US News
ANALYSIS: Democrats divided as US primary process is put on trial
Jun 1, 2008, 5:45 GMT
Washington - The Democratic Party will have a long road to restoring unity in its ranks after supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton engaged in a bitter battle over Florida and Michigan this weekend, laying bare the pitfalls of the long and complicated US presidential nomination process.
Nearly five months since the start of a series of state-by-state election contests that determine each party's nominee for president, Democratic officials were forced into a compromise Saturday that satisfied few and exposed deep divisions between both the candidates and the two states at the heart of the controversy.
Clinton advisor Harold Ickes spoke of a 'hijacking' of the democratic process after party officials reinstated only half of Florida and Michigan's voting rights and failed to fully reflect Clinton's margin of victory in the latter.
The ruling gave the former first lady only about 25 delegates more than Obama, barely cutting into the Illinois senator's lead of close to 200 delegates and bringing him tantalizingly close to capturing the party's nomination.
Only three more primary contests are left - Puerto Rico on Sunday followed by South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday - and many party leaders have openly said they want the nomination wrapped up by the end of June to allow preparations for the general election campaign.
Ickes said Clinton reserved the right to appeal Saturday's decision - a threat that could carry the campaign into July and possibly as far as the party's nominating convention in August in Denver, Colorado.
Reflecting the sharp divide that has emerged among Democrats in recent months, Ickes' scathing denunciations of the compromise drew some of the loudest cheers from observers at the public meeting of the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee.
But the raucous gathering in Washington also exposed a bitterness among state party officials, who lamented that their constituents had been disenfranchised and openly fretted that Democrats may have handed November's election to the Republicans' presumptive nominee John McCain.
McCain and his supporters 'never fail to remind the voters of Michigan how the Democrats have ignored Michigan, don't care about Michigan and don't deserve the support of Michigan's voters in the fall,' warned Mark Brewer, chairman of the state's Democratic Party.
Saturday's 10-hour committee meeting marked the culmination of a year-long fight between states over who should hold the greatest influence over the US intra-party nomination process.
Officials argued it was unfair and undemocratic for Iowa and New Hampshire to hold their elections well before other states - a practice in place since the 1970s that has given candidates with little money or name recognition the opportunity to gain momentum ahead of contests in more populous states.
More than 20 states jockeyed for a greater say in the 2008 election by moving their polls to the earliest-allowed date under party rules - February 5 - while Florida and Michigan directly challenged those rules by moving their primaries into January.
The Democratic National Committee consequently stripped both states of all their delegates - Republicans in contrast only cut their vote by half - in an effort to preserve the integrity of the system.
Florida and Michigan held their contests anyway, but few Democrats at the time expected the feud would come back to haunt the party. With the Obama-Clinton campaign going down to the wire, the rules committee was forced to reconsider its punishment or risk alienating the Democratic voters of two key swing states.
Michigan's January 15 primary was especially controversial. Unlike in Florida, Obama and other candidates had removed their names from the ballot in deference to the party rules. Anyone who supported Obama had to vote 'uncommitted,' while others stayed away believing the election would not count.
That left party officials on Saturday with the unenviable task of trying to apportion delegates in a manner that accurately reflected the voters' preferences.
'How do you have a fair reflection of a flawed primary?' asked Michigan Senator Carl Levin, who pleaded for party unity and argued on behalf of the eventual compromise, which essentially halved Clinton's 15-point victory margin in the state.
The US primary system, which was last overhauled by Democrats after a bitter convention fight in 1972, has rarely been thrown under such close scrutiny as in this election.
Presidential nominees in recent history have been decided well before all 50 states have their say, but this year's razor-thin contest between Obama and Clinton will likely force the party to examine its nomination process once again before the next White House run in 2012.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in US
- 1. Mitt Romney Addresses Tea Party Summit Pictures
- 2. Seven injured as US Navy plane crashes into apartments
- 3. At least three injured in US Navy plane crash
- 4. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, others to face death penalty trial
- 5. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, four others to face death penalty trial
Older Talkback
page: 1
Hillary Clinton supporters tossed out of Rules & Bylaws Committee meeting by DNC political bosses who are afraid of old ladies:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH92E5vWrjk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KACQuZVAE3s
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYzzyctEVcs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9lcCIWiqsA
Take it to the credentials committee.
Anyone here actually remember what happened in 1968? Why would you want to do that again? Oh, that's right! We elected Richard Nixon, the 'conservative' left-handed wingnuts hate to love, but love they do!
