THE SYSTOCRAT PAPERS

There are at least two reasons why the DNC's rules committee should not have met on Saturday to discuss Michigan and Florida. 

First, the DNC's partial reversal of its previous decision not to seat these delegates is most troubling.  I am not taking the position that the DNC should not have made some provision to ensure the seating of delegates from these two important states.  What I am saying is that it was eminently foreseeable that voters from these states might be more than a little pissed off at not having their votes counted.  I, for one, am wondering why the DNC did not fully explore the possible ramifications of this decision before making it.  If it had done so, the DNC might have avoided this entire situation by deciding to exact a more reasonable penalty.  Instead, here we are.

Second, let's all remember that Hillary had no problem with the fact that the Michigan and Florida delegates were not to be seated at the convention until her "inevitable" campaign strategy imploded somewhere between Iowa and Super Tuesday.  If Hillary cared so much about having these delegates seated, why didn't she lobby these states to move their primaries to an acceptable date?  Just as important, why didn't voters in these states raise more of a stink about this alleged "disenfranchisement" before these primaries took place?  The same goes for the protesters at the DNC event, both outside and inside.  Where were you folks before these primaries?

I absolutely believe in seating these delegates. However, I do NOT believe they should be allocated in a manner that "fairly reflects" the votes cast, as argued by Harold Ickes.  As Senator Carl Levin correctly noted, these are "flawed" primaries -- there is no way that any rational, honest person can believe that those results accurately represent the actual will of the voters.  For example, in the days leading up to these two contests, the media relentlessly characterized them as "completely meaningless." How many busy, hardworking Americans heeded this message and didn't even bother making a trip to the polls?  We will never know, I suppose.

To allow seating these delegates while recognizing the flawed nature of these primaries, a 50/50 division between Obama and Clinton would have been the fairest solution. The fact that the Clinton faction successfully lobbied for an arrangement that allowed her a net gain of twenty-four delegates between these two states is more than fair, and should be more than satisfactory to all reasonable Clinton supporters.  However, as Florida State Rep. Arthenia Joyner succinctly put it, Clinton and her supporters "want it all."  They want their candidate at the top of the ticket by any means possible, be it fair or unfair, right or wrong, divisive or not. 

As Democrats get ready to don their blue jerseys and take the field in the most important election of our generation, here is my final scorecard with respect to Saturday's event.  The very fact that this meeting occurred counts as a loss for the DNC, forced by the Clinton faction into a reversal of its previous mandate and into a decision that Howard Dean acknowledged at the beginning of the day would not be satisfactory to everyone.  Although the goal was to promote party unity, at the end of the day it appears the party is as divided as ever.  Moreover, given the fact that it was the DNC's ill-advised decision that caused this debacle in the first place, the blue team should be wondering whether a coaching change is advisable before they enter the general election arena.

Saturday was also a bad day for Clinton, as it emphasized her worst qualities as a politician.  Although Howard Wolfson claimed victory for Clinton by the mere fact that the meeting took place at all, in the end, Saturday's events are further evidence in support of the widely held opinion that Clinton will say or do anything to secure the nomination.  Senator Clinton is a tremendously talented politician who has run a tough, tenacious campaign and I am hoping that by the end of this week, she will have gracefully exited the race and endorsed Senator Obama so that we can all move forward together.  However, we need to move forward, with Hillary, in a manner that does not turn voters off.  Enough said.

Most importantly, however, Saturday was a loss for everyday voters who desperately want and need change in Washington; it served as another distraction from the real issues facing this country today. 

A wise man once said that the lessons learned from today's loss help one to achieve victory tomorrow.  Let us hope that is the case for the Democratic Party and its members.

This piece is cross-posted at The Huffington Post - Off The Bus.