I wonder if anyone in the Democratic Party realized this was coming?
A few months ago, the (Republican-controlled) state of Florida (27 electoral college votes) decided to move their primary election up a few weeks, thus putting themselves into the limelight as a possible Republican Party kingmaker state, and, just by happy coincidence, to equally put themselves into the limelight by tossing a spanner into the carefully choreographed Democratic Party floating primary song and dance show.
The Democratic Party, predictably, rose to this bait like a starved fish and had a very satisfying (if you’re a Republican, that is) screaming hissy fit that concluded with a demand that “you put your primary back or you can take your 27 electoral votes and give them to the Republican Party!” (well, they didn’t say those exact words, but they threatened the state by refusing to seat any of their Democratic delegates at the national convention, which works out to pretty much the same thing.) This didn’t work too well, because the Florida Democratic Party doesn’t have the sort of scratch needed to set up, run, and deal with the inevitable legal challenges needed to do a completely separate primary.
This worked out well for Iowa and New Hampshire, but not so well for Florida Democrats, who were, understandably, somewhat miffed that the Democratic Party wasn’t interested in the 27 electoral college votes. But, despite all of this – and despite the idiotic mafia-style “you will not campaign in Florida OR ELSE!!!!” blood oath the party made all of its candidates take before the primaries started – a goodly chunk of the Florida democrats went to the polls and voted last week.
At which point, Hillary Clinton’s campaign realized that it might not be the brightest idea on the planet to tell Florida – the state which was a critical part of the coup back in 2000 – to go fuck themselves and their 27 electoral college votes, and started suggesting that it would be a good idea to seat the Florida delegates at the Democratic convention.
It’s a no-brainer, right? Pissing off the source of 27 electoral college votes was an incredibly stupid idea even for the Democratic Party in the first place, so a little bit of making nice might be politically advantageous as well as the correct thing to do.
Apparently not. Because this plan is being pushed by the Hillary Clinton campaign, which, at least according to the big dogs of the media (the press and the Democratic yellow press [weblogs]) is Pure! Evil! By! Definition! So there’s this huge wave of irrational hatred rising out of the weblog world, aimed directly at Ms. Clinton because she has The! Nerve! to acknowledge that the state of Florida exists despite the best efforts of the party. It’s pretty spectacular, and the tattered remains of the Republican Party (so, how is that whole business of supporting a usurper working out for you?) are probably down on their knees thanking Satan for this gift they’ve been given.
I’d been thinking that it would be better if Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, because if Ms. Clinton won there’d be a lot of Democratic activists sitting out the general election. Now I think it would be better if Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination because if Ms. Clinton won it there’d be a lot of Democratic activists actively trying to throw the general election to the Republican Party. These people are, to put in bluntly, nuts. The Republican mouthpieces that talk about their imaginary “B*sh Derangement Syndrome” have it right about a derangement syndrome, but they attached the wrong name to it. People, understandably, don’t particularly like Maximum Leader Genius, but the depth of the loathing I’m seeing from the left aimed at Ms. Clinton makes the Democratic distaste for the Coward in Chief look like fervent declarations of love and devotion.
I wonder if anyone in the Democratic Party HQ stopped for even a second and considered the possibility that an attempt to disenfranchise Florida might cause this sort of reaction? I’d bet “not” – the Democratic Party, is, if anything, blissfully ignorant of much of the world outside of their navel.
I’m glad I’m not a Democrat. Voting a socialist ticket might be futile, but at least it’s not embarrassing.