Speak the truth Donna Brazlie. The Clinton camp is cheating when they try to change the rules mid-steam. Go Girl.

im from michigan and i believe in the 50-50 split

http://sensico.wordpress.com/

SHMACK!!!  that is the sound of Donna Brazile smackin Jim Blanchard/Clinton camps face and calling "cheatin" what it is: "cheatin'"

oh you just go girl!!!

I think Donna Brazile just announced who she's for...Obama.

This argument over the popular vote is so flawed and seems to be a creation of the Clintons accepted by the media to keep this primary going. The Democratic primary is based on winning a majority of delegates. If the rules were defined as winning the popular vote was the basis of nominating the best candidate, none of the states that held a caucus would have had their processes so discounted. The total popular vote in Arizona was 420 thousand that determined 56 pledged delegates.   According to Real Clear Politics, the caucus states are credited with a popular vote total of 453 thousand (in one popular vote scenario); similar to the Arizona total, but they determined 392 pledge delegates. The popular vote total of Arizona alone is approximately the same as the 11 caucus states.  To argue the popular vote is relevant is to argue Arizona alone is more important than Washington, Minnesota, Colorado, Iowa and the other seven caucus states. I don’t understand how this is even a discussion point?

I just hope that we will see an equitable compromise today on both states.  I don't mind if Barack gives in to the proposed 69-59 delegate split with each delegate getting a half vote.  I think that each state put forth pretty good compormise plans and both sides should endorse these and get on with the decision making today.

Go Obama 08/12!

I tuned in to watch the democrats delegate debate, not your panel of Chris Matthews et al.  Please replay a very important part of the debate, namely, the question and answer period of the former Michigan governor.  Because your panel thought their comments were more important, I missed the audio of that debate.  

News bulletin - Clouds are beginning to form over McCain.

How many votes did Obama get in Michigan? And he wants half the delegates? And this is somehow fair?

A 50 50 split, pared down to a 50%, or .5 vote, sounds fair to me, and would as well punish Michigan for breaking the rules.

That's in the Rules...
Why change them now?

Who took their name off the Michigan ballot? Was it Hillary? No. Was it Kucinich? No. Was it Obama? Yes! And now he wants half the delegates. Go pound salt Barack.

thisis fair...

So Donna Brazil....you are saying that your mother would have told Ms. Rosa Parks to follow the rules and get to the back of the bus?

Your mother would have told the thousands in the streets to obey the draft laws and report for duty?

Your mother would have told those folks to pay the tax or give up their vote?

I don't think so Donna.

YEss!  That's what I said! Long time ago.
 

If this really is a civil rights issue, as the Clinton campaign has decided to make it, then it seems weird to me that her campaign doesn't want to at least in some way acknowledge that SOME people in Michigan just MIGHT have voted for Obama if they had a choice.  Her rationale for counting the votes for her is that the voters should not be punished because of the actions of others, INCLUDING HER!!!, which were not in their control.  Yet, she is not willing to concede that Obama supporters will be disenfranchised not because of their own decisions, but the decisions of others.  Oh wait, that's right, this isn't about fairness (because there is no fair way to solve this problem), it's about winning.  

/// And Mame Reiley of Virginia said she could be persuaded to awarding Obama Michigan's "Uncommitted" vote -- but not giving him 50% of the delegates. Reiley added that it was important to respect "the integrity of the voters." ////


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!

Oh, wait a minute. She's serious?

What about respecting the rules? Hillary wants to change the rules in the middle of the game. If the Rules Committee caves into Hillary's demands, it will show other Democrats like me that rules mean nothing and you can bully your way to the result you want (Democrats in Fla and Mich will vote for McCain if their votes don't count. I don't want to hear Hillary talk of Seneca Falls and civil rights marches. The rules are the rules and she agreed those primaries would not count. It says volumes about her character that she wants to ignore the rules now.

Mame Reiley must not have got the memo. This is the "Screw the Voter Committee Meeting", not the "Respect the Integrity of the Voter Committee Meeting". The latter is what the Republicans do for their voters.

