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Obama should embrace FL and MI revotes now.
I am a big Obama supporter and have been since late summer. With the exception of Daschle, I've been disappointed with the talk from Obama supporters about the proposed Florida and Michigan revotes. Daschle on Meet the Press was the first supporter that I've seen say Obama would supporter revotes.
My personal feeling is that it's a losing argument to keeping on harping about how FL and MI broke the rules. I think it's general accepted that the original votes were straw poll at best and any delegates need to be allocated another way.
Obama should have a press conference where he fully embraces the revotes in both states. Odds are he will still lose FL, but the percentage will likely be much closer. As for MI, he has an excellent shot of actually winning it, causing the delegate count to nearly be evened out between the two. Plus, he will look like the bigger person and willing to do something that could potentially hurt his political chances.
That would be a good example of showing the new politics.
Comments (2)
I agree. While I am a little worried about the results of such a vote, I think that if Obama means what he says about changing the political atmosphere of Washington, he should embrace the democratic process fully and not play any games.
March 11, 2008 8:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I also agree. It seems to me that this FL/MI impasse is waiting for someone to step up and exert some leadership. This may sound crazy, but I have been wondering whether Obama couldn't afford risking a potential delegate loss by offering to seat the existing delegates in FL (40 delegate loss) in exchange for a caucus in MI.
The upside is that this would be consistent with his 50 state strategy of inclusiveness, would be showing his ability to compromise with opposition, and would put Hillary on the defensive if she turned it down. He could regain the narrative by arguing that this solution would give everyone a vote without draining vital financial resources of the party or it's contributors since it is essentially a no-cost solution to the problem. It might also help cast him in a different light among his detractors as well as reenergizing his base.
The downside might be an overall loss of delegates for him if he fails to compensate in MI, but he might improve his standing with uncommitted superdelegates who would see this as a party-healing gesture.
As I said...just a crazy thought.
March 11, 2008 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
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