Thursday, May 08, 2008

Are Dems Close to Resolving Florida and Michigan?

Taegan Goddard flags this from MSNBC's First Read:

    Everything we're hearing is that a deal over Florida and Michigan could be cut in the next few days. The Obama campaign apparently realizes they have plenty of room to give. The hurdle isn't Clinton and Obama anymore, though; it is folks in the DNC who believe those two recalcitrant states still need to be punished in some form, so states realize there are consequences to doing this in 2012. The latest offer from Michigan is a 69-59 split, with supers going however they want. The two state parties don't want to be halved, meaning their delegate votes become .5, a la Democrats Abroad. But it's clear to us that DNC types want some flesh on this issue. Many hate the idea of Florida and Michigan getting full delegations simply because now it appears their delegations won't make a difference in the process.
Hillary's end game strategy appears to be 1) argue for seating Florida and Michigan under the theory that every vote should count, 2) note that she is by some measure in shouting distance of Obama as a result and argue that it's essentially a tie and 3) press the supers to give her the nod on the theory that only votes in the swing states count.

(If that sounds like a steaming pile of hypocricy, well you just don't understand).

Another Goddard post points the way to a couple of articles on the latest iterations of that strategy, and reports that Dems central wants nothing to do with it. If the Dems are able to resolve Michigan and Florida, and in particular if they minimize Hillary's gains in doing so, what rationale does she have to continue campaigning?

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