Thursday, February 14, 2008

Delicate Delegates

It appears that Senators Clinton and Obama have been put in a tough spot by their equally rabid support bases: There is the increasing chance that neither will have enough delegates come the convention.

This has lead to a shifting of strategies, one desperate, one weak. First off, Hillary Clinton, and her camp's plan of attempting to seat (and count) delegates from the castoff states of Michigan and Florida (who held their primaries too early and were spanked like the bad little children they were). Hillary. For shame. In addition, Hillary thinks delegates should vote based off their idea of who would be the stronger candidate.

On the opposite end, Obama's camp is pleading with superdelegates to follow the "will of the people". I'm not sure he has a case here. Even though delegate math is not a hyper-realistic representation of the people's will, it's not THAT far off. The gap between these two (in registered Democrats mind's) is not too far apart.

So the question is - how should the superdelegates turn? Also, how fair is it that the Michigan and Florida delegates be counted? After all, Obama chose to take his name off those ballots (fact check that as I am going on recall). How would he have fared otherwise? Maybe Obama doesn't win Iowa if he keeps his name on the ballot (the same could be posited for Hillary in New Hampshire). What angles am I missing here?