I have made my decision about my vote in this election.  I am offended by Clinton's assertion that Obama is an "Elite" candidate who cannot win with white, working class blue-collar workers and that as a result he should not be our candidate.  I challenge the idea that we must have THEIR candidate.  Remember, these are the same people who gave us Bush for two terms.  I have always voted democratic and I have always had the best interest of these white, working class blue-collar workers in mind when I voted.  I have always tried to help preserve their American jobs by buying American and by advocating for policies that helped maintain our economy.  I am one of those college educated "elite" voters who they refer to when they mock his intellectual approach to politics.  Please remember, I and others like me, make enough money to survive the Republican administration.  I don't like to pay $4+ for gas, but I can afford to do that. My taxes are actually lower under the Republicans. My job is very secure and won't disappear to China.  My children will go to college, not Iraq.  I am bilingual and I have the means to secure my family in the event that I needed to do that elsewhere. Who needs whom in this election?  WE (the elite, college educated) don't need THEM.  THEY (the uneducated, incapable of voting in their own best interest) need US.  I am completely prepared to write in Obama's name during the general election if he is not the candidate even if his campaign tells me not to do that.  I am a white woman from Georgia who will not vote for Hillary because of her racist, win at all cost, change the rules in the middle of the game campaign tactics.  Take that for what it is worth, but remember who has the most to lose in this.  In my opinion we don't really need the white, working class blue-collar workers anymore.  We have the hard working Mexican illegal immigrants to take their place thanks to the Bush administration (that they voted for) and the rich Republicans who allowed them to flood over the border (just like they did when Reagan was president, and they voted for him too).  Someone should remind them of this in a big way.  Forget them if they cannot vote for Obama.  They try to find any excuse not to, so let them suffer another depression under yet another Republican administration.  I can shop at Walmart now and not feel guilty about it.  I feel completely released from the burden of having to care about these people who aren't smart enough to see it when they are being screwed over by the people they choose to vote for.

Let the DNC understand that they might just shoot themselves in the foot if they discount the college educated vote and the black vote.  

50/50 or revote. The will of the people is the important thing here.

Obama '08

Spend the money and take a damn scientific poll of the registered democrats in the state, those who voted and those who didn't vote, to allocate the delegates if you really want to represent the wishes of the people fairly.

I think that the delegates of 'both' FL and MI should be a 50/50  split.
The DNC must take responsibility that their initial ruling created both voter supression and the supression of choice for both of these primaries and that neither primary is a true or fair representation of the will of the voters of those states
At least Carl Levin and the team he mentioned tried to come up with something they felt was fair...
I can already tell that the resolution for Florida is one I disagree with entirely.  Clinton should not be given an advantage... the seating of delegates should be for the sake of party unity only and not reflect in the presidential nomination process.

They took their names off the Michigan ballot for the same reason I did not vote in Florida. We were under the impression it would not count. Doh!

Yea. How about the integrity of those who didn’t vote because you said it wouldn't count?

Obama's ridiculous argument that the Michigan delegates should be split 50-50 shows just what kind of a president he would be -- a cheater.  Obama took his name off the Michigan ballot, while four candidates, including Hillary, kept their names on, in solidarity with the Michigan Democratic party, which thought it was being unfairly punished by the DNC.  Obama's decision not to compete in Michigan was based on two considerations: he would lose to Hillary there, and he wanted to focus his resources on Iowa and New Hampshire.  That was a strategic decision, which he should not seek to undo now by stealing delegates from Hillary, who competed fairly there.  

Obama also sent his lawyers to suppress the Michigan legislature's attempt to hold another Democratic primary, so that it could conform to DNC rules.  What sort of moral compass does Obama have?  He's suppressing voting?  He should get nothing from Michigan.

The DNC rules do not allow the Rules Committee to allocate "uncommitted" votes to a candidate.  The uncommitted delegates must vote at the convention, for the candidate of their choice.  Again, Obama is advocating a departure from rules set in stone.  

Obama will lose in November, because Hillary backers aren't going to vote for a candidate who won by manipulating the process in Michigan through treachery and fraud.    The DNC can't undo Obama's machinations, and the biased effect they had on the primary process.

My large, extended Michigan family has never had a member who voted Republican in its history.  This is the first year we will all vote Republican, for McCain, so that a sexist, racist, fraud like Obama does not ascend to the presidency and take control of the Democratic party.  

Is Hillary a loyal Democrat or just the head of a cult?

Hillary, the Queen of Spin and a Legend in Her Own Mind!

http://klintons.com

50-50 is outrageous b/c we all know that Hillary Clinton would have won Michigan b/c the demographics there favor her and Gov. Granholm would've pulled thru for her (just like Strickland and Rendell).....

Hillary would've prob won w/ 55% of the vote w/ other names on the ballot... Biden would've gotten the white male vote, Richardson would've gotten the Hispanic vote, and Edwards would've gotten 2 votes since he's a loser....

so Obama should get no more than 35-40% of the delegates (similar to Florida)

I agree with this argument---somehow, there needs to be recognition that many stayed home because their candidate was not on the ballot.    Also, we don't know if some voters may have voted for Clinton because there was no other candidate on the ballot.  There must be some fair way to divide the delegates between Obama and Clinton that takes these issues into account.  

At the core of the Michigan delegate debate is that if the DNC, Clinton, Obama, Edwards, etc, stayed true to their word, then there would be 0 votes that counted, and therefore no delegates to be "taken away " from Hillary. But it seems that some did keep their word, and some didn't. I realize that it would be a difficult process to best figure out how to honor the choices of Michigan voters,but it is doable. I try to keep company with people I can trust;a person's word carries a lot of weight. If I had to enter into a contract with both Obama and Clinton that strongly affected my family and me, I think it's pretty clear that I would be scrutinizing one of them very, very closely.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):