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Sic Semper Tyrannis

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Clinton gets half!

No, not half of Bill's assets. Half of Florida's and Michigan's delegations.

The Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee on Saturday voted to seat all Michigan delegates to its convention, giving each a half-vote and dividing them to give Hillary Clinton a slight edge over Barack Obama.

The 19-8 vote gives 69 pledged delegates to Clinton and 59 to frontrunner Obama — each with half a vote because Michigan was penalized, like Florida, for moving its primary ahead in the campaign season.
Talk about making sausage. There's no rational explanation for coming to that conclusion. None whatsoever. It's a political compromise plucked out of thin air.

And it might not end things, either:

Clinton adviser and RBC member Harold Ickes said, "Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the Credentials Committee."
This story says the decision was "a blow to Clinton, who comes away with an advantage of just 24 delegates"

Democratic leaders hopeful that a deal to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan would mark an end to the deep division the controversy has brought to the party got some instant – and less than encouraging – feedback as they finalized the measure Saturday evening.

As members of the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws panel voted in favor of the measures, some supporters of Hillary Clinton's White House bid rose from their seats and began to shout “Don’t steal my vote!” and “Let’s go, McCain!”

Several paced the back of the ballroom, yelling at the committee members and chanting “Denver! Denver!” – the site of this summer's Democratic presidential nominating convention.

When Barack Obama’s name was mentioned, boos filled the room.

Lots of good video of the protests here. For example:



I'm watching that over and over again, just to hear the guy's voice. What's wrong with his voice?

This one's awesome: a woman from New York got kicked out of the meeting:



Quote: "…the Democrats are throwing the election away, and for what? An inadequate black male, who would not have been running, had it not been a white woman that was running for President."

If she was a Republican, she'd be a Ron Paulian. The Democrats are freaking out!

The video is 1:44 long and worth every single second. Watch the whole thing.

Watch this one, too:

"Those idiot bosses in there have given me two winners in 40 years. And now they're going to tell us how people are voting, and take votes away? The party elite sucks."