Dialing for $$$ for Michigan/Florida Do Over Primaries

Call Daddy Warbucks. That was the message from DNC chairman Howard Dean to Florida and Michigan, who held their primaries before Super Tuesday in defiance of party rules that said their delegates would be excluded from the nomination process if they cut in line in front of the states who abided by the regulations.

The cleanest way to deal with this mess would be to have another vote in each state, but that would cost as much as $25 million.

No one wanted Obama to win Texas and Ohio more than Dean so it would resolve his dilemma about what to do with Michigan and Florida. If only they had waited their turn, they would have even more focus on their issues (lagging economy and lost manufacturing jobs for Michigan and federal hurricane insurance for Florida).

Clinton won in both states so she wants them included in the nominating process, while Obama says the states broke the rules and should be punished.

Plenty of lame plans have been floated, but the one that makes the most sense is what has come to be known as the Do-Over.

Dean says the party won’t pay for it. I hear they don’t have a ton of money anyway since Hillary and Obama are scarfing up every political contribution dollar in the known universe for themselves right now. The states don’t want to pay for it either. So here we sit.

Now Dean is reminding state party officials that while campaign finance regualtions preclude the national party from raising soft money, under which there are limits on individual contributions, for bank rolling another round of primaries, the state parties are under no such restriction.

Anyone know Geore Soros’ cell phone number?

Will The Democrats Self Destruct Again?

This is why Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean dreams of a convincing Obama sweep in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.

Former Virginia Governor Doug Wilder today warned there will be riots in the streets if the candidate with the most delegates coming into the democratic convention in Denver were to lose the nomination because the party’s super delegates, made up of members of congress, governors and party leaders, were to award the nomination to the other candidate. The most likely scenario being Hillary Clinton snatching victory from Barack Obama.

“If the super delegates intervene and get in the way of it and say “Oh, no we’re going to determine what’s best, there will be chaos at the convention. If you think 1968 was bad, you watch 2008, it will be worse.”

In 1968, Vietnam war protesters gathered in Chicago and send a message to candidate Hubert Humphrey and the Democratic party. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley sent 12,000 police officers on the streets, and called in the Illinois National Guard. As the nation watched on TV, a bloody riot erupted. Police arrested over 500 people. Hundreds of police and demonstrators were injured.

If Hillary Clinton arrives at the convention with fewer states, fewer votes and fewer delegates, it would be very surprising if the she walks out as the nominee. If the picture is less clear, especially pending how the delegates votes in Michigan and Florida are distributed, the deciding vote of the super delegates would be more complicated.

The deck is stacked against Hillary right now. Since convention delegates are doled out on a proportional basis, even if she wins in big states like Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, it will be difficult to look like a clear front runner again because Obama will continue to amass delegates. If Obama has more votes, more states and is close in terms of earned delegates and then he is not he nominee, his supporters are going to feel like this year is an echo of 2000 when democrats felt like George W. Bush stole the lection from Al Gore.

Even if there aren’t any riots, the level of enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton in the general election would likely be very tepid in comparison to what Obama is generating right now.
That’s one reason why you’ve heard John McCain launching assaults at Obama. Hillary as his opponent is better than an endorsement by Rush Limbaugh.

If there were ever an election teed up for the democrats to win, this is it. Then again, so was 2004. An unpopular president who began an unpopular war with nothing but fear going for him and he won in part because the democrats over thought the race and ran someone competent on paper but not very likeable and definitely not inspiring in person.

Any of that seem familiar this time around?

“Democrats. We never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”