Obama Moves Toward an Inevitable Embrace of Florida and Michigan
Slowly but steadily, Barack Obama's campaign is coming around to the reality of the Florida and Michigan situation.
Until now, his approach has essentially been to bury his head in the sand in the hope that the whole matter would just go away—which is would have, had Obama finished off Hillary Clinton is Tuesday's voting.
But with Clinton now almost certainly pressing on all the way to the convention, the status of Michigan and Florida will need to be resolved while she's still a candidate, with re-votes likely in both states (whether through primaries or caucuses). To his own detriment, Obama has been slow to accept this reality, and his poll numbers in Florida have suffered markedly because his perceived indifference to that state's voters. (No damage is apparent in Michigan, at least not yet.)
When asked about the subject yesterday, Obama added a new wrinkle to his customary it's-out-of-my-hands position, saying, "I certainly want to make sure that we've got Michigan and Florida delegates at the convention in some fashion." And a top Obama surrogate, Representative Adam Smith of Washington, went even further, announcing during an MSNBC appearance, "We would like to see a revote -- one where both candidates actually had a chance to campaign, as opposed to the election that we had."
- Poll
- Obama (D)
- McCain(R)
- Spread
- RCP Average
- 45.8
- 41.6
- Obama +4.2
- Candidate
- Favorable
- Unfavorable
- Spread
- Obama
- 55.6
- 33.0
- +22.6
- McCain
- 52.6
- 34.3
- +18.3
They should vote again, but the DNC should pay for it. There should not be one taxpayer cent used to pay for this. The DNC was foolish to "punish" those two states just because they moved their primaries earlier. Who says Iowa and New Hampshire have to have their primaries first?? Imagine the nerve of those two states; two small, inconsequential states, as far as states go.
Primary season should be broken up into five sectors of the country beginning in March. New England can vote first, two weeks later the southeast, two weeks after that the midwest, two weeks after that the plains and Rockies, two weeks after that the west. The rotation can change every four years.
So simple to fix this ridiculous primary.
Let Iowa and New Hampshire secede. (while we're at it, let Vermont go too, nothing but trouble if you ask me.)
The States who violated the RULES should pay. There are consequences and breaking rules and being permitted to change dates arbritrarily sets a bad precedent for the future. ALL Governors and Candidates agreed to the RULES. States who violated them...and their voters...should pay the tab, not our donations to the DNC or taxpayers from States who played by the RULES.
Candidates who agreed to the RULES and now want to manipulate/leverage opportunities where they were the ONLY Candidate on the ballot, should be tarnished for the attempt to (again)game the system -- by voters in upcoming States such as WY, MI and PA. This kind of conduct would not be acceptable in a 10th Grade School Election -- and is not an acceptable standard for leadership or trustworthiness/fair play -- for the President of the United States of America.
We are BETTER than that. Turn the page.