mrv3000 | (no subject)

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politics

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Why did Edwards and Obama pull out of the Michigan race? They mentioned on the radio this morning something about the state not being able to change the Primary date, but I'm not sure what that's got to do with people getting to vote for who they want to get the party nomination.

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So they could win in Iowa.

Pretty much.

They were showing their respects to the traditional way/dates of primaries, and Michigan and also Florida tried to pull ahead of their normal order. This is just not a Obama/Edwards thing, Michigan and Florida were stripped of their delegates for the convention.

Oh REALLY? Wow. I remember there being a fight about who got to go first this year, but didn't really pay that close attention to it.

Michigan did a "we want MICHIGAN to be heard, so we're gonna move our primaries FIRST!" in defiance of party rules, like a bunch of other states did, or tried to do, this year. The various parties said "No! You can't do that!" Michigan said "OH YEAH JUST WATCH US!", and moved their primary up. Thus, the parties forbade the candidates to do any campaigning in Michigan. Barack et al withdrew their names from the primary to comply with this (and other) restrictions; Michigan may not actually get to send delegates at all to the DNC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Democratic_primary%2C_2008

Bit of a clusterfuck, symptom of what's wrong with a two-party system, etc etc.

Also:
http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/01/michigan-primary-today-democratic.html

Yeeesh. They pretty much shot themselves in the foot with that one, didn't they?

Yes. :(

Esp considering the average... shit, even the fairly aware voter, like myself, knew that there was fuckery, but I didn't find out about the delegate denial until today. I thought that if we voted "uncommitted" our uncommitted delegates might get a chance at voting for Barack (or, according to a sign near our polling place, that we might "draft" Gore, lol)- and I thought we were pretty covered. This makes me full of woe.

That really does suck. :(

Okay, I wondering that, too. You know, French politics is confusing, but sometimes American politics just boggles my MIND.

Me too. :D

Basically, Michigan decided to try and be the "important" state.

Too bad the only Democrat you can vote for here is Hillary, since everyone pulled out.

And she already made the point to say she wasn't going to campaign here.

WAY TO GO MICHIGAN!!! *sarcastic thumbs up*

*grumbles about the idiocy*

Greeaaaat. If I lived there, I'd be pretty pissed at whoever thought that was a great idea.

Actually I think most of us are just laughing at them. Their killing their own campaign by doing this
:)

Are the state officials still trying to spin this in a positive light?

They seem to be putting this on the parties/candidates.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/14968613/detail.html
"Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land predicted a little more than 1.5 million of the state's 7.1 million registered voters would cast ballots but acknowledged in a radio interview that the lack of an active Democrat contest would hurt turnout.

"We don't have all the Democratic candidates participating, so that has caused some folks to not want to participate," Land said during an interview Tuesday on WJR-AM's "The Paul W. Smith Show.""

Hmmm. Just from the info I've now gathered, I'm not really seeing fault in the party or candidates...

Yep.

I do live here, and I am pissed at whoever thought it would be a good idea. Hilary's still on the ballot, so if I want to vote Democrat, I have no choice but to choose her.

You can choose "uncommitted." That'll send delegates that can vote for someone who withdrew from Michigan's primary.

GAH!! :(

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