Weekend Muse; Rules and Bylaws Committee Defeats Clinton

The Democratic party has finally decided what to do with Florida and Michigan, the two “rogue” primaries that had no delegates or campaigning due to noncompliance with DNC rules. The same rules and bylaws committee has agreed to seat the delegations of Florida, which Clinton won, and Michigan, where Clinton was the only candidate on the ballot, but only a diluted version of their delegations.

In Michigan, the compromise, agreed upon by the entire Michigan Democratic party, was accepted by a vote of 19-8. The votes from Michigan will be redistributed with 69 votes for Clinton, 59 for Obama, but each delegate will get only 1/2 a vote, meaning Clinton will take a 5 vote margin out of the state. Michigan superdelegates will also get their votes cut in half, as they’re the ones who are responsible for the breaking of the rules.

In Florida, they decided to seat the whole delegation as is, but give each delegate a half-vote, meaning that Clinton gets 52.5 delegates and Obama (plus the expected Edwards delegates) gets 40. This motion passed unanimously, 27-0, though Clinton strategist and RBC member Harold Ickes was unhappy with the result. Much like the Michigan result, this solution was conceived by the state party (in this case of Florida) and submitted to the national party.

The net delegates for Clinton are far outweighed by the fact that her most important talking point has been taken off the table and there is now no conceivable route for her to get the nomination outside a major Obama scandal. She now needs over 82% of all remaining delegates to get the nod, and needs a minimum of 90% of remaining superdelegates to achieve victory. The only problem for her there is that Obama has gotten about 90% of superdelegate endorsements since May 6th.

Today Puerto Rico, where Clinton is expected to win by over 15% due to her New York credentials, votes. On Tuesday, South Dakota and Montana will be the final primaries of the primary season, and at that point, if you are to believe Majority leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, or Barack Obama, we will have a nominee. Finally.

And that’s the muse.

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