Sunday, June 01, 2008

The Party of Rules Don't Matter

I had not doubt that the Dems would ultimately change the rules for FL and MI. It is their standard operating procedure when the rules don't fit their agenda. It is the same as the Senate race in NJ when Lautengburg broke the rules and entered the race after the very clear agreed upon deadline.

They know by completely banning the delegates of FL and MI, even though that was the rule and EVERYONE, including Dean, Clinton and Obama, agreed to those rules, they risked alienating two very important general election states.

Their solution will only serve to create more rifts in the party which will help McCain, who needs absolutely all the help he can get b/c he is not doing much to shore up his right flank with the conservative base, in fact quite the opposite. This will no doubt be one of the most interesting elections in history as it already has proven.

5 comments:

Jeff said...

Dont people always say "This is going to the most interesting election" every election?????

Cajun Tiger said...

Not really b/c there have been some extremely boring election years...'96 for example. I think what you here every election is that this will be the "most important election ever" as this one also will be =)

Carole Turner said...

I have to agree, the Democrats are imploiding on themselves, which is great for McCain. It will be very interesting to see what happens.

Ian McGibboney said...

The Democrats are not imploding. If anything, they're stronger. The Obama-Clinton race has resulted in record numbers of new voters and turnout, putting previously locked states into play. Both camps have passionate voters who agree more than they disagree, and for the most part each were willing to support the other side at the race's conclusion.

Don't believe all that hype you hear about Clinton voters going to McCain. That's raw emotion and is already subsiding. The few who would cross over have principles so weak that it's a mystery why you'd want their votes anyway.

It's now McCain's turn in the spotlight. Judging by his speech on the night Obama clinched, the most exciting aspect of this campaign may be over. With no charisma and no Hillary to kick around, McCain has an uphill climb for sure.

Cajun Tiger said...

You go on believing that Ian. While yes some will come back in the fold, never before have over 25-30% voters said they would switch. That will be a huge margin to overcome and will depend a lot on how hard Hillary works for Obama if she isn't on the ticket, especially in the rural counties of PN, MI and WV who very well may get even more "bitter" as they find out more and more about Obama now that the spotlight will be fully on him.

As far as huge new turnout, a lot of that is a smoke screen also. The huge turnouts in the late states had less to do with Obama and more to do with having national spotlight for first time in decades for a Presidential primary. If it had been over in Feb or March, this wouldn't even be a story. Every year we hear of how all this new young voters will change the election map and it never pans out.