Playing by the Rules
By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Producer
Posted May 29, 2008 – It looks like this weekend when the Democratic National Committee meets they’ll have to deliver a compromise that will satisfy both the Clinton and Obama campaigns and end the long-running dispute over Michigan and Florida.
The DNC Rules and Bylaws committee will meet on May 31, and it will be a tough call to allow two states that violated party rules, by holding early primaries in January, to be given a pass and enjoy the same privileges of those states who played by the rules.
Changing the rules is one way to keep Sen. Hillary Clinton’s hopes of capturing the nomination alive. And nobody knows; the party might fold and give her what she wants.
What if one of the most popular American sports leagues, let’s say the NBA, decided to allow trailing teams to change the rules during the game. In basketball, under the official rules, each team gets five players; each player’s baskets earn the same number of points; and the basketball hoop is 10 feet high.
I’ve never seen the rules change before, during or after a game. The team, who scores the most points by shooting the ball through the basket wins.
The DNC could decide to change the rules and increase the number of delegates Obama will need from 2,026, and they appear to be preparing for that. “Our magic number could increase kind of at the 11th hour here,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters Wednesday.
“If it’s raised a little bit based on the Rules Committee, we’ll have to go get some more super-delegates,” he added. But at some point we’re the nominee.”
There are a couple of other options for the DNC. They could seat half the delegates at the convention or seat all the delegates with half a vote. But it still isn’t clear how those votes would be split between the two candidates.
What’s confusing is why Clinton is pushing for the Democratic National Committee to seat all 368 delegates from Florida and Michigan. It’s true she won both states, but all of the other candidates agreed not to campaign in either state and Obama wasn’t even on the ballot in Michigan.
Harold Ickes, an advisor to President Clinton, is now working for the former first lady, he’s also one of the 30 members of the DNC committee. Ickes said, he’ll be pushing the panel to base their decisions on the January primaries. “We are urging 100 percent of the delegations be seated and that each delegate have a full vote,” Ickes said.
“We don’t think it’s fair to seat them fully because we both lived by these rules and pledged to abide by them,” Plouffe said.
It looks like it will be close to impossible to resolve this issue if they decide to forgo the rules, or change the rules. That would never happen in basketball.
I think clinton needs to drop out of the race, because obamba is winning most of the states and people are so racis. They just dont want obama to win when he do them white folks gonna lookm stupid.
Hey Shantil….Do us a favor and spell check before you click submit. LOL
LOL………THAT IS HILARIOUS!! Yes me an my co-worker or dying over here!
what rules….the beast never plays by the rules!!
don’t post it…I could care less..truth still goes on!!
Hillary smokes cigars too!
Just like Bill….I mean …..just like Bill!!!!
The Democratic Party is making themselves look bad, they are changing the rules for Hillary. If Barack was losing this will be a non-issue (rules are rules).
That would be unfair to change the rules. If this was Obama trailing Clinton, the nominee would have been over with a long time ago. I wish that these Super Delegates would come on out with their votes for Obama so that WE can get on to something different. Super Delegates, Yes WE Can!!
Clintons would have been ended the race,that the opponnet was of other ethnic decent, this is what this country is tired of ,she has lost and before she award, The Senior Senator from Ill, she will jump over bulls at a prep rally singing the humms of yankee doddle,while doing hulla hoops!! wearing a dark pair of shades and the shades are for later when someone make inquiry she could say that it wasn’t me!!
This is rubbish why should they do that for hillary clinton if it was Obama trailing hillary they wouldn’t think about doing that whatsoeva.
I think that all black people should stant up for
Obama
Obama
Obama
She didn’t care back then, why she trying to bring it up now. She trying everything she can, why she just won’t accept the fact and just quit. Obama started as the underdog and now he came out on top and she can’t accept it. She trying to ruin the nomination and we gon end up w/McCain as President