March 12, 2008

Deciding Delegates

I have to admit that I'm not a political buff; however, I do try to keep up-to-date with the presidential race this year. I guess I'm more interested this year because a woman is running for president.

I read something very interesting this morning. I understand Florida and Michigan broke the rules and held their polls early, so really no one won those states. The problem with this is that all states have voted and neither democratic party has enough delegates to win the ballot.

What was so interesting that I read was John McCain did receive 57 delegates from the Florida Primary; but Hilary Clinton didn't win any delegates...Why is that? Can someone that understands politics explain this to me? This is the exact footnote:

• Florida lost all of its 210 Democratic delegates for allocating delegates outside of the Democratic National Committee-approved timeframe
• Florida lost 57 of its 114 Republican delegates for allocating delegates outside of the Republican National Committee-approved timeframe

If Hilary Clinton could take half the delegates like McCain did; well, she'd still be just 79 delegates behind Obama. What about Michigan though? Again, Michigan did the same thing. The republicans got half the delegates for voting early; but the democrats didn't get any. I just want to know why this is?

Posted by tennbrat at March 12, 2008 6:00 AM | TrackBack
Comments
The difference is that two separate governing bodies made the rules. The rules for Republicans do not apply to the Democrats, and vice versa. Primaries (and caucuses) are all about the parties. The national parties (the RNC and DNC) set the rules about the primary dates. The state parties in FL and MI chose to disobey those rules. But the punishments were meted out by different organizations. The Republicans could have chosen to allow all the delegates, or half, or none, or anywhere in between, completely irrespective of the Democratic Party's actions. Make sense? Posted by: joe lance at March 12, 2008 9:29 AM
Yes, thank you Joe for the clarification. Like I said, I'm politically challenged, so I appreciate your response. Posted by: Sabrina at March 12, 2008 9:00 PM
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