Quoting the Wikipedia:
'Although often viewed as a conservative by his contemporaries, Nixon's domestic policies often appear centrist, or even liberal, to later observers. As President, Nixon imposed wage and price controls, indexed Social Security for inflation, and created Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The number of pages added to the Federal Register each year doubled under Nixon. He eradicated the last remnants of the gold standard, created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), promoted the Legacy of parks program and implemented the Philadelphia Plan, the first significant federal affirmative action program, and dramatically improved salaries for US federal employees worldwide. In the wake of racial tensions that had sometimes erupted into urban violence before he assumed the Presidency, Nixon's policy on race relations and civil rights was perceived to be influenced by a doctrine commonly referred to as 'benign neglect.' As a party leader, Nixon helped build the Republican Party (GOP), but he ran his 1972 campaign separately from the party, which perhaps helped the GOP escape some of the damage from Watergate. The Nixon White House was the first to organize a daily press event and daily message for the media, a practice that all subsequent staffs have performed.
Nixon is credited with creating the modern day Imperial Presidency, in which the presidency retains a high level of control over government policy and decisions. In the early 1970s, Nixon impounded billions of dollars in federal spending and expanded the power of the Office of Management and Budget. These encroachments on the power of Congress led to the passage of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
On January 2, 1974, Nixon signed a bill that lowered the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 miles per hour (90 km/h) in order to conserve gasoline during the 1973 energy crisis. This law remained in effect until 1995, though states had been allowed to raise the limit to 65 miles per hour in rural areas since 1987.
Committed to wide-ranging bureaucratic reforms, in a last-minute bid to save his presidency, Nixon signed a significant reform of the federal budgeting process and granted wide authority to Congress in shaping the final budget.'
How about that! It's deja vu all over again!
George McGoveren?
Nope. It really is what happened, SP4. It went down just that way and it is going that way again only this time it is John McCain. Richard Nixon was the 'anti-communist' the leftwingers hated to love, but they had to love him because he did nearly everything they wanted.
John McCain, if you will notice, is adopting the same tactics that Nixon adopted to win in 68.
Something I neglected to mention. There were a lot of us who had no liking or trust for Richard Nixon, but we voted for him anyway out of party loyalty. I ain't goin' for that one a second time.
..but Nixon was NEVER a real Conservative, outside of his anticommunist stance, and never even billed himself as such. All those things you list were simply the result of him being a man of his time. He DID fund every one of Johnsons Great Society messes. He DID run a liberal budget process. Fact is, no one knew any different. They were all still stuck in 1933. FDR defined federal governments role until 1980.
Do it again? Maybe. The repubs have not done well with this kind of candidate since Reagan. Bush 1 got put out asap. Were the dems to have run credible candidates the last two times, they should have trounced Bush, but they are getting such weak sisters it's almost hard to believe. Gore, that talking head, and Kerry 'if I only had an original thought' typlify Senators running for office. They come from a comfortable billet, where they can say what they want and no one back home hears them, and have bomb-proof incumbancy.
They get out on the national stage, try, like Hillary and Obama, to pass off the worst kind of lies and move like Obama's Preacher, his 'uncles' liberation of Auswitz or Hillary's Mr. Penn fiasco, the sniper thing, and then get caught red-handed for what was, before, SOP in the Senate.
Deja Vu
Fact is, Hillary and Obama are getting all the press and McCain is in New Zealand. While laudible, I do not think there are too many republican voters there. If this is old Johnny's methods at work, I think he is in real trouble.
MCCain knows he has to got to the right, and I suspect his senate constituancy would not let him, like it will on the national stage. Nonetheless, he's no Will Buckley conservative, and I have very limited interest in an Arnold Swarzehekker, republican. Nonetheless, this is what is coming our way. I had to hold my nose to vote for Bush and now we have this guy.
This might be a good one. It'll be interesting to see where it goes. I'd be pleased with whatever comes along if we can just have a spirited, meaningful debate.
'Something I neglected to mention. There were a lot of us who had no liking or trust for Richard Nixon, but we voted for him anyway out of party loyalty. I ain't goin' for that one a second time.'
So by your incredibly flawed to the point of stupid hissy fit logic, you should have voted for Hubert Humphrey?
You are thinking of the wrong election by the way, George McGovern is more your speed.
RE:'You are thinking of the wrong election by the way, George McGovern is more your speed.'
That one was wet-noodle lame, Bubba. You know as well as I do that poor old Georgie never had chance at getting nominated. Obama, now, there's a differnt beast.He IS gonna get nominated.
I think that's a great thing. So should, you.
page: 1
www.recreate68.orgJun 1st, 2008 - 06:38:41
It's time to take the democratic party back!
No more free pass for the Democrats. Join R-68, Troops Out Now Coaltion!, Code Pink, Iraq Veterans Against the War, F.I.S.T. (Fighting Imperialism Standing Together), and others organizations and individuals as we march to end all illegal imperialist occupations in Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Hawaii, North America, and others. The Dems have the power to put an end to the United States illegal colonizations and wars, but they will not without pressure from the people. Join us as we create that pressure and say
NO MORE! NOT IN OUR NAME! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
The March will begin at the Greek amphitheater in Civic Center Park and end on Speer Blvd in front of the non-union Pepsi Center.
It is time to take our democracy back from the floor of the democratic convention!
Report this comment