No changing the rules in the middle of the game.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean must be prepared to deliver that message to Sen. Hillary Clinton and her allies.
With a razor-thin delegate margin separating them and ever-fewer states left on the campaign calendar, Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama are working all angles to get to 2,025 – the number needed to win their party’s presidential nomination.
Which is why the Clinton forces are looking at Michigan and Florida.
Both the Dems and the GOP had declared that – as far as they were concerned – the only states permitted to hold a primary or caucus before Feb. 5 were Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. But Michigan went ahead with a Jan. 15 date and Florida with Jan. 29.
The Republican National Committee sanctioned the states by removing half of their delegates – while the DNC stripped both states of all their delegates.
In Michigan, all candidates but Sen. Clinton pulled their names from the ballot. Naturally, the senator from New York defeated “uncommitted” (though, interestingly, not by an overwhelming margin).
In Florida, all Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in the state. This also favored the better-known Clinton; she “won” and staged a “victory” rally in the Sunshine State on primary night.
This was supposedly all for show, with no delegates to be had.
But now that the race is so tight – it is mathematically close to impossible for either candidate to win a majority before the Democratic National Convention in August – a move is afoot to recognize those two delegations.
Obviously, if the results of the January “beauty” contests stood, it would be a great windfall for Sen. Clinton.
But at what cost to the Democratic Party’s credibility – to say nothing of the democratic process?
At the very least, Dean and the DNC need to impose a process that would allow both Clinton and Obama to make their cases to Michigan and Florida voters.
Either that or keep intact the existing rules.
Fair’s fair, after all.