McAuliffe on Florida and Michigan: Dean screwed up
posted at 10:55 am on May 12, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Former DNC chair and Hillary Clinton strategist Terry McAuliffe strongly hinted to CBS’ Bob Schieffer that Howard Dean and the DNC botched the handling of Florida and Michigan yesterday. In the Face the Nation interview, Schieffer challenged McAuliffe on his own threats to both states during his tenure as DNC chair, but McAuliffe pointed out that the Republicans handled it much more wisely than Mr Yeeeargh:
Schieffer’s trying to play gotcha with McAuliffe here, and he’s correct in his assertion at the end that McAuliffe’s political interest plays largely into this analysis. Schieffer misses the point, though, and McAuliffe has this correct.
The DNC and its chair went overboard in disciplining the two states, creating a mess that has enabled Hillary Clinton to continue her campaign againt Barack Obama and cover herself in the mantle of Florida 2000. She can now claim to champion the disenfranchised voters who went to the polls in good faith, while the Democratic establishment has to now argue for disenfranchisement. It makes a mockery of their rhetoric after the debacle in Florida during the 2000 general election, when they fashioned themselves as the defender of the individual voter (while attempting to block military ballots).
Republicans avoided the problem while still disciplining the states that attempted to hijack the primary schedule. They cut their delegate counts by half, diluting their impact on the nomination and on the platform and rules votes during the upcoming convention. By doing so, they completely avoided the credentials fight that the Democrats must now resolve.
Dean has proven himself completely inept at chairing a national party. Thankfully, he didn’t get the chance to demonstrate his incompetence in the White House, and after this primary-season catastrophe for the Democrats, he won’t likely get another chance to prove it again in an executive role on any level.
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YAAAAAARGH!!!!
kcd on May 12, 2008 at 10:59 AM
No, the Republicans were just luckier than the Democrats. If things had been as close, we’d have a battle over whether the delegates should be doubled to their original level or not. Granted, that wouldn’t require a re-vote, so the Republicans did handle the situation better, but the only reason they’re not in a similar quandary regarding these delegates is the lack of a close race in which the winner of Florida and Michigan is slightly behind.
calbear on May 12, 2008 at 11:04 AM
The question is, will people who vote Democratic turn out to really value and wish to guard their own vote — or will it turn out that it’s only useful as a cudgel against Republicans if our party had perpetrated the same tactics.
RushBaby on May 12, 2008 at 11:07 AM
The Democrat Party’s convoluted, non-committal, leave-it-to-the superdelegates nominating process should serve as an example of the character and personality that lives within that party. At least the Republicans have a transparent process, although this cycle’s candidate is a dud and I fear that the open primaries will never be the same again (but all’s fair if they’re going to be open — that is for the states to determine).
Contrasting the two parties’nominating processes might make for an interesting and educational high-school-level civics discussion, but given the tilt of our public school system it probably isn’t.
BigD on May 12, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Hillary should sue.
see-dubya on May 12, 2008 at 11:14 AM
I believe the Tony Rezko trial is supposed to reach a verdict today. I’m sure you’ll keep us posted, or someone let me know if I just missed it… I think that’s one of the many reasons the witch isn’t totally ding dong dead.
kirkill on May 12, 2008 at 11:16 AM
Ed…I repectfully disagree with your assessment on Dean as chair. If there is a candidate that more directly reflects Dean’s politics and the Kos crowd it’s BO. Dean has done exactly what the far left element of the dem party wanted.
It was tried once with Ned Lamont, now dems think they got it right with BO. We’ll know in 6 months.
swami on May 12, 2008 at 11:19 AM
Dr. Howard, Dr. Fine, Dr. Howard! Knuckleheads.
saved on May 12, 2008 at 11:25 AM
They did far more than attempt to disenfranchise military voters. They succeeded in many cases.
One of the more disgusting tricks they used. Many military stations don’t put post marks on letters being sent by military post.
Florida law requires that ballot be postmarked prior to election day in order to be counted. In the past, any ballot received on or before election day was accepted.
The Democrats sent in lawyers that argued that, for the first time, these ballots shouldn’t be counted. Not surprising, it wasn’t hard for them to find a liberal judge to agree with this interpretation of the law.
MarkTheGreat on May 12, 2008 at 11:25 AM
Time for Romney to campaign in Michigan for McCain, telling Michigan voters that if the Democrats don’t want their votes, we do…
Interestingly enough, while the Democrats disenfranchised the fourth-largest state in the Union (Florida), the GOP primary there forced Giuliani out of the race, which gave McCain a decisive advantage over Romney. When Florida speaks, people listen, or at least they should.
Steve Z on May 12, 2008 at 11:28 AM
I’m glad to see this messy situation linger on. It’s the only way that there will be legitimate discussion about the primary schedule and why it is absurd to give so much influence to relatively insignificant states.
