Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Play fair or go home

Post primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, we still have two candidates for the Democratic Presidential nominee. While I don’t really have a strong position on whether Hillary Clinton stays in the race or bows out at this point, I think it’s clear that she cannot secure the nomination. I respect the Senator, I understand her strong desire to see this race to the finish, and I get that she wants to send a message to the people who have stood by her during the campaign. However, I do not accept the fact that she is trying to somehow get the Florida and Michigan votes counted in her favor.
According to the New York Times today:

Mrs. Clinton is also focused on some tangible goals by staying in the race: she believes that racking up more victories, delegates and votes will give her and her supporters more leverage this month at a Democratic National Committee rules meeting to advocate for seating the delegates from the unofficial primaries in Florida and Michigan.

The DNC should and will find a way to seat the delegates from those states, as Howard Dean has announced. But Clinton and her campaign don’t just get to rewrite the rules at this point, acting as though they did not agree to them from the start. It’s the stuff schoolyard fights are made of. Which is to say, it’s juvenile and we should be able to expect better.

Happy birthday, Mom!

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