UNFAIR – BUT PERHAPS NOT ENTIRELY UNFAIR

Here’s an inspirational music video for John McCain, in the style of a video for one of his Democratic opponents. 

PETER

Peter S.:  “Please let someone like Howard Dean or Rahm Emmanuel know that if Hillary steals the nomination from Obama by making them revote in MI and FL or count the votes from the original beauty contests or by pressuring the superdelegates into voting for her even though Obama has more delegates from the primaries and caucuses, I and a huge percentage of Democrats will be permanently turned off to her and the party.  Whoever has more delegates going into the convention better come out of the convention with the nomination or there will be political hell to pay.”

F Thanks, Peter.  Do you want us to stick with the rules or change the rules?  Or just change the rules as regards superdelegates?  Your call.  (My own feeling is that it’s imperative we stick with the rules unless both campaigns agree on how they should be changed.)

Here’s a really good discussion of the superdelegates.  Worth the read.

(And for those just joining us, here's my understanding of how we got INTO this mess.  And here’s the stab I took at explaining how the process works from here on out.)

PAUL

Paul:  “Does the DNC have a plan B in the event that the margin of difference between the two candidates is less than the delegate count of Florida and Michigan?  That frankly is what it all boils down to, and is all that I am concerned about.  Just tell me that the Democratic Party is not going to be plunged into a constitutional crisis and that there is an 'escape route' that any rational member of the party will accept as fair.”

F The escape route is simply to follow the rules – unless both campaigns agree on some change they’d both like to see us make (in that case, I assume we’d do all we can to effect it).

Rational members of the party will, I hope, accept that you can’t have a contest without rules, and that the fair thing to do once the contest starts is stick to the rules.

JAYNE

Jayne:  “Your points are well taken, but people are really angry about this process.”

F I understand, which is why all of us who really care about the big picture have an obligation to understand – and then explain – the reality of the issue, which is that there really are no villains here (unless Karl Rove put the FL Republicans up to this, knowing it would drive us crazy) . . . and that the one thing all can agree on is that we must all stick with the rules of the game, unless both campaigns mutually agree on a change.  That's the big picture. 

(The even bigger picture: we need to win back the White House, widen our lead in Congress, and reverse the rightward slide in the Judiciary.  For that, we’ll all need to back whichever of our two superb candidates wins the nomination.)

Jayne again:  “There must be a creative solution so that we can all move forward. Perhaps a contest with two tickets to the Convention for the best solution?”

F If you come up with a creative solution everyone likes, you can have MY two tickets to the Convention.