Michigan and Florida aside, the Democrats actually have more voters getting a voice in the primary process this year. The Republicans, unfortuately, ended up getting stuck who was the second-worst candidate possible because of the primary schedule that favored rabid liberals over real Republicans. Something needs to change in 2012 when the aftermath of whichever Democrat ruins the country over the next four years.
highhopes on May 12, 2008 at 11:32 AM
I think cranky old bastard has made it perfectly clear that the only votes he doesn’t want are the votes of the real Republicans (social conservatives and evangelicals).
highhopes on May 12, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Why not punish the party’s leaders, but still count the votes?
That’s what I don’t understand, they act as if the only solution involves punishing voters, when they are not the ones who made the decision.
That’s like punishing the account holders in a bank that was robbed.
right2bright on May 12, 2008 at 11:33 AM
Red Pill on May 12, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Hillary wanted to disenfranchise the Florida Democrats, so they would vote in the Republican primary for McCain. That part of her plan worked. What she didn’t count on was Obama challenging her for the Democrat nomination. Now she wants to have her cake and eat it too.
Red Pill on May 12, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Obama wasn’t even on the ballot in Michigan. The leadership is floating a brokered split of the votes but the reality is that Michigan Democrats will not have their votes counted this year. At best, they’ll just split the count evenly.
Personally, I think they should be disenfranchised. It’s the kind of boost that would throw some of Michigan’s worst Democrats out of office including Conyers, Levin, and Kilpatrick.
highhopes on May 12, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Gov. of MN (or NY)?:)
JiangxiDad on May 12, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Let them whine all they want. I enjoy the “chaos”. Howard Dean is the epitome of what the Democrats have become so let him dump on his own albeit for a short while.
Hillary will burn the party down before she just walks away and admits defeat. What she needs to look at and try to understand is how does a nobody from nowhere like Obama step up, in their first national campaign, and take away her “walk-over” nomination.
Because no one likes her that’s how.
BTW, I love the Monty Python reference.
woodman on May 12, 2008 at 12:02 PM
This is the delicious part of this mess:
“It makes a mockery of their rhetoric after the debacle in Florida during the 2000 general election, when they fashioned themselves as the defender of the individual voter (while attempting to block military ballots).” Well said, Ed.
When they hafta drag McAwful out to dis Dean, that’s when the popcorn starts and the hot dogs go on the barbie. Yee-haaa!!!
Christine on May 12, 2008 at 12:11 PM
The democrat primary is a microcosm of liberalism, we have to keep pushing that point.
All the crashing and burning is fueled by core democrat party axioms: pandering to racial/gender identity feeling rather than appealing to the intellect, trying to attain fairness in the delegate allocation math rather than striving to identify a clear winner.
The democrat primary election proves that democrat values are out of step with common sense American values.
jeff_from_mpls on May 12, 2008 at 12:12 PM
I mis-spoke. They didn’t hafta drag Terry out, they (HRC) just let him out of his cage.
Christine on May 12, 2008 at 12:13 PM
The Goracle has come home to roost.
fogw on May 12, 2008 at 12:23 PM
Easy. The Race Card trumps the Gender Card.
I have to laugh at Hillary! because she planned on playing both of those cards against us (the Republicans). She was going to be the first woman President, with Obama as the first “black” Vice-President. Instead, Obama played the Race Card on her and now the Democrats have an identity politics civil war on their hands.
Red Pill on May 12, 2008 at 12:24 PM
What’s this garbage about “disciplining the states”? No federal crime was committed by either Florida or Michigan. There are exactly zero words in the Constitution about political parties.
corona on May 12, 2008 at 12:34 PM
It always kills me to hear Democrats talk about how much they respect the will of the people, blah blah blah. But they’ve had the superdelegate system for decades and it’s purpose is to void the will of the people. This year is the first time the superdelegate system has been much in the news and rank and file Democrats still don’t catch on. Maybe they’ll never figure it out.
snaggletoothie on May 12, 2008 at 12:51 PM
The Democrats do not care about disenfranchised voters.
They created a whole bunch in Michigan and Florida.
Chakra Hammer on May 12, 2008 at 1:48 PM
The tragedy of this whole election is that if both parties had sensible rules that allowed only members of their repsective parties to vote in primaries and awarded all delegates to the winner of the primary (or caucus/convention), neither Barack Obama nor John McCain would still be in the race.
Snaggletoothie - that’s not really correct. The superdelegates were created to make sure that the “VIPs” in the party got to be delegates, and their votes were supposed to sort of “amplify” the victory of whichever candidate came out on top after the primaries/caucuses. I can assure you that no Democrats imnvolved in creating these rules EVER envisioned the scenario that has occurred this year and a lot of them are mortified by it. The biggest problem they created was not the superdelegates but the proportional representation, i.e. giving delegates to any candidate who reached above a certain threshold and apportioning delegates by congressional district and not by state. That is how Obama ended up winning more delegates in Texas even though he lost the primary.
rockmom on May 12, 2008 at 1:51 PM