That's it. Enough is beyond enough. For what feels like the one millionth time, I just did some segment over at MSNBC on the theme of how Michigan possibly impacts Hillary's position if the popular vote there is factored into the candidates' running tallies. From now on, my official position is this: It is a b.s. line of argument from the Clinton campaign--and anyone else promoting it--because the Michigan primary results are fundamentally illegitimate.
As you know, left up to me, neither Michigan nor Florida's delegates would be seated. Those states knowingly and flagrantly broke the rules. They knew what the penalty would be, and they did it anyway. Fine. But don't come whining to us now about how, "Oh, we didn't know that it would really matter or we wouldn't have done it." Well, cry me a river. I'm sure there are thousands of teenage girls out there who, if only they had known that they'd get knocked up by letting Bobby or Ricky or Darryl do it to them without a condom just that once, would have made a different choice. Behaving rashly has consequences (unless you're a high-ranking member of the Bush administration). If we all could run around doing stupid things with the assurance that, whenever our actions wound up having a negative impact, we could beg for a do-over, the world would be a much different place.
But! Let's say we want to cut Florida some slack. (My oldest and dearest friend, who lives in South Florida, argues that we should because so many people down there didn't realize their votes didn't count--though for my money this is more an argument for not letting Florida vote again ever.) Even then, Michigan is a different creature because Obama's name did not appear on the ballot. People who went to the polls did not have the opportunity to check some box or push some button for Obama--or John Edwards for that matter. And write ins were, unless I'm mistaken, not allowed. So yeah, Hillary cleaned Obama's (and Edwards's) clock there. But don't ask me to swallow the line that seating the delegates based on such a screwed up primary would in any way be "fair" to the people of Michigan (much less an accurate representation of the populace's wishes). The state party should either hold another vote or shut the heck up and live with the fallout from its idiocy.
And for god's sake, someone start working on a better way to handle the primary calendar next time.
--Michelle Cottle