation based on the outcome of the January primary, with 105 pledged delegates for Clinton and 67 for Sen. Barack Obama. Each delegate will get half a vote as a penalty for the state moving ahead its primary in violation of party rules.
The Michigan decision was not nearly as easy. There was no way it could have been.
Michigan's primary, also held early against the party's orders, was extremely flawed because Obama was not on the ballot but Clinton was. The Clinton campaign pushed hard for their candidate to get 73 pledged delegates and for Obama to get none. The remaining 55 would be "uncommitted." Obama's campaign wanted to split the 128 delegates in half with Clinton.
Neither campaign's solution would have been fair, and the Rules Committee ultimately went with the Michigan Democratic Party's solution to give Clinton 69 delegates and Obama 59. The Michigan Democrats came up with those totals through a formula that considered "uncommitted" votes for Obama, added write-in votes for Obama that weren't counted in the primary and took into account exit polling support shown for the two candidates. Michigan's delegates also will get half-votes at the party's August convention in Denver.
The party's solution was far from perfect, as the committee's 19-8 vote showed, but it was as fair as any dealt that could be struck.
Clinton supporters at the committee meeting loudly protested the decision. And committee member and Clinton adviser Harold Ickes said "Mrs. Clinton has told me to reserve her right to take this to the Credentials Committee" at the convention.
"Hijacking four delegates is not a good way to start down the path of party unity," Ickes said.
What no one on the Clinton camp seems willing to acknowledge is that the party could have counted no delegates from either of the two states. Instead, it bended its own rules to allow Michigan and Florida votes to count, in as fair a manner to the party and both candidates as possible.
The onus of creating party unity for the November election no longer rests with the party itself, but with the Clinton camp, which almost certainly now has lost one of the most extraordinary primary campaigns in U.S. political history.
