A breakout, a fair deal, or bedlam: Those are the Democrats' options

[babylonsister]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/the_democrats_options.html

The Democrats' Options
By E. J. Dionne

snip//

If Obama is passion, Clinton is bread and butter. If she needs more flourishes, he could afford to traffic a bit more in the staples.

Her speech is a well-crafted recitation of how government could ease the lives of those without health insurance, students burdened by college loan costs, homeowners facing foreclosure, veterans who have been abandoned, the working poor who deserve a hand up.

As she speaks, Doug Hattaway, one of her aides, notes that her practical litany is precisely what appeals to working-class and middle-class voters who respond to "tangible issues." They also rebel against the idea that they are not part of the cool, privileged masses for Obama. One of the signs at the Manassas rally defiantly touted "Well Educated High Earners for Hillary." This is a party divided not by ideology but by sensibility. Things have gotten very personal.

And that is why feelings would be so raw if this nomination were settled by something as grubby as a credentials fight over disputed delegates from Florida and Michigan. Two things are true. Delegations from those important states, currently in defiance of party rules, will eventually have to be seated. But if Clinton were to take the nomination because of her "victories" in primaries that all the candidates agreed not to contest, she would be seen by her adversaries as cheating.

The only solution is for the two states to agree to hold new rounds of voting that look as much like primaries as possible before the process ends in early June. Doing so would increase the chances that voters, not insiders, would pick the nominee. Democrats would not have to put up with invidious comparisons between their battle and the ugliness of Bush v. Gore. And one of these candidates might then actually be able to win.

A breakout, a fair deal, or bedlam: Those are the Democrats' options.

[papau]

1. I agree - a redo of primaries could be sold - but never a redo via caucuses

[pampango]

2. I don't think Clinton will agree to a redo of any kind - primary or caucus.

She must believe that her chances are better at getting the delegates from the sanctioned primaries seated than coming anywhere near her vote totals if there were a revote in those states.

[bigtree]

3. I tend to agree with this

but, you never know . . .

[babylonsister]

4. If there's a stink of any kind over FL and MI, I think it will come from

the Clintons. I guess we'll know soon enough. I hope she doesn't make it an issue, though I wish everyone had the foresight to resolve the mess that FL and MI became because it really wasn't fair to the voters in those states.