McCain to Pull Out of MichiganPulling out of a hot battleground where you have been slowly losing over a long period of time? Is this the McCain we know?
So NOW What Is Clinton Gonna Do?Will she fight the Michigan decision at the convention? Is she angling for 2012? Or will she bow out gracefully in the coming days? The country is looking for answers!
Florida Says No to Revote, Michigan ConfusedWith the news yesterday that Florida is putting the kibosh on a Democratic-primary revote, the state has solidified its reputation as the place where votes go to die. A statement from Florida’s Democratic chairwoman, Karen Thurman, read, “We researched every potential alternative process — from caucuses to county conventions to mail-in elections — but no plan could come anywhere close to being viable in Florida.” Meanwhile, Michigan Democrats are also trying to make some kind of revote possible, but the logistics are complicated and the candidates themselves are dubious. Hillary Clinton would like to seat the delegates from the original vote even though Barack Obama wasn’t even on the ballot. And Obama doesn’t need the risk of losing Michigan while actually on the ballot or the few extra delegates he could gain from winning. Pundits — dissect!
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Facing the Facts on Florida and MichiganIt’s been one thing after another in the Democratic primaries, from hand-wringing over superdelegates to confusion over the Texas “primacaucus” process. Another headache is now moving to the forefront: With the race so tight, what to do about Florida and Michigan, whose delegates the DNC refused to seat after the states were warned not to schedule their primaries so early? Yesterday, DNC chair Howard Dean laid out two ideas: The states can submit a plan for a new selection process or they can wait until the summer and ask the party’s Convention Credentials Committee to resolve the dispute. And so the wrangling begins in earnest.
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Should Superdelegates Follow the ‘Will of the People’? Or, Uh, Not?
Whether you think superdelegates are as useless as a third nipple or a great way to get the party elite more involved in the nomination process, you have to at least admit they’ve made for very interesting political discussion. And despite a certain candidate’s momentum, said superdelegates are going to have to help decide this thing. Obama says the superdelegates should follow the “will of the people” (a phrase that will be used seven times in this post) by supporting whoever has more pledged delegates; Clinton maintains that the superdelegates should do whatever they think is best. Both positions, of course, reflect where each camp expects to stand after the last primary votes are tallied on June 7, in Puerto Rico. But like a lot of things in this race, the debate over superdelegates isn’t quite so simple. Plus, a bonus round: Should the regular Florida and Michigan delegates be seated?
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Great Lakes, Great Times: The Michigan PrimaryHey voters, don’t let the Democrats steal Michigan’s thunder tonight. There may be a much-anticipated battle between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama (how do you effectively spar when walking on eggshells?), and John Edwards (and Kucinich maybe) tonight in Nevada, but don’t forget the Republicans are doing something, too. They’re actually, you know, voting, which is kind of a relief. And the results might have a big effect on the rest of the race. If Romney loses, many suspect it’ll be the effective end of his campaign: a third big loss in a state where he spent three times as much on TV as any other candidate ($2 million) and where he actually was born. Unlike McCain, he doesn’t have the luxury of spending part of today spinning a possible loss and looking forward to South Carolina. According to the most recent polls, McCain and Romney are head-to-head, pulling in around 30 percent of voters each. But turnout across the state so far has been low, and since the state allows independents to vote in party primaries, those numbers are increasingly unreliable. All of which basically means nobody knows who is going to pull it off. Pollsters and pundits are wary of making any predictions today. So if you must watch the Democratic debate, make sure you keep checking the Republican results. Because it’s going to be fun as hell to watch all those TV talking heads say “I told you so” later on tonight, when in fact they told you nothing at all.
