THE OBAMA CRUSADE: Day 21

TODAY:


It has been announced that Senator Obama has requested that the Democratic delegates from Florida and Michigan be fully reinstated. If you'll remember, both states broke party rules last year and moved their primary contests up, ahead of the national party schedule.

Since this was a rules violation and not part of the bigger plan, the states' parties were punished. First, the states lost all delegates, then they received half of them back in an electoral compromise. Now, it seems that Obama wants both states to be able to sit all of their representative delegates at the Democratic National Convention on August 25, and he'll probably get what he wants.

Mr. Obama’s request is likely to cause consternation among party officials, who have struggled to maintain some authority over the primary calendar. Restoring full voting rights will essentially be giving a green light to other states to ignore the primary calendar next election.

The credentials committee is scheduled to meet Aug. 24, the day before the convention begins.

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES

Obama is expected to receive a significant bounce in the polls (we've heard that before) after the convention, but since polls are janky it makes sense that he's shoring up support early. The funny thing is that back around May, when the primary and caucus contests for the Democratic nomination were still going on, Senator Clinton was fighting for the full delegation seating, but Obama wasn't having it.

While Clinton's campaign is demanding that 100 percent of the disputed delegates be seated, a move that would give her trailing candidacy a much needed delegate boost, many of the panel members reached by ABC News this week agreed Clinton isn't going to get what she wants.

SOURCE: ABC NEWS (5.29.08)

See, if Hillary would have received the full delegation seating when she wanted it, her total popular and electoral vote would have been a lot closer to Obama's. That still wouldn't have made a difference when time started running out and Obama had run away with an unbeatable lead in delegates, but it could have had the effect of making him look weaker on the national stage. As close as the race was, it would have been much closer, and McCain would have been using this to make people believe that the Democratic party was much more divided.


ASSOCIATED PRESS VIDEO - MAY 2008:





Fast forward to today. Obama, as the "presumptive" nominee, is now in control of the Democratic party. With this power, he can ask axe the committee to restore all delegates, which will pacify the people of Michigan and Florida. He'll need them in November.

The question is, will Clinton's "Hillraisers" support group make a big deal of this at the convention? Will Hillary allow her people to demonstrate against this apparent flip-flop? Does anyone really care?


I do. I think it is a very interesting political chess move. And it shows how intelligent Obama is when it comes to making deals. Shady? Maybe a little. Smart? Very. You know you have pull when you can make people change the rules at your convenience.

And for the record, hell yeah I'd do the same thing. Because, like Obama, I'm black, and that's how we do.