It's Time

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Barack Obama supporter. If this post tends to lean towards that point of view, don't be too surprised.

It's time to put an end to this. The Democratic Party holds their Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting Saturday to decide the fate of the Florida and Michigan delegates. The party rules, as laid out before the first primary or caucus, was that neither of these state's delegates would be seated at the convention due to their disregard of the timeline set forth for scheduling primaries.

In my opinion, a reasonable compromise would be to seat half the delegates for Florida since all candidates were on the ballot. This would punish the state for not following the rules, and would still give the voters a voice at the convention. The primary date was moved by the Republican Governor and Republican controlled state legislature in an attempt to create the chaos in Democratic Party which now exists. They (the Republicans) disenfranchised their residents, so the voters should not be completely unheard.

Michigan is a bit more of a problem. All of the candidates were not on the ballot, as many of them removed their names to stay in line with the party's rules. Hillary Clinton did not remove her name and received 55% of the vote. A full 40% of the voters selected "uncommitted" meaning they wanted any other Democrat besides her to represent them. Again, a fair compromise would be to seat half of the delegates. The "uncommitted" delegates should be awarded to the only other non-Clinton Democrat still vying for the nomination, Barack Obama. Like Florida, this gives the Michigan residents a voice in selecting their nominee.

Now that I've settled that, let me move onto why this won't resolve the issue. The thing is that Saturday's meeting, or even the final primaries on Tuesday, will not be the end. When the sun rises on Wednesday, Obama will have a majority of the pledged delegates and likely will have enough of the superdelegates to surpass the number needed for nomination; regardless of the disposition of the Florida and Michigan delegates. It is obvious that will of the majority of party voters want Obama to represent them in the general election.

Unfortunately, the Clinton campaign is no longer about rescuing this country from the eight disastrous years of the Bush regime... it's all about Hillary. She will file suit to win in court when couldn't win at the ballot box. She will drag the convention into pandemonium. She will strong arm superdelegates. She will continue to play on the bigotry of a number of her supporters. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she mounted an independent run at the White House. She's a power hungry egomaniac no better than the current President. My fear is that no one can reason with her and demonstrate how she is jeopardizing the Democratic ideals she espouses to represent. The only person capable of doing this is Bill Clinton, and he's gone off the deep end.

This has to stop. The idiocy of the war in Iraq, the economy spiraling into depression, the decimation of the Constitution, the disappearance of the middle class, the disregard of the environment, the governance of fear and religious fanaticism. The time has come for the Democratic Party to get their act together, to unite behind the justly selected nominee, and work to elect Barack Obama.

I'll be solving the problems in the Middle East, the schism in the Anglican Church, and the debate between paper or plastic at a later date. Stay tuned.